“Feathers, Fur and Foul Play” is a Murdoku case from the Farm 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 Medium, with 5 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
Ta
Ch
L
R2
C
So
Ci
Ta
Ch
Sh
R3
M
M
R4
C
H
W
R5
T
M
H
R6
S
H
R7
S
M
P
R8
T
S
T
Floor plan of “Feathers, Fur and Foul Play”. Letters mark the objects; the key is below. A thick blue edge marks a window. A dashed edge marks a door.
Rooms
Pasture (outdoors) — 20 tiles: Chicken, Mud puddle, Pig, Tree
Farmhouse — 12 tiles: Table, Chair, Lamp, Shelf
Cowshed — 8 tiles: Cow, Shower, Mud puddle
Barn — 12 tiles: Horse, Wooden crate, Mud puddle
Greenhouse — 12 tiles: Tree, Shrub
Objects on the board
M Mud puddle (can be stood on)
C Cow (blocks the tile)
H Horse (can be stood on)
S Shrub (blocks the tile)
T Tree (blocks the tile)
Ch Chair (can be stood on)
Ta Table (blocks the tile)
Ci Chicken (blocks the tile)
W Wooden crate (blocks the tile)
L Lamp (blocks the tile)
P Pig (blocks the tile)
Sh Shelf (blocks the tile)
So Shower (can be stood on)
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.
Anna — a woman with brown hair and glasses
She was north of all men
Bernd — a man with a bald head and a beard
He was east of a pig, in the same room
Cyrus — a man with a bald head
In his room there was another suspect beside a horse
Dylan — a man with red hair and a beard
In his room there was exactly one other man
Elsa — a woman with grey hair
She was beside a pig. Another suspect was beside the same pig.
Freya — a woman with brown hair and glasses
She was north of Anna
Grant — a man with red hair and a beard
He was in the same row as a tree, in a different room and In his room there was another male suspect beside a pig
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:
Anna: 48 possible tiles
Bernd: 3 possible tiles
Cyrus: 11 possible tiles
Dylan: 48 possible tiles
Elsa: 3 possible tiles
Freya: 48 possible tiles
Grant: 5 possible tiles
The first deductions after that, in the order the solver finds them:
Anna is north of someone with a matching trait – impossible cells removed.
Freya is north of Anna – impossible cells removed.
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.