Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Amber Workshop

Amber workshop in Gdańsk · the night before the fair · the UV lamp was still on and the master cutter was gone · Difficulty: Detective 5 · 9×9

On Mariacka Street in Gdańsk the amber workshops close at six, but on the night before the fair the lights were on at Violetta’s. At half past two the polishing wheel was still turning though nobody stood beside it – and Violetta, the master cutter, had vanished. Nine people were in the house. Violetta was found dead. The fair opened without her.

Rules

  1. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
  2. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the counter, the shelves, the cabinets, the desk, the safe, the crates, the scales, the drill, the tables, the sink, the stove, the lamp, the tree and the well) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the pouf, the sofa, the stools and the benches can.
  3. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a woman” = the person in the row directly above was a woman, in any column; “the northernmost person in her area” = nobody else in her area was in a row further up.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area. The victim made no statement – her square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

  • Agnieszka (amber polisher): She was in the Polishing Room.
  • Bartosz (silversmith, the settings): Exactly one row north of him was an outsider. He was the only man beside the drill.
  • Czesław (apprentice cutter): He was beside a crate.
  • Dorota (the shop assistant): She was the only woman beside the counter.
  • Eryk (the bookkeeper): He was beside the pouf. A chair was somewhere in his row.
  • Franciszka (the housekeeper): She was the northernmost person in her area. A chair was somewhere in her area.
  • Grzegorz (raw-amber dealer from the coast): He was beside a cabinet. There was at least one other person in his area.
  • Hanna (the organiser of the fair): The lamp was somewhere in her column.
  • Violetta (the master cutter): The victim. She was alone with the murderer.

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