Room for Murder Daily › All cases › Case #21
Leftovers at the Diner
The football game went to overtime. Willa didn't.
Thanksgiving month: today's case is set in Cranberry Hollow, the town from Room for Murder: Thanksgiving — 90 more cases.
🔎 Solved by 8 detectives · median time 1:05 · 88% with no help at all
What the witnesses say
“He was beside a sink. He was beside the fridge.”
“She was beside the grandfather clock.”
“She was in the Back Office.”
“He was beside a bench.”
Found dead — alone in a room with the killer.
The rules
- Exactly one person in every row and every column.
- Nobody stands on solid furniture; chairs, sofas, benches, beds and rugs are fine.
- Every statement is true. “Beside” means the square directly next to it; north is up.
- The victim was alone in a room with exactly one other person: the killer.
Show the answer and the solution to case #21
The killer was Leroy (the barber) — the only other person in the Diner Kitchen with Willa. Leroy: C2 · Pearl: D5 · Marisol: E4 · Rudy: A1 · Willa: B3.
How to solve it, step by step
- Leroy: “He was beside a sink. He was beside the fridge.” Only one square on the whole plan fits: C2.
- Rudy: “He was beside a bench.” Only one square on the whole plan fits: A1.
- Willa, the victim, has no statement — but only one square is left in a free row and column: B3, in the Diner Kitchen.
- Pearl: “She was beside the grandfather clock.” Of the squares that fit, only D5 is still open — the others are in rows or columns already taken.
- Marisol: “She was in the Back Office.” Of the squares that fit, only E4 is still open — the others are in rows or columns already taken.
- Everyone is placed. Willa lies in the Diner Kitchen, and the only other person in there is Leroy. Leroy is the killer.
More Thanksgiving logic puzzles →
Room for Murder: Thanksgiving
90 floor-plan mysteries in Cranberry Hollow, every case a two-page spread — a puzzle book for the long weekend.
80 more cases in Room for Murder
Five chapters of floor-plan mysteries, from cosy cottages to a lying-killer chapter, with answers in the back.
Room for Murder: Winter
90 cosy Christmas floor-plan mysteries in snowed-in Juniper Falls — a stocking stuffer for puzzle lovers.