How to play Room for Murder
A murder-mystery logic puzzle on a floor plan — a little like sudoku with furniture.
The goal
Every case is a floor plan cut into rooms, with a handful of suspects and one victim. Work out where everybody was standing. When you know that, you know the killer: the victim was alone in a room with exactly one other person.
The four rules
- One person per row and per column. Nobody shares a row or a column with anybody else — the victim included.
- Mind the furniture. Nobody can stand on solid things like tables, plants, shelves, stoves or the piano. Chairs, sofas, benches, beds, bathtubs and rugs are fine. The key under each plan shows which is which.
- The witnesses tell the truth. Every statement is true — except on Sundays, when the killer's statement is a lie.
- The killer shares a room with the victim. The victim was alone in a room with exactly one other person.
What the clues mean
- Beside a sofa
- In a square directly next to it: up, down, left or right — not diagonally. A sofa covering two squares has more neighbours.
- Sitting on a sofa
- On one of the sofa's own squares (only for furniture you can sit or stand on).
- In the Kitchen
- Anywhere inside that room. Rooms are outlined by walls; gardens by a dashed fence.
- In a corner of a room
- In a square touching two walls of their own room at once.
- Alone / not alone
- The only person in that room, or sharing it with at least one other person.
- Alone with Ada
- Exactly two people in that room: them and Ada.
- A lamp in her row
- Somewhere in the same horizontal row (A, B, C…) there's a lamp; columns (1, 2, 3…) work the same way.
- North of Basil
- In any row above Basil's (north is up). "Exactly one row north" means the row directly above.
- Diagonally next to
- In one of the four squares touching their square at a corner.
A worked example
Solving tips
- Start with the pickiest witness. "Beside the stove" often fits only two or three squares; "in the Living Room" might fit twelve.
- Cross out as you go. Every placement removes a whole row and column for everyone else. Use Notes (or a long-press) to mark ruled-out squares.
- Count the rooms. A small room can only hold as many people as it has free rows and columns.
- Watch the victim's room. It must hold exactly two people. If a room can't fit a second person, the victim wasn't there.
- Sunday liar cases: assume each suspect in turn is the liar (their statement is false, everyone else's is true). Only one choice leads to a plan where everything fits.
- Stuck? Hint places one suspect for you; Check shows anyone in the wrong square.
Questions
Is it free? Yes. A new case appears every day at midnight in your time zone, and every earlier case stays in the archive.
Is every case fair? Every case is checked by a solver to have exactly one answer that you can reach by logic alone — no guessing.
Can I play on paper? Yes — use "Print this case" under the statements, or get the Room for Murder book with 80 more cases.