The Invitation Tree

A country house · summer 1934 · four invitations, fifteen guests · Difficulty: Chief 10 · 16×16

An English country house, summer 1934. Victoria, the book publisher, wrote four invitations and added to each: bring whoever you like. The house filled with fifteen people, most of whom had never met. Late in the evening Victoria is found dead in the Drawing Room, beside the fireplace. Every card says whose guest the person is. It was the last party she ever gave.

Rules

Every area held people who were connected along the chain of invitations: two people were in the same area only if everybody on the invitation chain between them was there too.
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 (the fountain, the flower beds, the sundial, the trees, the statue, the parasols, the tables, the ladder, the basket, the wheelbarrow, the cacti, the birdcage, the amphora, the planter, the stove, the oven, the sink, the icebox, the counter, the barrel, the cabinet, the candelabra, the bookcases, the globe, the staircase, the clock, the coat rack, the mirror, the fireplace, the gramophone, the lamp, the desk, the safe, the chessboard, the painting, the billiard table, the card table, the trophy, the piano, the sewing machine, the radio set, the chest, the boots) cannot be occupied; the benches, the deckchairs, the chaise longue, the chairs, the stools, the armchairs and the sofas can. “A table” is one of the plain tables: the card table, the billiard table and the desk are not tables, and an armchair and a deckchair are not chairs. A corner of an area is a square of it that faces outwards (another area or the edge of the board) on a horizontal and on a vertical side.
Directions refer to rows, not to the same column: “exactly one row north of her was a woman” = the person in the row directly above is a woman, in any column. “On the same diagonal” = the two squares lie on one diagonal line of the board, in either direction and at any distance.
“An armchair was somewhere in his row” = an armchair is on one of the squares of his row, in any area; the same goes for columns, and “somewhere in her area” = on a square of the area she was in. “Somebody else in her area was beside an armchair” = another person in her area was directly beside it. “Right beside an area where nobody was” = on a square that touches an empty area directly – left, right, above or below, across the wall.
“He was the only man beside a stool” = no other man was beside any stool. “There was exactly one other person in her area” counts everybody else in that area.
The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

Alfonso (guest of Victoria): An armchair was somewhere in his row. He and Nolan were on the same diagonal.
Beth (guest of Alfonso): Somebody else in her area was beside an armchair.
Carson (guest of Alfonso): He was not in the Rose Garden. An armchair was somewhere in his column.
Donatella (guest of Beth): There was exactly one other person in her area.
Eve (guest of Victoria): She was not alone in her area.
Frederick (guest of Eve): He was the only man beside a stool.
Gretchen (guest of Frederick): The barrel was somewhere in her area. Exactly one row north of her was a woman.
Henry (guest of Gretchen): He was right beside an area where nobody was. The birdcage was somewhere in his area.
Idris (guest of Victoria): He was right beside an area where nobody was. He was not alone in his area.
June (guest of Idris): The ladder was somewhere in her row.
Kit (guest of Idris): He was alone in his area. He was beside a table.
Lily (guest of Idris): A deckchair was somewhere in her area. She was sitting.
Madeleine (guest of Victoria): The amphora was somewhere in her column.
Nolan (guest of Madeleine): He was beside a chair.
Oliver (guest of Nolan): He was in a corner of his area.
Victoria (the hostess): The victim. She was found in the Drawing Room, beside the fireplace – alone with the murderer.

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