Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Eldest Sits

A bourgeois flat in Vienna · Grandmother Vilhelmina’s name day, autumn 1896 · in every room the eldest sits, the rest stand · Difficulty: Inspector 8 · 12×12

Vienna, autumn 1896. The whole Lindner family gathered for Grandmother Vilhelmina’s name day, along with four guests and three servants. At nine the gas lamps were turned down for the surprise cake; when it was light again, Vilhelmina sat dead in her armchair in the Salon. Everyone claims to have been where etiquette put them. Every card shows the person’s age – the seats tell the rest.

Rules

  1. In every area where anyone was, exactly one person was sitting: the eldest of those there.
  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 coat rack, the mirror, the bookcases, the desk, the globe, the oven, the sink, the counter, the paintings, the statue, the tile stove, the tables, the clock, the cabinets, the folding screen, the gramophone, the candelabra, the piano, the harp, the music stand, the dollhouse, the teddy bear, the palms and the fountain) cannot be occupied; the armchair, the sofa, the chairs, the benches, the poufs and the lounger can. An armchair is not a chair. Two objects are the same kind of thing only when they have the same picture.

Statements

  • Andreas (the host, Vilhelmina’s son): He was in the Dining Room. Exactly one row north of him was a man.
  • Babette (the host’s wife): She was not in a corner of her area. She was right beside an area where nobody was.
  • Christine (the daughter of the house): A chair was somewhere in her row. She was not in the Library.
  • Daniel (the son of the house, a student): A chair was somewhere in his column. He was not sitting.
  • Eduard (a retired general, the godfather): A woman was beside the same bookcase as him.
  • Florentina (Vilhelmina’s sister-in-law): She was in the Library.
  • Gabriel (a hussar lieutenant, Christine’s suitor): He was with Irma.
  • Herman (the family doctor): He was beside a palm. He was not in a corner of his area.
  • Irma (the cook): The fountain was somewhere in her area.
  • Johanna (the housemaid): There was exactly one other person in her area.
  • Kristof (the valet): The fountain was somewhere in his row.
  • Vilhelmina (the grandmother): The victim. She was found in the Salon, in the armchair – alone with the murderer.

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