Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Band Club

Malta · festa night · the president’s last game · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 9×9

Every summer a small Maltese village carries its patron saint’s statue through the streets, and the band club on the square is the heart of the feast. The band has played its last march; the square waits for the fireworks. In the club, musicians, members and two guests drank and argued over the cost of the feast. Venera, the club president, was found beside the billiard table. The last march was truly the last.

Rules

  1. No area was empty.
  2. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
  3. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the bookcase, the flagpole, the fireworks racks, the desk, the music stands, the piano, the candelabra, the statue, the drum kit, the double bass, the scoreboard, the billiard table, the counter, the TV and the coat rack) cannot be occupied; the sofa, the chairs, the benches and the stools can.
  4. 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 is a woman, in any column.
  5. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Agata (clarinettist of the band): She was alone with somebody sitting in a chair.
  • Bertu (bass drummer of the band): He was not in a corner of his area.
  • Carmelo (bandmaster): He was beside the piano.
  • Dorianne (club secretary): She was in a corner of her area. A chair was somewhere in her row.
  • Ersilia (club treasurer): She was not in a corner of her area. A chair was somewhere in her column.
  • Fredu (statue bearer, keeper of the Statue Room): The double bass was somewhere in his row.
  • Grezzju (fireworks maker from the next village): He was the only man beside a fireworks rack. Exactly one row north of him was a member of the band.
  • Helen (emigrant home from Australia for the festa): The flagpole was somewhere in her area.
  • Venera (club president): The victim. She was found beside the billiard table – alone with the murderer.

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