Hints & answer for 2026-08-21
These are the official hints for the Nine Suspects daily puzzle of 2026-08-21. They go from gentle nudge to full spoiler — open only as many as you need.
Hint 1 — Getting started (no spoilers)
This is a 5×5 board, so exactly one person stands in every row and every column. Start with the most restrictive clues — "on a [furniture]" clues pin a suspect to just a handful of squares, and "in front of a window" only fits squares that touch a window. Mark everything impossible with an X.
Hint 2 — Where to focus
Two clues do the heaviest lifting today:
- Elena: “She was on a chair.”
- Cleo: “She was beside a bed.”
Resolve these first, then use the sudoku rule to strike out their rows and columns for everyone else.
Hint 3 — The victim's room (mild spoiler)
Velma was found in the Parlor. Work out which suspects could possibly have been in that room — only one of them ends up there alone.
The answer — who is the murderer? (full spoiler)
Iris is the murderer. Iris was alone in the Parlor with Velma. Case closed.
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