The Garden Lamps

Hollins Court · midsummer night · hide-and-seek in the gardens · Difficulty: Chief 10 · 16×16

Midsummer night at Hollins Court. After dinner Vanessa, the hostess, called for a game of hide-and-seek in the gardens: everyone scattered into the dark, and she went looking for them with a lantern, lighting exactly three of the six garden lamps on her way – nobody remembers which. When the game was over, she was found dead in the grotto, in the dark. Fifteen people hid in the gardens: four of her family, seven guests and four of the staff. One of them is the killer. Read every statement, work out which lamps were lit, find everyone’s square on the plan and unmask the murderer – alone with Vanessa in the Grotto.

Rules

The lamps: six lamp posts stand in the gardens, and exactly three of them were lit. A lit lamp lights every square of its row and its column, in all four directions, up to the first object (a hedge, a tree, a statue, the pond, another lamp…). People do not block the light, and seats are lit like any other square.
Found or hidden: whoever hid on a lit square was found by Vanessa; whoever hid on an unlit square stayed hidden. Every statement says which. Someone who was found may also say where the light came from: a lit lamp stood in that direction, in their row or column, with no object in between.
In the dark: Vanessa and the murderer were both on unlit squares.
Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
“Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (hedges, trees, statues, the fountain, the lamp posts…) cannot be occupied; the chairs, benches, the lounger, the hammock and the boats can. A corner of an area is a square of that area with two outer sides.
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; “north of Archie” = in a row further up, in any column.
The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

Archie (the host): He was south of Neville. He was beside a bench. He stayed hidden.
Bethany (daughter): She was beside a potted plant. She was south of Lionel. She stayed hidden.
Crispin (son): There was a member of the staff in his area. He was in a corner of his area. He stayed hidden.
Deborah (Vanessa’s sister): Exactly one row north of her was a woman. She was beside the water. She stayed hidden.
Evelyn (painter): The light came from the east. She was alone in her area. Vanessa found her.
Fergus (major): He was not in a corner of his area. He was not beside a lamp post. He stayed hidden.
Georgina (singer): She was alone in her area. The light came from the west. Vanessa found her.
Hector (doctor): He was on the Great Lawn. There was a member of the family in his area. Vanessa found him.
Ingrid (poet): The light came from the north. She was in a corner of her area. Vanessa found her.
Jerome (explorer): He was not beside a bench. He was beside a hedge. He stayed hidden.
Katrina (heiress): The light came from the west. Vanessa found her.
Lionel (butler): He was alone in his area. Vanessa found him.
Matilda (cook): She was beside a hedge. She was not beside a lamp post. She stayed hidden.
Neville (gardener): There was a woman in his area. He was in the Kitchen Garden. He stayed hidden.
Octavia (maid): She was beside the wheelbarrow. She stayed hidden.
Vanessa (the hostess): The victim. She was found in the Grotto, beside the statue, on an unlit square – alone with the murderer.

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