The Banquet

Stockholm City Hall, 10 December · after the last toast of the Nobel banquet · the director of ceremonies is missing · Difficulty: Chief 10 · 16×16

Stockholm, the Nobel banquet: the guests move off to dance in the Golden Hall, but Viveka, the director of ceremonies, is nowhere to be found. Sixteen people, Viveka included, were still in the building: laureates, staff, students, a presenter, a photographer and the donor. Three tables were left in the Blue Hall. Viveka was found dead. The award ceremony never took place.

Rules

1. Exactly two people were beside each of the three tables.
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 tables, the candelabras, the lectern, the champagne, the flagpole, the piano, the paintings, the lamps, the planter, the lanterns, the statues, the bicycle, the staircases, the TV camera, the coat racks, the counters, the desks, the monitor, the hearth, the oven, the sink, the fridge, the barrel, the shelves, the crate, the clock, the carts, the globe and the cabinet) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the benches, the carpet, the sofas, the armchairs and the stool can. An armchair is not a chair.
4. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a guest” = the person in the row directly above was a guest, in any column; “the northernmost person in her area” = nobody else in her area was in a row further up.
5. 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

• Agneta (laureate in physics): A table was somewhere in her column. She was the only woman beside a chair.
• Bertil (laureate in chemistry): The champagne was somewhere in his column.
• Cecilia (laureate in medicine): A man in her area was sitting in a chair. There was a student in her area.
• Didrik (laureate in literature): He was not sitting in an armchair. The cabinet was somewhere in his area.
• Ebba (laureate in economics): A chair was somewhere in her row. A man in her area was sitting in a chair.
• Folke (master of ceremonies): A bench was somewhere in his column.
• Gunilla (head chef): She was beside the globe.
• Hjalmar (sommelier): He was alone in his area. A chair was somewhere in his area.
• Ingvar (head waiter): Exactly one row north of him was somebody beside a shelf. An armchair was somewhere in his row.
• Josefin (student waitress): She was beside a staircase. A candelabra was somewhere in her row.
• Knut (student singer): A woman in his area was sitting in a chair. A bench was somewhere in his column.
• Lovisa (student, the toastmaster’s runner): The cabinet was somewhere in her column.
• Malin (television presenter): A cart was somewhere in her area.
• Niklas (photographer): He was not alone in his area.
• Olof (industrialist, the evening’s donor): He was the only one beside a candelabra.
• Viveka (the director of ceremonies): The victim. She was alone with the murderer.

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