The Wire Gap Business: a free Western logic-grid puzzle

The sheriff has four riders, one afternoon at Wire Gap, and a stack of statements that cannot all be true. The territory expects an answer by sundown.

This free Rookie logic-grid puzzle has 4 suspects, 4 locations, and 4 pieces of evidence. New to logic grids? Start with the pencil-solving guide.

How to mark the grid

●: These two belong together.
✕: These two are ruled out.
blank: Still undecided.

How to play

Click, tap or press Enter on a cell to cycle it: blank, then ● for a confirmed pairing, then ✕ for one you have ruled out. Nothing fills itself in — the deductions are yours to make. Use the arrow keys to move around the grid.

Fill obvious Xs does the bookkeeping only: for each ● you have marked, it crosses off the rest of that pairing's own row and column. It never adds a ●, never reads a clue, and never changes a mark you made.

On a narrow screen the grid scrolls sideways.

Every case has exactly one solution, and it is always reachable by deduction alone. Nothing here guesses for you, and Check will not tell you which mark is wrong.

Clues and evidence

Everyone agreed: Feliciano Ortega had the scorched bill of sale.
The bent bit shank came off Trader Nell Dabney, and there's no arguing it.
It wasn't Miss Verena Poole who turned up with the lump of harness wax.
You can rule out Cañón del Oso for Trader Nell Dabney.
No one puts Miss Verena Poole at Granite Knob.
Whatever else is true, Miss Verena Poole wasn't at Wire Gap.
Trader Nell Dabney never made it as far as Granite Knob.
Miss Verena Poole was never at Cañón del Oso.
Ewell Crane was nowhere near Cañón del Oso.

The grid

On a narrow screen the grid scrolls sideways.

Your marks, completions and streak are saved in this browser only. There is no account, and clearing your browser data clears that local progress. If you accept analytics, the site sends anonymous puzzle-usage events; it never sends your grid marks, clues or solution.

If you want a hundred more

Five volumes, printed and portable

Each Frontier Logic volume collects 100 western mystery logic-grid puzzles, every one with exactly one solution and a complete answer key. Every volume stands alone, in standard and large print.