Puzzle Pack #1 Puzzle 38 Answer

Kyle’s clue says Rob is one of two or more innocents in column C. Kyle himself is already known to be innocent, and Rob is also in column C. So for Rob to be one of the innocents making that clue true, Rob has to be innocent. That makes Rob innocent.

Rob’s clue says that Xia is one of his five innocent neighbors. That directly identifies Xia as innocent. So Xia must be innocent.

Xia’s clue says both criminals in row 1 are Flora’s neighbors. In row 1, the people who are Flora’s neighbors are Amy, Brian, and Chris, and the only person in row 1 who is not Flora’s neighbor is Donna. So Donna cannot be one of the two criminals in row 1. That makes Donna innocent.

Xia says both criminals in row 1 are Flora's neighbors. In row 1, the people who are Flora's neighbors are Amy, Brian, and Chris, while Donna is the only row 1 person who is not Flora's neighbor and she is already innocent. That means the two criminals in row 1 have to come from Amy, Brian, and Chris, and with Donna already taking the only innocent spot identified in that row by these facts, Amy is one of those row 1 criminals. So Amy must be criminal.

Amy’s clue says that among Gary’s neighbors, none of the innocents is between Brian and Will. The Gary-neighbors who are between Brian and Will are Flora and Janet, and that group already has 0 known innocents. So the remaining unknown people there cannot be innocent. That makes Flora and Janet criminals.

Gary’s clue says that all 5 innocents neighboring Gary are not in between Brian and Will. Among Gary’s neighbors, Flora and Janet are the only people who are between Brian and Will, and both of them are already criminals. That leaves the other six neighbors as the only places those 5 neighboring innocents can be, and Donna and Kyle already account for 2 of them. So the remaining 3 innocent spots among those six must come from Brian, Chris, Hilda, and Lisa, which makes Hilda and Lisa innocent.

Row 3 already has two known innocents, Kyle and Lisa, while row 1 has only one known innocent, Donna. Janet’s clue says rows 1 and 3 contain the same number of innocents, and the only unknown person in row 3 is Isaac. So row 3 cannot gain another innocent, or it would have more innocents than row 1. That makes Isaac criminal.

Xia says both criminals in row 1 are Flora's neighbors. In row 1, Amy is already a criminal and Donna is already innocent, so the only possible row 1 criminals are Amy plus one of Brian or Chris. That means row 1 contains exactly two criminals. Isaac says pilots have more criminals than any other profession. The pilots are Isaac, Janet, and Olivia, and Isaac and Janet are already criminals, so the pilot profession already has two criminals. Since row 1 also has exactly two criminals, pilots would not have more than row 1 unless Olivia is criminal too. So Olivia must be criminal.

Rob’s clue makes his neighbor group contain exactly 5 innocents. In Rob’s neighbors, Janet, Kyle, Lisa, and Xia are already accounted for outside the still-unknown set, so among the four still-unknown neighbors B4 Paula, D4 Sam, B5 Will, and D5 Zoe, exactly 2 must be criminals. From the clues already applied here, the only people in that four-person group who can still be criminals are D4 Sam, B5 Will, and D5 Zoe. That means Paula cannot be one of the 2 criminals there, so Paula must be innocent.

Rob says Xia is one of his exactly five innocent neighbors. Among Rob's neighbors, four are already known to be innocent, so the three unknown neighbors, Sam, Will, and Zoe, contain exactly one more innocent person. From the current facts in this step, the only people in that group who can still be that innocent person are Sam and Will, so Zoe cannot be innocent. So Zoe must be criminal.

In row 1, Amy is already a known criminal and Donna is already a known innocent, so the two unknown people there are Brian and Chris. Xia says both criminals in row 1 are Flora's neighbors, and among the people in row 1, the ones who are Flora's neighbors are Amy, Brian, and Chris, while Donna is not. Since Amy is one of the two criminals in row 1, the other criminal in row 1 has to be either Brian or Chris. Zoe also says all criminals in row 1 are connected, and the only people strictly between Amy at A1 and Donna at D1 are Brian and Chris. That makes Brian criminal and Chris innocent.

Chris's neighbors and Xia's neighbors must have the same number of innocents. Right now Chris's neighbors have 2 known innocents, and Xia's neighbors also have 2 known innocents. Rob's clue also fixes his neighborhood at exactly 5 innocents, with Xia included, so the only other uncertain people involved here are Sam and Will. If Gary were criminal, then Chris's side would stay at 2 innocents, while Sam and Will would have to satisfy these clue facts at the same time, and that cannot be done. So Gary must be innocent.

Paula says Xia and Flora have the same number of innocent neighbors. Right now Xia has 2 known innocent neighbors, while Flora already has 3. Rob also says Xia is one of his 5 innocent neighbors, and among Rob's neighbors the only unknown people are Sam and Will. Those same unknowns are also the only unknown neighbors that can raise Xia's innocent-neighbor count. If Eric were innocent, Flora's neighbor total would go up beyond the count Xia can match with Sam and Will while still fitting Rob's clue about his 5 innocent neighbors. So Eric cannot be innocent. That makes Eric criminal.

Gary’s clue says there are exactly 9 criminals on the whole board. Right now there are already 8 known criminals, and the only unknown people left are Sam, Vince, and Will, so only one of those three can be a criminal. Rob’s clue says Xia is one of exactly 5 innocent neighbors of Rob. Among Rob’s neighbors, 4 are already known innocents, and the only unknown neighbors left there are Sam and Will, so exactly one of Sam or Will must be innocent. Since only one of Sam, Vince, and Will can be a criminal, that uses up the one criminal between Sam and Will and leaves Vince as the remaining innocent. So Vince must be innocent.

Rob says Xia is one of his exactly 5 innocent neighbors, and among Rob's neighbors we already know 4 innocents: Kyle, Lisa, Paula, and Xia. The only unknown neighbors there are Sam and Will, so to reach exactly 5 innocents, exactly one of Sam and Will must be innocent. Vince says he has more criminal neighbors than Lisa. Vince's neighbors currently have 1 known criminal, while Lisa's neighbors have 0 known criminals, and the only unknowns these clues still affect are Will in Vince's neighbors and Sam in Lisa's neighbors. For Vince to have more criminals than Lisa, Will has to be the criminal and Sam has to be the innocent. So Sam must be innocent and Will must be criminal.