Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Piano Nobile

Schönbrunn Palace · the evening of a private concert · the Great Gallery was lit and the director was gone · Difficulty: Inspector 7 · 10×10

The state floor of Schönbrunn: the Great Gallery, the Mirror Room and the other state rooms open into one another. After a private concert the musicians, patrons and staff scattered through the rooms. At eleven Viktoria, the director of the palace, was nowhere to be found. Ten people were on the state floor. Viktoria was found dead; the encore never came.

Rules

  1. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
  2. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the billiard table, the paintings, the mirror, the harpsichord, the candelabras, the tables, the lacquer screens, the statues, the tiled stoves, the desk, the clocks, the globe and the cabinet) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the sofas and the armchairs can.
  3. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a guest” = the person in the row directly above was a guest, in any column; “the northernmost person in her area” = nobody else in her area was in a row further up.
  4. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area. The victim made no statement – her square, too, follows from the others’.

Statements

  • Adelheid (guide): A candelabra was somewhere in her column. A candelabra was somewhere in her row.
  • Burkhard (security guard): He was the only one beside a lacquer screen. He was in the Vieux-Laque Room.
  • Christiane (restorer): The harpsichord was somewhere in her area.
  • Dominik (violinist): An armchair was somewhere in his column. A painting was somewhere in his area.
  • Eleonore (harpsichordist): She was in the Blue Chinese Salon.
  • Friedrich (conductor): He was the only one beside a sofa. He was north of Heinrich.
  • Gertrud (art historian): She was the easternmost person in her area.
  • Heinrich (the concert’s sponsor): An armchair was somewhere in his area. He was alone with a woman.
  • Isolde (journalist): She was in the Oval Cabinet.
  • Viktoria (the palace director): The victim. She was alone with the murderer.

← Cases