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Halmerton House
Belgravia, the 1880s. Sir Walter Halmerton reads his will aloud to the house, and the house never recovers. Three books, one cast, and an inspector's notebook that records where everyone stood.
The books
Volume One · on sale
The Halmerton Case Files
Fifty floor-plan cases and one more, from a gentle four-by-four to a six-by-six that takes an evening. Every solution explained. The fifty-first keeps its answer online.
The book, the extras, the review
Volume Two · out now
The Halmerton Emeralds
A novel told in puzzles. Thirty-two chapters, each ending in a crime; the plan on the facing page tells you who did it, and the next chapter tells you what happened after. The emeralds vanish four times.
The book, the extras, the review
Volume Three · on sale
The Halmerton Crossing
The story continues at sea: nine nights to New York with the emeralds in the strongroom, sixteen cases in two acts, and one more on the pier. A shorter book that stands on its own; also coming in the collected edition.
The book, the extras, the review
edition Volumes one to three · coming later The Halmerton House Collection All three books in one volume, in reading order: the case files, the emeralds, the crossing. One set of rules, one cast list, and the same price advantage a single binding allows. After volume three.
Read one already? Leave a review · Have a code from the last page? Each book's page takes it.
How it works
Three steps, and no guessing at any of them
- 1
Read what they told the inspector
Each guest says where they were — or, more often, where somebody else was not. Every statement is true.
- 2
Place everyone on the plan
One guest per row, one per column, never two in the same square. The statements rule out the rest.
- 3
Look at the room with the body
When the plan is full, exactly one guest is standing in it. You have not guessed. You have proved it.
Before you buy
Take four cases with you
A printable sample: four cases from volume one, from the gentlest to one that will hold you up, each with its full worked solution. Print it, sharpen a pencil, and see whether this is your kind of evening.
After you press the button the email takes a minute or two. If nothing arrives, look in the spam folder and mark it as safe.
- Four cases and their solutions, as a printable PDF
- The answer to the last case, the one not printed in the book
- One new case, free, whenever a volume is finished
No more than that. You can leave whenever you like.