Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Ice Hotel

Finnish Lapland · opening night of the season · the financier had found a buyer · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 9×9

Every winter the ice hotel on the riverbank in Finnish Lapland is carved anew from the ice of the frozen river; tonight it opens the season. Väinö, the hotel's financier, had travelled up from Helsinki, and whispers say he brought a buyer for the whole hotel. Shortly before midnight the northern lights flared up and the power went out for a few minutes. When the light came back, Väinö was dead.

Rules

  1. Exactly two people were beside an ice sculpture.
  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 fir trees, the candelabra, the altar, the ice sculptures, the counter, the husky, the ice pillars, the lamp, the suitcases and the wardrobe) cannot be occupied; the benches, the stool, the armchair, the beds, the sled and the snowmobile can.
  4. 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.
  5. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Aila (hotel manager): She was alone in her area. A suitcase was somewhere in her row.
  • Bror (ice sculptor): He was beside an ice sculpture.
  • Carita (bartender): Exactly one row north of her was a woman.
  • Daavid (husky guide): He was beside the husky. He was alone with a man.
  • Eveliina (bride – her wedding is tomorrow in the ice chapel): She was not beside the candelabra.
  • Frans (the financier's business partner): He was beside a suitcase.
  • Göran (northern-lights photographer): An ice pillar was somewhere in his column. A bench was somewhere in his row.
  • Helmi (travel writer): A bed was somewhere in her area.
  • Väinö (the hotel's financier): The victim. He was found in the Aurora Suite – alone with the murderer.

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