Puzzle Pack #2 Puzzle 27 Answer

Zara's clue says there are exactly 2 innocents to the left of Isaac. That group currently has 0 known innocents, and the only unknown people left in it are Gus and Hank. Since those two spots must supply the full total of 2 innocents, Gus and Hank must both be innocent.

Hank's clue says row 3 contains exactly 3 innocents, and exactly 1 of those innocents is one of Oscar's row-3 neighbors, which are Kyle and Linda. That means the other 2 innocents in row 3 must be the people in row 3 who are not Oscar's neighbors. Those people are Martin and Noah, and there are no known innocents there yet. So Martin and Noah must be innocent.

Noah’s clue says that the two criminals below Chloe must be connected. Below Chloe are Hank, Linda, Paula, and Vera, and Hank is already innocent, so the only people this clue can still affect are Linda, Paula, and Vera. For the two criminals in that group to be connected, Paula has to be one of them, because she is the only one who can make a connected pair with either Linda or Vera. So Paula must be criminal.

Below Chloe are Hank, Linda, Paula, and Vera, and Noah’s clue says the criminals in that group are exactly two people and those two must be connected. Paula is already one criminal there, so that clue tightly restricts who below Chloe can be criminal. Paula’s clue also says column B is the only column with exactly 2 innocents, which fixes how column B can be filled overall. Putting those limits together determines Chloe’s status. So Chloe must be criminal.

Chloe’s clue says the people strictly between Jason and Zara contain exactly 2 innocents. In that group, there is already 1 known innocent. The only unknown person left in that same group is Tina, so she has to be the second innocent. So Tina must be innocent.

Tina’s clue says there are exactly 2 innocents in the overlap between the people to the right of Oscar and Zara’s neighbors. That shared group is just Sam and Tina, and Tina is already known to be innocent. So the group still needs 1 more innocent, and the only unknown person left in it is Sam. That makes Sam innocent.

Hank says there are 3 innocents in row 3, and only 1 of those 3 is Oscar's neighbor. In row 3, Martin and Noah are already known innocents, and the only people in row 3 who are Oscar's neighbors are Kyle and Linda. So Martin and Noah are the two row 3 innocents who are not Oscar's neighbors, which means the one remaining innocent in row 3 must be either Kyle or Linda, and Oscar cannot be that innocent person. That makes Oscar criminal.

Oscar’s clue says everyone has at least one innocent neighbor, so Uma’s neighbor group cannot be all criminal. For Uma, that neighbor group can contain at most 2 criminals, and those 2 criminal spots are already taken by the 2 known criminals there. The only unresolved person left among Uma’s neighbors is Vera, so Vera cannot be criminal. So Vera must be innocent.

Noah’s clue says the two criminals below Chloe are connected. Below Chloe, the people are Hank, Linda, Paula, and Vera, and among them Paula is already a criminal while Hank and Vera are innocent. That leaves Linda as the only still-unknown person in that group, so she has to be the second criminal for the two criminals there to be the connected pair. So Linda must be criminal.

Hank's clue says row 3 contains exactly 3 innocents, and exactly 1 of those innocents is a neighbor of Oscar. Among the people in row 3 who are neighbors of Oscar, Linda is already a criminal, so that group still needs 1 innocent. The only unknown person left in that group is Kyle. So Kyle must be innocent.

Vera’s clue says Isaac’s neighbors contain exactly 5 innocents, and exactly 2 of those innocents are in column D. That means exactly 3 of Isaac’s innocent neighbors must be not in column D. Among Isaac’s neighbors who are not in column D, Chloe, Debra, Hank, Linda, and Martin, Hank and Martin are already known innocents, so one more innocent is still needed there. Debra is the only unknown person left in that non-column-D group, so Debra must be innocent.

Column B already has exactly 2 innocents, so by Paula's clue no other column can finish with exactly 2 innocents. Column A already has 2 known innocents, Kyle and Gus, so at least one of its unknown people, Bruce or Uma, must also be innocent. Debra's clue says the corners contain an odd number of innocents, and among the corners Zara is already innocent. So A5 Uma must be innocent.

Sam’s clue says there is only one row with exactly 3 innocents. Row 3 already has exactly 3 innocents: Kyle, Martin, and Noah, since Linda is the criminal in that row. So no other row can also have exactly 3 innocents. Row 5 already has Uma, Vera, and Zara as innocents. If Xena were not innocent, then row 5 would also have exactly 3 innocents, which Sam’s clue does not allow. So Xena must be innocent.

Oscar’s neighbors already have 2 criminal neighbors, so Debra’s neighbors must also have 2 criminals. Debra’s neighbors currently have only 1 known criminal, which means among the open people there, D1 Eve, D2 Jason, and C2 Isaac, exactly one must be criminal. Vera’s clue says Isaac’s neighbors contain exactly 5 innocents, and exactly 2 of those innocents are in column D. Among Isaac’s neighbors, the only open people are D1 Eve and D2 Jason, and they are both in column D. If Isaac were criminal, then the open people D1 Eve and D2 Jason would have to satisfy both clues together, but they cannot do that. So C2 Isaac cannot be criminal. That makes Isaac innocent.

Sam’s clue says exactly one row has 3 innocents. Row 2 already has Gus, Hank, and Isaac as innocents, so row 2 is one such row. Row 1 cannot also have exactly 3 innocents, because Chloe is a criminal and Debra is innocent there, so if Jason were not innocent then the clue would not leave row 2 as the single row fitting that count. So Jason must be innocent.

Vera’s clue says that among Isaac’s neighbors, exactly 2 innocents are in column D. In that group, the column D neighbors are Eve, Jason, and Noah, and Jason and Noah are already known innocents. That already fills the full total of 2 innocents in column D among Isaac’s neighbors, so Eve cannot be innocent. So Eve must be criminal.

Debra’s clue says the corner cells contain an odd number of innocents. The corners already include 2 known innocents, and the only corner person still unknown is Bruce. Since 2 is even, Bruce has to be innocent to make the total number of corner innocents odd. So Bruce must be innocent.