When the Lights Came On

English country house · a Saturday night in 1926 · in the dark everyone changed places · Difficulty: Chief 9 · 16×16

Saturday night at Larkmoor House: after dinner the host, the shipping magnate Verner, proposed a round of the parlour game “Murder in the Dark”, and the main switch was thrown. For a few minutes the whole house was pitch-black. Family, guests and staff groped their way from room to room, and nobody ended up where they had started – everybody had changed places with somebody else. Only Oscar, the hired pianist, took no part in the game and stayed exactly where he was. When the lights came on again, Verner sat dead in an armchair in the Library – and this time it was no game. Everyone can tell you where they were when the lights came on; but the murderer is whoever was alone with Verner before the dark.

Rules

In the dark every suspect swapped places with exactly one other suspect; only the pianist stayed where he was.
The board shows where everyone was after the lights came on, and so do the statements – except the sentences that begin with “Before the dark”.
Before the dark the murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.
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 piano, the harps, the gramophone, the cabinets, the bookcases, the tables, the desks, the billiard table, the fireplaces, the floor lamps, the coat racks, the staircases, the sinks, the potted plants and the statues) cannot be occupied; the wooden chairs, the armchairs, the sofas and the carpets can. Two objects are the same kind of thing only when they are the same picture: the billiard table and a desk are not tables, an armchair is not a wooden chair. A corner of an area is a square of that area that borders the outside (another area or the edge of the board) on one horizontal and one vertical side.

Statements

Aldous (the host’s brother, a retired colonel): He was beside a potted plant. He swapped places with another man.
Bryony (the host’s wife): Somebody else was beside the same sink as her. A desk was somewhere in her row.
Clifford (the host’s nephew, a young barrister): A carpet was somewhere in his column. Before the dark, he was in a corner of his area.
Daphne (the host’s daughter): She was not beside a potted plant. Before the dark, she was in the Gallery.
Euphemia (a fashionable lady novelist): An armchair was somewhere in her area. She swapped places with a member of staff.
Francis (a London art dealer): There was a family member in his area. Before the dark, an armchair was somewhere in his column.
Geraldine (the vicar’s wife): The billiard table was somewhere in her area. She swapped places with a man.
Harvey (an American film producer): There was a woman in his area. Before the dark, he was in the first column.
Isabel (a young actress): A wooden chair was somewhere in her area. Before the dark, she was in the Music Room.
Julian (the village doctor): He was the only man sitting in a wooden chair. Before the dark, he was sitting in an armchair.
Kathleen (a society photographer): Somebody else in her area was beside a staircase. She was on an armchair, a carpet, a wooden chair or a sofa.
Lawrence (the butler): He and Harvey were beside the same kind of thing. He was on an armchair, a carpet, a wooden chair or a sofa.
Mildred (the housemaid): Somebody else in her area was on a carpet. Before the dark, she was in the Hall.
Nell (the cook): Before the dark, a cabinet was somewhere in her column, and a potted plant was somewhere in her row.
Oscar (the hired pianist): He was beside a carpet.
Verner (the host, a shipping magnate): The victim. He was found in the Library, in an armchair.

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