Clues & Culprits › Archive › October 2026 › Oct 4, 2026 Hard
Oct 4, 2026 — Hard case
The Danube Star sells murder-mystery weekends: actors, a pretend corpse, a prize for the best amateur sleuth. On Saturday's run the man playing the corpse woke up in a siding in Linz — and the train safe, full of passengers' passports and jewellery, was empty.
This Hard 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. 6 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
Sadie the porter starts the case already proven a criminal:
Ada and Idris have no criminal neighbors in common.— Sadie, porter (C5)
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: professors, detectives, aristocrats, doctors, porters, commercial travellers. Clues about a role (“exactly one of the porters”) count everyone in it.
| Seat | Suspect | Role in this case | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Ada | professor | Scholar |
| B1 | Bruno | detective | Enforcer |
| C1 | Celia | aristocrat | Noble |
| D1 | Dina | doctor | Healer |
| A2 | Esme | professor | Scholar |
| B2 | Frank | detective | Enforcer |
| C2 | Gemma | porter | Servant |
| D2 | Hattie | doctor | Healer |
| A3 | Idris | commercial traveller | Merchant |
| B3 | Joan | professor | Scholar |
| C3 | Kofi | porter | Servant |
| D3 | Lionel | aristocrat | Noble |
| A4 | Marco | aristocrat | Noble |
| B4 | Nora | detective | Enforcer |
| C4 | Olive | aristocrat | Noble |
| D4 | Percy | commercial traveller | Merchant |
| A5 | Quentin | porter | Servant |
| B5 | Ruby | detective | Enforcer |
| C5 | Sadie | porter | Servant |
| D5 | Tariq | commercial traveller | Merchant |
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 4, 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 · Evil case
- Previous Hard: Oct 3, 2026 — Six Blue Eggs
- Next Hard: Oct 5, 2026 — The Million on the Velvet Table
- Clue types in this case: Row and column clues · Above, below, left and right · More-than clues · Corner and edge clues
- All October 2026 cases · More cases in night trains · Meet the cast