A free case from the casebook
The Last Guest at Marlow Lodge
A free murder mystery logic puzzle. Print it, or solve it right here on screen. Four guests, four rooms, seven clues, and one killer.
At ten o'clock on a wet November night, Edmund Marlow was found dead in the study of Marlow Lodge, a silk curtain cord drawn tight around his neck. The house had four guests that weekend, and at ten o'clock each of them was alone in a different room, holding something they would rather not explain.
The police have the statements. You have the grid. Work out which guest was in which room, and what each one was holding. The guest in the study, with the cord, is your killer.
The statements
- The poker was not in the library, and it was not in the study.
- Mrs Pell was either in the library or in the conservatory.
- Dr Okafor held neither the letter opener nor the silk cord.
- Whoever was in the conservatory was holding the decanter.
- Colonel Ashby was not in the conservatory, and he never touched the silk cord.
- Mrs Pell did not hold the decanter.
- The letter opener was found in the library.
The grid
Tap a square once to rule it out (✕), twice to confirm it (●). Each row and each column has exactly one dot.
| Room | Holding | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Library | Conservatory | Billiard room | Study | Poker | Letter opener | Decanter | Silk cord | |
| Colonel Ashby | ||||||||
| Mrs Pell | ||||||||
| Dr Okafor | ||||||||
| Miss Lark | ||||||||
| Poker | ||||||||
| Letter opener | ||||||||
| Decanter | ||||||||
| Silk cord | ||||||||
How to solve a logic grid
Every guest was in exactly one room and held exactly one thing, and no two guests shared either. Read a clue, mark what it rules out with a cross, and mark what it proves with a dot. When you place a dot, cross out the rest of its row and column inside that block.
The trick is the third block, where the objects meet the rooms. If you know who held the decanter and you know the decanter was in the conservatory, you know where that guest was, even though no clue says so. Start with the clues that tie an object to a room.
Like the impossible crime? Read our guide to locked room mysteries, with ten classics and the five ways a sealed room is opened.
Solution and more cases at amurderinpieces.com/free-murder-mystery-puzzle