Brain Teasers
Murder at Grammar Manor
Trick
Trick brain teasers appear difficult at first, but they have a trick that makes them really easy.Trick
Grammar Manor once again provided the perfect backdrop for the annual Punctuation Ball, hosted by Lord Charles of Colon and his dainty wife Sandra of Semicolon. Herbert Hash conducted the large brass band who were playing a slow song as the assembled punctuation marks danced serif in serif.
The evening, as it did in the years before, again was filled with a sense of glorious opulence and elegance which the punctuation marks would remember fondly. However, at the stroke of midnight this atmosphere was shattered as the many lights in the ballroom went out. Everything was submerged into darkness in an instant.
There was much commotion as the guests tried to work out what had happened. After a few moments, Quentin Question Mark found the switch and restored light to the room - and found Lord Charles in the middle of the dance floor, lying in a pool of blood. The distraught party guests called in the police to investigate, and the force sent their best man: Sergeant Arthur A. Ampersand.
Sergeant Ampersand surveyed the scene and spoke to the guests before drawing up a list of his top five murder suspects:
- Alan the Asterisk
- Carlos Comma
- Edward Ellipsis
- Percy Parentheses
- Trevor Tilde
"I have followed all necessary leads to find out who murdered Lord Charles," said Sergeant Ampersand, "and I conclude that it's a mystery!" Before the guests could comment, Sergeant Ampersand checked his notes and arrested the culprit.
Who murdered Lord Charles?
The evening, as it did in the years before, again was filled with a sense of glorious opulence and elegance which the punctuation marks would remember fondly. However, at the stroke of midnight this atmosphere was shattered as the many lights in the ballroom went out. Everything was submerged into darkness in an instant.
There was much commotion as the guests tried to work out what had happened. After a few moments, Quentin Question Mark found the switch and restored light to the room - and found Lord Charles in the middle of the dance floor, lying in a pool of blood. The distraught party guests called in the police to investigate, and the force sent their best man: Sergeant Arthur A. Ampersand.
Sergeant Ampersand surveyed the scene and spoke to the guests before drawing up a list of his top five murder suspects:
- Alan the Asterisk
- Carlos Comma
- Edward Ellipsis
- Percy Parentheses
- Trevor Tilde
"I have followed all necessary leads to find out who murdered Lord Charles," said Sergeant Ampersand, "and I conclude that it's a mystery!" Before the guests could comment, Sergeant Ampersand checked his notes and arrested the culprit.
Who murdered Lord Charles?
Hint
Two tips here: firstly, check the category of this puzzle. Secondly, *listen* to what Sergeant Ampersand says.Answer
Edward Ellipsis killed Lord Charles.Sergeant Ampersand didn't say "it's a mystery", but rather, "it's a Mr. E". The only person in the list of suspects whose name begins with E is Edward Ellipsis.
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Comments
A nicely done murder he wrote.
A very intriguing mystery!!! And a fascinating mind-tricking teaser. I can enjoy reading and trying to solve teasers, such as these. WTG!
I really liked this teaser! Awesome job! The key word "leads" can also be considered when trying to find the culprit.
That was really good...Very well written. =]
Thank you very much, y'all!
Oh, and safire, I hadn't thought about the other meaning of 'leads', so well done for looking at the puzzle at a different angle.
Oh, and safire, I hadn't thought about the other meaning of 'leads', so well done for looking at the puzzle at a different angle.
HA! I love this teaser! I didn't get the answer, but it was a lot of fun looking at all of the fun names. great job!
Brilliant!The best one I have ever read!
Fun one!
I got the right guy, but for the wrong reason.
When I see an ellipsis in a sentence, it is often a mystery what comes next...
I got the right guy, but for the wrong reason.
When I see an ellipsis in a sentence, it is often a mystery what comes next...
great! keep them coming!
wow!!!!cool!amazing....even though i didnt figure out the answer, i had a great time trying to figure it out.....
A LITTLE LET-DOWN ON THE ANSWER
I THOUGH IT WOULD BE MORE FUN
GOOD JOB
I LIKED THE IDEA OF THE NAMES
THANKS!
OVERALL, GOOD
I THOUGH IT WOULD BE MORE FUN
GOOD JOB
I LIKED THE IDEA OF THE NAMES
THANKS!
OVERALL, GOOD
so mystery was a typo, huh?
haha I got it right for a totally wrong reason. I though ellipses meant ellipse, which has nothing to do with punctuation. So I thought it was the ellipse.
Dec 03, 2006
That is a very tricky teaser, I love it! I actually got it, but I thought it was because an ellipsis leaves out words so they're a "mystery", lol. But again, great teaser!
this is a riddle that is best told aloud, written down it's meh
Very fun and well-written.
Awesome! I got the right dude for the wrong reason though. When he said it was the "end", I was like. An ellipsis has to do with the end, right? So, I choose him. Pretty cool I got it right for the wrong reason.
alright!
I'm not sure what an ellipsis is...
oh i thought Edna Period killed him because periods conclude sentences
Well doggone it. I should've gotten that one. I guessed Question mark.
Great teaser anyway.
Great teaser anyway.
When I was trying to come up with the answer...I had thought that I had gotten it and started laughing! then I checked the answer and found out that I was wrong. I still like my anser better though...................ready? It's...THE ERASER!!!!!
That was great!!
I got it right but I totally guessed.
for ppl who dont know what stuff is....
ELLIPSES ......
AMPERSAND &
that is the only things you could not know....Can anyone tell me what a tilde is?
(What is ?!?)
ELLIPSES ......
AMPERSAND &
that is the only things you could not know....Can anyone tell me what a tilde is?
(What is ?!?)
Tilde --> ~
Interesting teaser!
Interesting teaser!
lol i figured it was tilide because i didnt know wat it was. Great teaser! that really kool. "it's a myster-y"
Nice going.
haha very creative b^^d
The teaser part was pretty good, but the story part was excellent! For that, it's in my very extensive favorites list.
The popularity of this mystery teaser, like most on this site, is incredibly unjustified. It's not innovative, and plain nit-picky.
Perhaps its just me, but I like to read a mystery teaser in hopes of parsing information from the whole story. That includes trying to detect what information is unimportant. But when it comes down to the wordplay of a single word... How is that clever or fun? It also makes the rest of the story senseless.
I read this one thinking that the characters as punctuation were at least semi-key to the "mystery" (perhaps the punctuation in the actual story was incorrect? Perhaps where there should've been a colon, there was a comma, which meant the colon killed the comma, hell if I know) But the guy says its a mystery? And then looks at his notepad? Why would he have to re-check his notes if he already knows its a Mr. E?
Blegh. I want more.
Perhaps its just me, but I like to read a mystery teaser in hopes of parsing information from the whole story. That includes trying to detect what information is unimportant. But when it comes down to the wordplay of a single word... How is that clever or fun? It also makes the rest of the story senseless.
I read this one thinking that the characters as punctuation were at least semi-key to the "mystery" (perhaps the punctuation in the actual story was incorrect? Perhaps where there should've been a colon, there was a comma, which meant the colon killed the comma, hell if I know) But the guy says its a mystery? And then looks at his notepad? Why would he have to re-check his notes if he already knows its a Mr. E?
Blegh. I want more.
I thought it was Sandra of Semicolon, since they're on the same key on the keyboard. I tried to work out was "mystery" could sound like, but I always started with "Miss...". Good one.
I got it right but for the wrong reason. I figured a mystery implied a cliff hanger, which goes along with an ellipsis.
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