Clues & Culprits › Archive › October 2026 › Oct 21, 2026 Hard
Oct 21, 2026 — Hard case
Over eighteen months, two hundred small objects — rings, coins, Roman hairpins — vanished from the Ashcombe Museum's storerooms without a single alarm. Not one of them left through the loading bay. All of them, it turns out, left wearing a coat.
This Hard case seats 20 suspects on a 4×5 grid. 15 of them carry a clue; the other 5 only have something to say about themselves. 7 of the steps can only be proven by reading two or more clues together. Every verdict you enter is checked against all the scenarios that still fit the statements on file, so a move only sticks when it is proven.
The opening statement
Lena the chemist starts the case already proven innocent:
The person between Kofi and Sadie is a criminal.— Lena, chemist (D3)
The lineup
Suspects stand in alphabetical order, left to right and top to bottom. Each belongs to one of Clues & Culprits’ twelve character classes — the badge on their nameplate. This case uses 6 of them, each cast as a role in the setting: critics, cloakroom attendants, restorers, first-aiders, chemists, art handlers. Clues about a role (“exactly one of the chemists”) count everyone in it.
| Seat | Suspect | Role in this case | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Amir | critic | Rogue |
| B1 | Bea | cloakroom attendant | Servant |
| C1 | Cora | restorer | Artist |
| D1 | Dina | first-aider | Healer |
| A2 | Esme | chemist | Scholar |
| B2 | Felix | critic | Rogue |
| C2 | Gemma | cloakroom attendant | Servant |
| D2 | Hattie | first-aider | Healer |
| A3 | Ivan | art handler | Laborer |
| B3 | Jasper | art handler | Laborer |
| C3 | Kofi | cloakroom attendant | Servant |
| D3 | Lena | chemist | Scholar |
| A4 | Mila | restorer | Artist |
| B4 | Nico | restorer | Artist |
| C4 | Otto | art handler | Laborer |
| D4 | Pia | critic | Rogue |
| A5 | Quinn | chemist | Scholar |
| B5 | Rufus | art handler | Laborer |
| C5 | Sadie | cloakroom attendant | Servant |
| D5 | Theo | chemist | Scholar |
Stuck?
The in-game hint first points at the statement to re-read, then at the suspect you can prove, then shows the proof. For a gentler nudge, open the spoiler-free hints for Oct 21, 2026, or press Share to send a friend your exact board. New to the format? The deduction-puzzle guide covers the habits that unlock every step.
More cases
- Same day: Easy case · Medium case
- Previous Hard: Oct 20, 2026 — The Ambassador's Missing Speech
- Next Hard: Oct 22, 2026 — Green Ink on Lilac Paper
- Clue types in this case: Row and column clues · Neighbor clues · Common-neighbor clues · Corner and edge clues
- All October 2026 cases · More cases in museums · Meet the cast