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Scenedoku

Crime-scene logic cases

The Vineyard

Kestrel Hill Estate · harvest night · the last vintage · Difficulty: Inspector 7 · 10×10

Harvest night at the Kestrel Hill Estate. The last grapes are in, the press has fallen silent and the festival is winding down when Vidal, the winemaker, is found dead in the cellar, beside one of his own barrels. Nine people were still on the estate: three of his family, three estate workers and three guests. One of them is the killer. Read every statement, find everyone’s square on the plan and unmask the murderer – alone with Vidal in the Cellar.

Rules

  1. Exactly two people were sitting on stools.
  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 (barrels, crates, tables, the scales, the well, carts, vines…) cannot be occupied; the stools, the benches and the hay bale can. A corner of an area is a square of that area with two outer sides.
  4. 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 is a woman, in any column; “north of Aurora” = in a row further up, in any column.
  5. The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

  • Aurora (daughter): She was beside a bench.
  • Benedict (son): He was sitting on a hay bale.
  • Cecily (Vidal’s wife): She was not beside a barrel. She was not in a corner of her area.
  • Dario (cellar master): He was not in a corner of his area.
  • Elke (grape picker): She was alone in her area.
  • Florian (tractor driver): He was beside a vine. Exactly one row north of him was a male estate worker.
  • Gabriella (wine merchant): She was not alone in her area. She was not in a corner of her area.
  • Hubert (wine critic): He was in the Shop. Exactly one row north of him was a female estate worker.
  • Isolde (journalist): She was beside a crate.
  • Vidal (the winemaker): The victim. He was found in the Cellar, beside a barrel – alone with the murderer.

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