Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Harp Workshop

Luque · a Sunday asado · the dealer who wanted every harp · Difficulty: Officer 4 · 8×8

Luque, Paraguay, a Sunday afternoon in September. In the harp maker's workshop the week's new harps were drying, the asado sizzled on the coals and the tereré went round. Victorino, a dealer from Asunción, had come to buy the whole season's harps at his own price. When the family sat down to eat, his place stayed empty – he was found dead. The polka was never played.

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 harps, the desk, the workbenches, the shelves, the crates, the palms and the charcoal grill) cannot be occupied; the chair, the sofa, the bench, the stools and the hammocks can.
  3. Directions refer to rows, not to the same column: “exactly one row north of him was a man” = the person in the row directly above his is a man, in any column.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Arnaldo (master harp maker): The bench was not in his area.
  • Bernarda (the harp maker's wife): She was not in the Office.
  • Celso (apprentice luthier): He was the only one beside a crate.
  • Dahiana (harpist, their daughter): She was lying in a hammock.
  • Eligio (polka singer from Asunción): A palm was somewhere in his row. Exactly one row north of him was a man.
  • Fidelina (neighbour, ñandutí lace maker): She was on the Patio. She was the easternmost person in her area.
  • Genara (harp teacher from Encarnación): She was alone in her area. The charcoal grill was somewhere in her column.
  • Victorino (harp dealer from Asunción): The victim. He was found in the Varnish Room, beside a harp – alone with the murderer.

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