Murder mystery sudoku — the daily cases for 21 September 2026

Every detective in the world got these same crime scenes on 2026-09-21 — 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 Cookie Thief

A 5×5 grid across 3 rooms: Guest Room, Sunroom, Nursery. Six statements, nine squares nobody could stand on, and no assumption anywhere: elimination alone closes it.

Beginner · time attack — The Cookie Thief

A 5×5 grid across 3 rooms: Sunroom, Nursery, Attic. Six statements, seven squares nobody could stand on, and no assumption anywhere: elimination alone closes it.

Easy — The Cookie Thief

A 6×6 grid across 5 rooms: Cellar, Sunroom, Guest Room, Attic, Nursery. Six statements, eleven squares nobody could stand on, and no assumption anywhere: elimination alone closes it.

Easy · time attack — The Cookie Thief

A 6×6 grid across 4 rooms: Cellar, Living room, Hallway, Nursery. Nine statements, ten squares nobody could stand on, and enough testimony that the surplus is what pins the last two down.

Medium · time attack — The Cookie Thief

An 8×7 grid across 6 rooms: Hallway, Sunroom, Attic, Kitchen, Living room, Cellar. Eleven statements, fifteen squares nobody could stand on, almost as many rooms as suspects, so a room claim nearly names a square, and enough testimony that the surplus is what pins the last two down.

Medium — The Cookie Thief

An 8×7 grid across 6 rooms: Kitchen, Living room, Dining Room, Nursery, Cellar, Guest Room. Nine statements, twelve squares nobody could stand on, almost as many rooms as suspects, so a room claim nearly names a square, and one round of assume-and-test after elimination ran dry.

Hard — The Cookie Thief

A 9×8 grid across 7 rooms: Sunroom, Kitchen, Dining Room, Guest Room, Living room, Cellar, Nursery. Twelve statements, fourteen squares nobody could stand on, almost as many rooms as suspects, so a room claim nearly names a square, and one round of assume-and-test after elimination ran dry.

The twist: the accusation also demands the motive, not just the name.

Hard · time attack — The Cookie Thief

A 10×8 grid across 6 rooms: Living room, Attic, Guest Room, Hallway, Kitchen, Cellar. Twelve statements, seventeen squares nobody could stand on, and one round of assume-and-test after elimination ran dry.

Expert — The Cookie Thief

A 10×9 grid across 7 rooms: Attic, Sunroom, Guest Room, Cellar, Hallway, Living room, Kitchen. Twelve statements, eighteen squares nobody could stand on, and one round of assume-and-test after elimination ran dry.

The twist: the accusation also demands the motive, not just the name.

Expert · time attack — The Cookie Thief

A 10×9 grid across 7 rooms: Cellar, Attic, Nursery, Guest Room, Dining Room, Hallway, Kitchen. Thirteen statements, eighteen squares nobody could stand on, and one round of assume-and-test after elimination ran dry.

The twist: the accusation also demands the motive, not just the name.

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 20 September

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