Shadows at Sunset

Thornfield sculpture garden · sunset · long shadows to the east · Difficulty: Chief 9 · 16×16

The last evening of the sculpture exhibition at Thornfield House. The sun stands low in the west and every tree, statue and hedge throws a long shadow across the garden. When the gong calls the guests to dinner, Violet – the owner of the house – is found dead in the Grotto, in the shadow of the rocks. Sixteen people were in the garden: the artists, the visitors and the staff. Everyone remembers whether they stood in the sun or in the shade, and nobody saw the murderer’s face: they stood in the shadow too. Read the statements, find everyone’s square on the plan and unmask the murderer – alone with Violet in the Grotto, in the shade.

Rules

1. Shadows: the sun is in the west. Every tall thing – tree, statue, hedge, obelisk, rock, building – throws a shadow two squares long to the east (it stops at another tall thing or at the edge of the garden); low things – benches, flower beds, the fountain, the pillars, the sundial, the hoops, the beehive, the barrow – throw none. The shaded squares are drawn darker. “I was in the shade” = on a shaded square, “in the sun” = on a bright one.
2. Nobody saw the murderer’s face: the murderer was in the shade.
3. Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
4. “Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. The garden is open air: the dashed lines are the borders of the areas of the puzzle. Squares with an object cannot be occupied, except the benches; the pond is water.
5. Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of her” = in the row directly above, in any column.
6. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

• Ansel (sculptor): He was in the Rose Garden, in the shade.
• Bettina (painter): She was the only one beside an obelisk. There was a man in her area.
• Cormac (stonemason): He was in column 14, with exactly one other person in his area.
• Dahlia (potter): She was beside a tree. Exactly one row north of her was an artist.
• Everett (art critic): He was in the shade. Exactly one row north of him was a man.
• Frida (collector): She was in column 9. There was a woman in her area.
• Gaspard (photographer): He was beside a tree. There was a woman in his area. Exactly one row north of him was a woman.
• Honor (journalist): She was not beside the fountain. There was a woman in her area. Exactly one row south of her was a man.
• Isadora (dancer): Exactly one row south of her was a man.
• Jarvis (art student): He was in the shade, alone in his area.
• Kelvin (head gardener): He was in row 5, alone in his area.
• Leticia (housekeeper): There was a man in her area. She was not beside a tree.
• Malcolm (gatekeeper): He was in the Gate Lodge. Exactly one row north of him was a woman.
• Nadine (beekeeper): She was on the Orangery Terrace. Exactly one row north of her was a woman.
• Osgood (under-gardener): He was in the sun, beside a tree.
• Violet (owner of Thornfield House): The victim. She was found in a corner of the Grotto – alone with the murderer, who was in the shade.

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