Clues & Culprits › Archive › October 2026 › Oct 3, 2026 Medium
Oct 3, 2026 — Medium case
Château Verlaine announced it had found two hundred forgotten bottles of its legendary 1947 in a bricked-up cellar, and they sold at auction for €3 million. This morning the buyer's laboratory found grapes in them that weren't planted on the estate until 1983.
This Medium case seats 20 suspects on a 4×5 grid. 17 of them carry a clue; the other 3 only have something to say about themselves. 4 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
Petra the delivery driver starts the case already proven innocent:
Gus and I have no criminal neighbors in common.— Petra, delivery driver (D4)
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: delivery drivers, notaries, label painters, village doctors, grape pickers, estate chefs. Clues about a role (“exactly one of the delivery drivers”) count everyone in it.
| Seat | Suspect | Role in this case | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Arlo | delivery driver | Courier |
| B1 | Basil | notary | Official |
| C1 | Cora | label painter | Artist |
| D1 | Dina | village doctor | Healer |
| A2 | Emil | notary | Official |
| B2 | Freya | grape picker | Laborer |
| C2 | Gus | estate chef | Cook |
| D2 | Hattie | village doctor | Healer |
| A3 | Iris | label painter | Artist |
| B3 | Jasper | grape picker | Laborer |
| C3 | Kira | label painter | Artist |
| D3 | Leo | delivery driver | Courier |
| A4 | Mabel | estate chef | Cook |
| B4 | Nico | label painter | Artist |
| C4 | Omar | notary | Official |
| D4 | Petra | delivery driver | Courier |
| A5 | Queenie | estate chef | Cook |
| B5 | Rufus | grape picker | Laborer |
| C5 | Suki | notary | Official |
| D5 | Tess | delivery driver | Courier |
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 3, 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 · Hard case
- Previous Medium: Oct 2, 2026 — The Wheel That Loved Seventeen
- Next Medium: Oct 4, 2026 — Lord Ashby's Treasure Hunt
- Clue types in this case: Neighbor clues · Common-neighbor clues · More-than clues · Connected clues
- All October 2026 cases · More cases in vineyards · Meet the cast