The books
Murdoku is a series of logic puzzle books created by Manuel Garand. The books are published in 15 languages. Each book holds a set of murder cases that you solve with a pencil on the page. The official site is murdoku.com.
The name blends murder and sudoku, and the puzzles do the same. They take the row and column rule from sudoku and set it inside a crime scene.
How the puzzle works
Each puzzle is a square grid drawn as the floor plan of a place and cut into rooms. Next to the grid is a list of suspects, and each suspect comes with a short clue about where they were. One of the people is the victim.
You place every person on the plan so that no two share a row or a column. The clues narrow down the cells each person can stand on, and each placement rules out cells for the others. When the grid is full, one last fact closes the case. The victim was alone in a room with exactly one other person, and that person is the murderer.
How Sudoku Murder differs
Sudoku Murder is our own game, built on the same family of logic. Its cases are made to be played on a screen.
- A new case comes out every day at midnight UTC, free in the browser and the same for everyone. Monday and Tuesday are Easy, and the week climbs to Expert on Saturday.
- Boards run from 4×4 up to 9×9, with furniture a person can stand on and scenery that blocks its cell.
- Every clue is one of seven kinds, and the rules page defines each one, so a clue never has two readings. "Beside" never includes diagonals, for example.
- A solver checks every case. Each has exactly one solution, reachable by logic alone.
- Past days stay playable in the archive, each with a worked solution.
- The app for iPhone, iPad and Android adds pencil notes, crosses off rows and columns for you, and gives hints that show the next deduction.
Where to start
If you have solved a Murdoku book, you already know the core idea. Start with how to play for a short practice case, then try today's case. The Sudoku Murder home page has the app and more about the game.
Put it to work on a real case
A new murder at midnight UTC, free in the browser, with one arrangement that fits every clue.
