The office murder-sudoku: 60 logic puzzles to solve on your lunch break, where the suspects are your coworkers. One clue at a time, only one possible solution.
A warm-up example: a stapler goes missing from the HR Office, three coworkers to place in the building.
Nadine is in Reception: her row and column clear out.
Dean, in the East Wing, has only the Conference Room left.
By elimination, Carol is in the HR Office. Case closed.
Instead of a stapler, there's a victim, and the culprit is the only person left in their room. The method never changes: read, place, eliminate.
cases of rising difficulty, from warm-up to brain-bender
recurring suspects to get to know — and to distrust
Four levels of challenge. Difficulty is measured in coffee cups: from your first case on a lunch break to the ones that empty the whole machine.
You'll close the first case on a lunch break. By the sixtieth, you'll be cross-referencing clues you wouldn't even have noticed at the start. It's a mental workout, disguised as fun.
Pick up your pencil. Your first culprit is waiting.
Detective Moventi
Nine recurring coworkers, one motive each. Every time, one of them has something to hide.
Click a card to read the dossier.
The founder's son. Around the office they call him “the Chairman,” though nobody has ever seen a board. He signs emails “WH,” and every layoff “the company has decided.”
Why suspect him: every reorg starts at his desk. And around here, the reorganized tend to end up badly.
She knows everyone's contract, salary, and second job. She listens to everything, forgets nothing, and smiles two seconds too long, every time.
Why suspect her: anyone who knows everything about everyone also knows where to find them. Alone.
Permanently on a call: in the elevator, in the cafeteria, probably in his sleep. Nobody has ever actually confirmed who's on the other end.
Why suspect him: a headset is the perfect alibi.
She checks every receipt twice and signs nothing without a copy. Say the words “expense report” and her left eye starts twitching.
Why suspect her: she knows every number that doesn't add up, and who made it disappear.
Six months into a “highly formative” internship. Nobody remembers hiring him; everybody leaves work on his desk.
Why suspect him: nobody ever notices where he is. Nobody. Ever.
Says little, lifts a lot. The warehouse is his kingdom, and he knows every side entrance in the building.
Why suspect him: the warehouse cameras have been “broken” since March. He's the one who wrote the repair quote.
She logs everything in her notebook: who came in, who left, who greeted whom, and exactly how warmly.
Why suspect her: she controls the only front door. And she decides what makes it into the notebook.
He agrees with whoever spoke to him last, especially if they have an office with a door. He's already got a speech ready for every promotion.
Why suspect him: ambition with a smile is still ambition.
He answers every ticket with “have you tried turning it off and on again?” and knows everyone's passwords, including the ones he shouldn't.
Why suspect him: he can erase any digital trail. Including his own.
She's running three late projects, a Gantt chart nobody looks at anymore, and a promised promotion that keeps sliding to “next quarter.”
Why suspect her: at Halloran & Pike, quarters do eventually end.
The Zero Case is a brand-new puzzle, outside the book's 60 cases: the coffee machine is broken again, and this time there's a body involved. We'll email it to you, print-ready.
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