Dossier: Detective Puzzles

A detective has vanished and left you their dossier: a stack of evidence folders and a deck of suspect profiles. Solve each folder to find one fact about the culprit, strike every suspect that fact rules out, and when one profile is left, name the culprit. FOLDERS, FACTS, ONE CULPRIT Each folder is one kind of evidence: a vehicle, a hometown, a pet, a hat, a favourite dish. It lists a few candidates and a few notes, and every note is true of the culprit's pick. Cross out each candidate a note rules out, and the one left is a fact: "Gets about in a blue car." Three folders are open at the start, and each one you solve opens the next. STRIKE THE DECK Every suspect has a profile with one line for every folder, sealed until that folder is solved, so nothing gives the answer away early. Tap a fact to line it up across the whole deck, strike every suspect who does not fit, and watch the deck thin. When one face is left, name the culprit and close the case. EVERY CASE IS PROVEN No case reaches you until it has been checked: every folder has exactly one answer, exactly one suspect matches every fact, and every fact is needed to get there. No guessing, ever. THE DOSSIER CHECKS YOUR WORK Every cross and every strike is checked the moment you make it. A cross no note justifies, or a strike no fact you have found justifies, is refused and counts as a mistake, so a slip never spoils the rest of the case. No countdown, no lives, no losing: a case stays open until you close it. Finish one without a single mistake for a clean file. FOUR RANKS, EARNED Rookie is five folders and sixteen suspects, with notes that say it plainly. Detective, Inspector and Chief bring more folders, bigger decks and sharper notes: notes that offer two or three choices, compare numbers, measure one candidate against another by name, and tie two clues together. Chief is eleven folders and forty-four suspects. Solve ten cases at one rank and the next one opens. CASES WITHOUT END Every case is dealt fresh, with its own folders, notes and deck, so there is always another dossier on the desk. And case 12 on your phone is case 12 on every phone, same folders, same culprit, so you can compare notes with a friend. The plots run from a prize marrow that vanished the night before the village show to every garden gnome on the street lined up in the square, wearing tiny hats. A CAST WORTH SUSPECTING Forty-eight illustrated characters bring the cases in and fill the deck, from Chef Bruno and Nonna Pia to Bobo the Clown and Whiskers the Cat. Pranks, mix-ups and missing cakes: nobody ever gets hurt. WHEN YOU ARE STUCK A hint crosses out one wrong candidate and lights the note that rules it out, or strikes one suspect and names the fact that does it. Hints come from short ads you choose to watch, or from hint packs in the store; no case ever needs one. SPECIAL CASE PACKS Ten themed dossiers, each with its own folders, characters and plots: a Christmas town, a haunted lane, a royal court, an alpine village, a museum after dark, a circus, the frontier, and three extreme packs of Mastermind cases, thirteen folders deep. Portrait, one hand, sixteen languages, and it plays offline. Dossier is free, funded by a full screen ad between some cases. Optional extras exist and stay optional: ten case packs and hint packs, plus free hints for watching ads. No subscription, and no account to create.