“The Last Test Drive” is a Murdoku case from the Auto shop category: a board of 8×8, 7 suspects and one victim. Read the clues, work out where everybody was standing, and name the suspect who was left alone with the body.
The Board
The floor plan as the case hands it to you: 8×8, rated Hard, with 4 rooms. Every person — 8 in all — takes a row and a column of their own.
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6
C7
C8
R1
C
C
O
B
Pl
R2
Pl
B
Ta
L
R3
W
S
O
W
B
R4
T
T
Ch
P
R5
B
O
R6
B
L
Ta
S
R7
C
C
L
O
T
P
R8
C
C
L
Ch
L
Floor plan of “The Last Test Drive”. Letters mark the objects; the key is below. A dashed edge marks a door.
Rooms
Test Bay (outdoors) — 4 tiles: Car, Oil slick
Office — 7 tiles: Box, Plant, Locker
Parts Store — 18 tiles: Plant, Box, Table, Wooden crate, Shelf, Oil slick, TV
Assembly Bay (outdoors) — 35 tiles: Wooden crate, Box, TV, Chair, PC, Oil slick, Locker, Table, Shelf, Car
Objects on the board
C Car (can be stood on)
B Box (blocks the tile)
L Locker (blocks the tile)
O Oil slick (can be stood on)
T TV (blocks the tile)
Ch Chair (can be stood on)
W Wooden crate (blocks the tile)
P PC (blocks the tile)
Pl Plant (blocks the tile)
S Shelf (blocks the tile)
Ta Table (blocks the tile)
The Suspects and Their Clues
Each suspect comes with what the witnesses remember. Read them all before placing anyone — a clue about one person is very often what pins down another.
Alex — a man with blond hair and a beard
He was in the same column or row as a plant
Bernd — a man with blond hair
He was in column 6
Cyrus — a man with white hair and glasses
He was in a corner
Dylan — a man with white hair
He was alone in a room with an oil slick
Elsa — a woman with black hair
She was south of Alex
Freya — a woman with brown hair
She was in the Office and she was in the same column as a table
Grant — a man with brown hair, a beard and glasses
He was north of Dylan
The victim, Viraj, is a man. Nothing else about them is known, and no clue depends on it.
How Hard It Really Is
Deduction steps from the first clue to the verdict
Before anything else, count where each suspect could be if you only read their own clues:
Alex: 15 possible tiles
Bernd: 5 possible tiles
Cyrus: 11 possible tiles
Dylan: 37 possible tiles
Elsa: 41 possible tiles
Freya: a single tile — their own clue settles it
Grant: 41 possible tiles
That is as far as this page goes. From here on it is yours — the in-game hint giver explains each next step if you get stuck, without giving the answer away.
This case has exactly one solution, and it can be reached by forward deduction alone — no guessing.