The murder behind the Tangle Tower family tree
The Tangle Tower family tree begins with a death. Freya Fellow has been murdered, and the lead suspect, a shadowy figure found over her body with a knife, turns out to be a painting.2 Detective Grimoire and his partner Sally are called to the mansion to solve it.1 The official pages say nothing more about the family. The voice cast in the press kit names the people you question, Fitz, Felix and Fifi Fellow, Penny Pointer, Professor Pointer and Poppy Pointer, with a Detective Hawkshaw.2
The games press fills in the families. PC Gamer describes two feuding families who live in the giant manor, and Screen Rant a twisting mansion that houses two old families.67 Rock Paper Shotgun says the Pointers occupy the second of the two towers, and COGconnected describes two towers joined by a mansion, with the murder scene at the top of the west tower.48
The victim stands between the two families. Rock Paper Shotgun calls Freya Fellow “a gifted artist, scientist and all-round wunderkind” who died while painting her dear friend and distant relative Flora Fellow. It adds that Freya was adopted into the halls of Tangle Tower as a young girl and grew up beside the Fellows and her similarly distant Pointer relatives.4 GamingTrend also calls Flora her distant relative and counts nine current residents of the tower as the suspects.5
You solve the case by asking. GamingTrend notes that each resident answers about every object and person, and that you will often need to ask everyone about everything.5 Deductions are sentences you build by dragging words into gaps, and there is no fail state.64
Hints for reading the Tangle Tower family tree
Look up in the Grand Hall. The community wiki describes a family tree in the form of a flag at the top centre of the hall, between a green flag marked F for the Fellow tower and a purple one marked P for the Pointer tower.11 StrategyWiki says the tree joins three families, not two, and that one name on it draws a special reaction from Grimoire and Sally.24
Read the surnames with care. Flora was born under another family name, and the tree writes her under it, so the name a resident goes by and the name on the tree can differ. Fifi and Penny appear on it under their full first names.1410
Ask the older residents about the relatives who are gone. Felix speaks of whether Freya should carry the Fellow name, and Professor Pointer of the parents of Fitz.1316
The tree on the wall carries no dates and no marks of marriage or death, so it tells you who descends from whom and nothing more.10 Everything below this section gives the answers on the tree, and the name of the killer waits under a later heading.
Spoilers, the Fellows of the west tower
This section and the ones after it give the answers on the Tangle Tower family tree. Every parent line below comes from the community wiki, which hosts a picture of the tree in the Grand Hall, and no official page or review opened for this page states any of them.10
At the top of the Fellow side stand Lord Fellow and Lady Fellow, the parents of Flint and Felix Fellow.10 Felix is the husband of Flora, as Haywire Magazine and the wiki both say, and their only child is Fifi Fellow, written as Fiona on the tree.91415
Flint and Emily Everstone are the parents of Fitz Fellow. Here the wiki disagrees with itself. Its page on Emily calls her the wife of Flint, while its page on Fitz says, on the word of Professor Pointer, that the two never married, so the chart draws their line with no status.1716 Haywire Magazine confirms that Fifi and Fitz are cousins.9
Freya comes down a side line. The tree joins Lord Fellow to a second woman, Selena Stonetop, and their daughter Felicia Fellow is the mother of Freya by Damian Dusk.1013 That makes Felicia a half-sister of Felix and Flint. The wiki calls Selena the lover of Lord Fellow, and calls Damian the husband of Felicia on one page and her lover on another.1819 Its page on Freya also calls her a great-niece of Felix, which the tree does not support, as the tree makes her his half-niece.13
Freya and Flora, the distant relatives
The press calls Flora a distant relative of Freya.45 On the Tangle Tower family tree the tie is closer, and it runs through a marriage. Flora is the wife of Felix, and Felix is the half-brother of Freya’s mother, so Flora is Freya’s aunt by marriage. That reading is ours, taken from the lines the wiki gives, and no source opened for this page puts it in those words.10
Rock Paper Shotgun calls Flora Freya’s dear friend as well, and Freya died while painting her.4 The wiki says the portrait was a birthday and parting gift, and that Flora stopped speaking after the loss of a beloved pet bird.2314 The chart draws the portrait as a dotted brown arrow from Freya to Flora.
The wiki gives both of Freya’s parents as dead since she was three, which fits the account in the press of a girl adopted into the tower, but its page on Freya adds a note that the story may be false.19134 The chart leaves the fate of Felicia and Damian open.
The Remingtons, the third family on the tree
Flora was born a Remington, the third family on the Tangle Tower family tree. Lord Remington and Lady Remington are the parents of Flora, Richard Remington and Primrose Remington.1014 Richard ties this game to the earlier Detective Grimoire, Secret of the Swamp, in the wiki’s account.14
The wiki says the Remingtons built the mansion, once called Mystid Mansion, and that the two towers were added after Flora and Primrose married into the Fellows and the Pointers.12 The order of the three children is unsettled, since the page on Flora makes her the youngest and the page on Richard makes Flora the oldest.1420
The Pointers of the east tower
Lord Pointer and Lady Pointer are the parents of Professor Pointer, named Percival on the tree, and of Pandora Pointer.10 The professor married Primrose, and their daughter is Poppy Pointer. The wiki says Primrose later left the tower, and that Poppy learned the piano from her mother.2122
Pandora and Buck Brackley are the parents of Penny Pointer, Penelope on the tree. They left her in the care of her uncle, the professor, when she was young.23 Penny and Poppy are first cousins, and the wiki gives Penny as the former fiancée of Fitz.2316 Haywire Magazine calls Freya and Penny distant cousins who both came to the tower on their own terms, but the tree shows no blood tie between them.910
Five of the second generation have left the tower. StrategyWiki names Penny’s parents, Primrose, Richard and Flint among those who left the mansion when Penny was young.25
Spoilers, who killed Freya in Tangle Tower
This section names the killer. Stop here if you are still on the case.
The killer is Penny Pointer. Haywire Magazine names her as the murderer, and the chapter of StrategyWiki on the murderer’s story follows her.925 The wiki adds that Detective Hawkshaw, the detective already at the tower, was Penny in disguise.23
In the wiki’s account, a noise amplified by the gramophone knocked out Flora and Freya, and Penny shot Freya with a crossbow from the attic. She did it to silence Freya, who had found out what became of the relatives who left the tower, and escaped by boat.2312 Haywire notes that she took the time to knock Flora out.9 The chart names her as the killer only at its last story point.
Each link on the Tangle Tower family tree and its source
The table sorts every line on the chart by where it is stated. Official pages come first, then the games press, then the community wiki and StrategyWiki.
| Link | How it is told | Drawn as |
|---|---|---|
| Freya Fellow is the victim | Official press kit and store page, with every review | Death on the chart |
| The residents belong to two families, the Fellows and the Pointers | PC Gamer, Screen Rant, Rock Paper Shotgun and Haywire Magazine | Two houses |
| Freya was painting Flora, her distant relative, when she died | Rock Paper Shotgun and GamingTrend | Dotted arrow |
| Freya was adopted into the tower as a girl | Rock Paper Shotgun alone | Text only |
| Felix is the husband of Flora and Fifi is their daughter | Haywire Magazine, with the community wiki | Marriage and parent lines |
| Fifi and Fitz are cousins | Haywire Magazine, with the community wiki | Through the parent lines |
| Penny Pointer killed Freya | Haywire Magazine, with the community wiki and StrategyWiki | Role at the last point |
| The tree joins a third family, the Remingtons | StrategyWiki and the community wiki | Third house |
| Every other parent line and marriage on the chart | Community wiki only | Parent and marriage lines |
| Flint and Emily, and Felicia and Damian, as couples | Community wiki only, in conflict | Couple lines with no status |
The three story points of the chart
Each card gives what the chart shows at one point of the game.
Clue I
The case file
Spoiler note. The opening of the game.
- Freya Fellow lies dead beside her portrait of Flora.
- The residents of both towers are on the chart, with Felix, Flora and Fifi as one family.
Clue II
The Grand Hall tree
Spoiler note. The tree in the Grand Hall, as the community wiki reads it.
- Three families join the chart, with the parents of every resident.
- Freya comes down the side line of Lord Fellow and Selena Stonetop.
Clue III
The accusation
Spoiler note. The end of the game.
- Penny Pointer is named as the killer of Freya.
How to read this Tangle Tower family tree
A square is a man and a circle a woman. A horizontal line is a couple, with the children below it. The red triangle on the line of Lord Fellow and Selena Stonetop marks a secret affair, and the two couples the wiki cannot agree on are drawn with an unknown status. Freya alone carries the cross of a death.
Each family has its letter at the corner of its symbols, F for the Fellows, R for the Remingtons and P for the Pointers. The chart writes first names only, so each lord and lady carries the family name in the line below.
To follow the case as you play, open this Tangle Tower family tree in the editor and add what each resident tells you. The symbols are set out in the genogram symbols.
Questions about the Tangle Tower family tree
How is Freya related to Flora in Tangle Tower
The press calls Flora her distant relative. On the community wiki’s reading of the tree, Flora is the wife of Felix, the half-brother of Freya’s mother.410
People and sources
A page of its own lists all 23 characters on the chart, each with a short note and the sources for it, and the 25 numbered sources this article cites. It also gives this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.