$5.29A Name Elimination Puzzle
One-time purchase. Not part of the subscription.
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Dr. Esther Quilliam, Keeper of Minerals at the Haverly Museum, is found dead in a closed gallery during the museum's fundraising gala, hours after discovering that its famous sapphire is glass. Six members of staff noticed something about the guest who slipped away, three pieces of evidence were left behind, and the killer is one of 3,000 names on the guest list. Apply the 18 clues in order, cross out every guest each one rules out, check your count at the progress checks, and the last name standing is the murderer. Three clues are locked behind small puzzles: a display case code, a cloakroom queue and a telegraph tape in Morse code.
A name elimination puzzle is a whodunit you solve with a pencil. You get a short crime story, statements from six witnesses, three pieces of evidence and a long list of everyone who could have done it: here, the guest list of a museum gala, with each guest's name, age, dinner table, ticket number, arrival time, coat check number, donor tier and dessert.
Then come the clues. Each one is a fact about the killer, such as 'the killer sat in the Great Hall' or 'the digits of the killer's ticket number add up to an odd number'. Every guest the fact does not fit gets crossed out. The first clues clear whole pages; later ones are quick because few names are left. After every third clue a progress check tells you how many guests should still be standing, so you always know you are on track.
When all 18 clues are done, exactly one guest is left. That is the killer, and the solution explains how every clue fits the story. It makes a relaxed evening or a slow weekend, alone or with a friend reading the clues aloud, and the printer-friendly edition needs only a black-and-white printer and a pencil.
Most players need two to four hours in total. The first clues take longest because the guest list is long; from the middle onwards each clue takes a few minutes. You can stop at any point and carry on later, since your crosses stay on the page.
The guest list is 50 pages and you need all of it. The story, clues, locked puzzles and solution add 13 pages. On a tablet you print nothing: the contents page is clickable and every row has a column for your cross.
Yes. The printer-friendly edition has white pages and thin lines, and no clue depends on colour. Donor tiers and desserts are printed as words.
It is made for one player or a pair. A bigger group can share out the guest list pages and call out when a clue clears their rows.
Ages 12 and up. It is a cosy mystery with nothing graphic on the page; the clues ask for careful reading, counting letters and simple adding.
Go back to the last check that matched and apply the clues since then again. The solution also lists the exact number of guests left after every single clue.
No. The display case code is a 5 by 5 letter square you build from a word in the story, the cloakroom queue is a small logic puzzle with three guests, and the telegraph tape comes with a Morse code key. All answers are in the solution.
Yes, print as many copies as your own group needs. Please do not share or resell the files.
$12.99A printable advent calendar with a murder on board. Solve one puzzle a day, cross names off a 480-name register and be left with exactly one suspect on Christmas Eve.
One-time purchase. Not part of the subscription.
$5.99A compact whodunit you solve on paper in about 45 minutes: break a time lock code, decode the keeper's notebook and find out who shut him in the vault.
One-time purchase. Not part of the subscription.
$4.39A lighthouse keeper vanishes in a storm. Solve 25 puzzles in 16 different types, collect one fact from each, and name the killer. Hints and full answers included.
One-time purchase. Not part of the subscription.
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