Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Dawn Bakery

Family bakery · four in the morning · the ovens were hot and the master baker was gone · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 9×9

At the Kovács bakery the first loaves go into the oven at four, and Vaiana, the master baker, lights the ovens herself every dawn. Today the ovens were hot – and Vaiana was not at her table. Nine people were in the house: three bakers, the shop assistant, the delivery driver, the bookkeeper, the flour supplier, Vaiana’s daughter – and Vaiana, who was found dead. The morning queue waited in vain.

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 cake, the desk, the TV, the ovens, the scales, the tables, the sink, the carts, the kettle, the crates, the fridge and the potted plant) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the beds, the armchair, the stools, the sofa and the benches can. An armchair is not a chair.
  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

  • Annamaria (baker, the bread): A bench was somewhere in her column. Somebody else in her area was beside a table.
  • Beverly (baker, the pastries): There was no man in her area.
  • Chandler (apprentice baker): An oven was somewhere in his row. Somebody else in his area was beside a table.
  • Ditte (the shop assistant): Exactly one row north of her was a baker. She was the only woman beside a chair.
  • Evan (the delivery driver): He was in the Yard.
  • Fabrizio (the bookkeeper): The TV was somewhere in his column.
  • Giuseppe (the flour supplier, in early): He was the only man beside a cart.
  • Harmony (Vaiana’s daughter, home from college): She was the only one beside the sofa.
  • Vaiana (the master baker): The victim. She was alone with the murderer.

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