Codebreaker Puzzles – Spy Puzzles

QUESTION 1
Complete the Sudoku.

QUESTION 2
At 4pm on Wednesday afternoon, a local bank was robbed at gunpoint. The perpetrator wore a mask over their head. The police have 3 suspects for the crime, and have taken statements from each of them. Here is a list of what each of the suspects did during their day.

Which of the suspects is guilty?

QUESTION 3
At 14:15 on the 21st August, Walter Smith was found dead in his office chair. Somebody had put an ice pick through his head. The crime scene was extremely messy, and it appeared that Mr Smith had put up quite a fight before his death. In the desk drawer, police officers found a hastily scrawled note, which read: 3, 4, 15, 21, 8, 13, 18. The note was smeared with blood.

The police have interviewed the following suspects:

QUESTION 4
An elderly woman was found dead in her home. The investigator working on the case has narrowed the list of suspects down to 3 people. They are:

1. Maurice Chaudry, the woman’s nephew.
2. Sofia Lewis, the woman’s niece.
3. Jason Chaudry, the woman’s son.

All 3 of the suspects visited the victim on the day in question. The investigator was able to find a note on the calendar on the wall, reading, ‘7B91011’. The note had been written in a hurry.

Following this, the investigator immediately arrested the killer. Who was it?

QUESTION 1
What numbers complete the sequences?

QUESTION 2
Can you work out what the message is in the nine 3×3 grids?

QUESTION 3
Which of the following is the odd one out?
• January 7th
• April 5th
• May 3rd
• June 5th

QUESTION 4
At 4pm on the 4th October, Jared Goff was shot dead outside his home. The police found a .44 Magnum hidden in a bin nearby. All of the suspects are the people who work in the same building as Jared, minus four people who aren’t under suspicion.

The suspects are:

Can you figure out which of them committed the murder?

QUESTION 1
ANSWER = A, S, O
EXPLANATION = these are the first letters of the months of the year (August, September and October).

QUESTION 2

QUESTION 3
EASY = 730
MEDIUM = 175
HARD = 668

QUESTION 4
Katie punched Jacob and made his nose bleed.
(Look out for null letters!)

QUESTION 1

QUESTION 2
ANSWER = Jacob robbed the bank.
EXPLANATION = Read the verbs. The first letter of every verb in Henry’s day spells ‘innocent’, with a null ‘s’ at the end. The first letter of every verb in Gemma’s day spells ‘I am not guilty’. The first letter of every verb in Jacob’s day spells ‘I am guilty’.

QUESTION 3
ANSWER = Bruce Murdoch committed the murder.
EXPLANATION = The numbers 3, 4, 15, 21, 8, 13 and 18 correspond with letters of the alphabet, and when rearranged, spell Murdoch.

QUESTION 4
ANSWER = Jason Chaudry.
EXPLANATION = The numbers on the note correspond with months of the year. The number B was written in a hurry, and therefore should say 8. This makes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or July, August, September, October and November. When you take the first letter of each month and put them together, you get the word Jason.

QUESTION 1
a) 6 = the number represents the number of letters in each month. The month of August has 6 letters.
b) 1 = the numbers represent the number of letters in roman numerals (1-9). The next number 10 would be represented by the letter ‘X’.
c) 5 = the missing number is 5. These numbers are vertically down on a phone keypad, or the keypad on the right hand side of a keyboard.

QUESTION 2
ANSWER = being able to decode is a key skill for anyone who wants to become a spy. Do you have what it takes?
EXPLANATION = You have to rearrange the grids. Starting from the bottom right grid, and reading vertically up each line will tell you what the message says.

QUESTION 3
ANSWER = June 5th
EXPLANATION = The number represents the number of letters in each month. There are not 5 letters in the month of June, therefore this is the odd one out.

QUESTION 4
ANSWER = Brian Jennings
EXPLANATION = Using Brian’s ID number, – 4 from each of the numbers (as hinted in the question). Now, correspond the new numbers with letters in the alphabet to get:
IK I L L E DH I M