The Dog That Didn’t Bark

A hunting lodge deep in the forest · the evening after the drive · one dog never barked · Difficulty: Inspector 7 · 10×10

The evening after the great autumn drive at Volkmar’s hunting lodge, deep in the forest. The hounds of the house knew their own people and barked only at strangers: beside every barking dog there was a guest of the hunt, and no guest was beside the quiet ones. Shortly before dinner Volkmar, the lord of the lodge, was found dead in the Trophy Room, among his cups and antlers, beside his own old hound – which had not made a sound all evening. Nine people were at the lodge: three of the family, two of the staff and four guests of the hunt. One of them is the killer. Read every statement, find everyone’s square on the plan and unmask the murderer – alone with Volkmar in the Trophy Room.

Rules

1. Beside every barking dog there was a guest; beside the quiet dogs there was none.
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 dogs, the trophies, the fireplaces, the bookcase, the globe, the desk, the gun cabinet, the table, the suit of armour, the staircase, the stove, the sink, the tree, the well, the cart, the water trough) cannot be occupied; the armchair, the chair, the sofa, the carpets, the bench, the hay bales and the horse can.
4. “Right beside an area where nobody was” = on a square that touches an empty area directly – left, right, above or below, across the wall.
5. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a man” = the person in the row directly above is a man, in any column.
6. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

• Agathe (Volkmar’s wife): She was right beside an area where nobody was.
• Berthold (Volkmar’s younger brother): He was the only man beside a trophy.
• Clothilde (Volkmar’s daughter): She was beside a carpet that nobody was on.
• Diethelm (the gamekeeper): There was no other man in his area. There was exactly one other person in his area.
• Elfriede (the cook): She was beside a quiet dog.
• Friedrich (timber merchant): The armchair was somewhere in his row. Exactly one row north of him was a man.
• Gundula (Friedrich’s wife): A fireplace was somewhere in her column.
• Hartmut (the neighbouring landowner): Made no statement.
• Ingeborg (painter): There was exactly one other person in her area.
• Volkmar (the lord of the lodge): The victim. He was found in the Trophy Room, beside a quiet dog – alone with the murderer.

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