Murder mystery sudoku — the daily cases for 22 August 2026

Every detective in the world got these same crime scenes on 2026-08-22 — each difficulty published twice, once untimed and once as time attack. Each case is procedurally generated and then proved to have exactly one logical solution before it is published, including the cases where somebody is lying. You place every suspect back on the map using only their testimony: exactly one person per row, never two in a column. Whoever is left alone with the victim did it.

Beginner — The Theatre Royal

A 5×5 grid across 4 rooms: bar, dressing, workshop, stage. A compact scene and short, direct testimony — the ladder's first rung.

Cracked by 2 detectives so far.

Beginner · time attack — The Old Harbor

A 5×5 grid across 3 rooms: dock, boathouse, breakwater. A compact scene and short, direct testimony — the ladder's first rung.

Easy — Movie Night

A 6×6 grid across 4 rooms: kitchen, den, study, livingroom. A wider map, and clues that start needing to be combined.

Cracked by 2 detectives so far.

Easy · time attack — The Mystery Island

A 6×6 grid across 4 rooms: beach, wreck, cliffs, lookout. A wider map, and clues that start needing to be combined.

Medium · time attack — The Theatre Royal

A 7×7 grid across 6 rooms: workshop, pit, wings, balcony, office, dressing. The first cases that reward pencil marks, and where an accomplice occasionally appears.

Medium — A Walk in the Park

A 7×7 grid across 6 rooms: picnicarea, bandstand, kiosk, lawn, rosegarden, playground. The first cases that reward pencil marks, and where an accomplice occasionally appears.

Cracked by 2 detectives so far.

Hard — The Old Harbor

A 8×8 grid across 6 rooms: pier, coldstore, boathouse, marina, fishmarket, harbormaster. A liar is likely, motives may be in play, and one assumption is usually needed.

The twist: one suspect is an accomplice — every statement they make is false.

Hard · time attack — The Museum of Curiosities

A 8×8 grid across 6 rooms: gallery, vault, archive, library, atrium, garden. A liar is likely, motives may be in play, and one assumption is usually needed.

Expert — Movie Night

A 9×9 grid across 7 rooms: laundry, livingroom, study, den, balcony, guestroom, kitchen. The full board — a lying accomplice on half of them, and the motive to prove as well as the name.

The twist: one suspect is an accomplice — every statement they make is false; the accusation also demands the motive, not just the name.

Expert · time attack — The Repair Shop

A 9×9 grid across 8 rooms: office, partsroom, storeroom, carlift, waitingroom, repairbay, paintbooth, yard. The full board — a lying accomplice on half of them, and the motive to prove as well as the name.

The twist: one suspect is an accomplice — every statement they make is false.

How to read a case above

The grid size is the size of the crime scene, so a 10×9 expert case is a far larger search than a 5×5 beginner one — but the difficulty is really carried by the clues, not the square count. A beginner case tells you almost directly where somebody stood. An expert case tells you where somebody was not, three times, and expects you to do the rest — and on half of them one of those statements is a lie told to protect the killer. If a case lists a motive, naming the right person is not enough on its own; you have to prove why.

How to play · Solving cases with a liar · Techniques

Every day's cases — the calendar · ← the cases for 21 August

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