The case
Difficulty1 of 45×5 · 4 suspectsThe Unopened Letter
Case file
The storm took the bridge out at nine, so nobody left Ashcombe Manor that night. was found before the fire had gone grey. Everyone else was somewhere in the house — and exactly one of them was in the same room.
Why this one is tricky
A second small manor: four names on a 5×5, still pure placement. The unopened letter is the incident; the board is the deduction.
Two rules close every case. One person per row, and one per column. The victim takes the last remaining legal square, and whoever shares that room did it.
A square with furniture drawn on it is taken. Bare floor is somewhere a suspect can stand. Rooms are patches of matching floor.
Start from the strongest clues. Stack two clues about the same person before you place anyone. Switch on Pencil when two or three seats remain — that is not a guess.
Underlined words in the clue list — alone, beside, north of — explain themselves if you tap them.
Suspects
Tap a portrait for details. Tap below to select, then tap a square.
was
was in the Drawing Room
was in an armchair
was in the Library
was in a wing chair
Found in the room with the murderer.
Deduction board
0 of 5 placed.
Tools
What you are looking at
A square with furniture on it is taken. A square showing bare floor is somewhere a suspect can stand.
Rooms are the areas of matching floor, with a black line with a gold stroke tracing where one ends and the next begins.
Small letters along the bottom of a square are your own pencil marks — a note, never a placement.
Clues
Every clue is load-bearing — drop one and the case stops being solvable.
- was in an armchair
- was in the Library
- was in the Drawing Room
- was in a wing chair
- was
Everyone stands in a different row and a different column. The victim was with the murderer, so whoever shares 's room did it.