Open House

A villa for sale · autumn 1927 · every door stood open · Difficulty: Chief 9 · 16×16

Autumn 1927, a villa on the edge of town, put up for sale. For one evening every door stood open: the family showed the house, seven buyers wandered from room to room and the staff served wine. Valor, the estate agent who had arranged the evening, was found dead in the Study, beside the desk – an hour before he was to name the buyer.

Rules

1. No door separated two empty areas.
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 barrels, the crate, the well, the wheelbarrow, the trees, the hedge, the flower beds, the fountain, the sundial, the tables, the stove, the sink, the counter, the birdcage, the fireplaces, the chest, the staircase, the lamps, the paintings, the clock, the wardrobe, the mirrors, the desk, the bookcases, the globe, the billiard table, the piano, the harp, the music stand, the coat racks) cannot be occupied; the seats – the chairs, the armchairs, the benches, the stools, the sofas, the chaises longues and the loungers – can: whoever is on a seat was sitting. An armchair is not a 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.
4. “An armchair was somewhere in her row” = an armchair is on one of the squares of her row, in any area; the same goes for columns.
5. 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 his is a woman, in any column.
6. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

• Alain (the owner): A bench was somewhere in his area.
• Beth (his wife): The fountain was somewhere in her column.
• Carson (their son): An armchair was somewhere in his column. Exactly one person was sitting on a bench – not him, but somebody in his area.
• Danielle (their daughter): She was not alone in her area. She was beside a chair.
• Ernestine (buyer): She was in the Drawing Room. Somebody else in her area was sitting on a sofa.
• Fae (buyer): Exactly one row north of her was a man. A chaise longue was somewhere in her row.
• Guy (buyer): He was sitting in a chair. He was alone in his area.
• Hannelore (buyer): She was alone with somebody sitting in an armchair. She was beside a table.
• Iker (buyer): There was no armchair in his area. He was beside a painting.
• Jacob (buyer): He was alone in his area. A bookcase was somewhere in his row.
• Karola (buyer): Somebody else in her area was beside a chaise longue.
• Lars (the butler): He was in a corner of his area. A chair was somewhere in his column.
• Milla (the cook): A flower bed was somewhere in her row.
• Noah (the agent’s clerk): He was sitting. An armchair was somewhere in his row.
• Olympia (the maid): She was beside a table.
• Valor (the estate agent): The victim. He was found in the Study, beside the desk – alone with the murderer.

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