Puzzled to Death (Puzzle Lady Series #3) » (Reprint)

Parnell Hall is the author of the critically acclaimed Stanley Hastings mystery novels and the Steve Winslow courtroom dramas, as well as two previous Puzzle Lady mysteries, the first of which, A Clue for the Puzzle Lady, was voted Best New Discovery by Mystery Guild readers. He has been nominated for the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Lefty Awards. He lives in New York City, where he is currently working on his fourth Puzzle Lady mystery, A Puzzle in a Pear Tree.

Miss Cora Felton, the eccentric amateur detective better known as the Puzzle Lady, likes nothing better than to solve a good mystery–and this time she’s got a killer on her hands. What isn’t puzzling is why critics agree that “Cora is emerging as a lovable and unique sleuth” (Chicago Sun-Times) in “a fun series for mystery fans and cruciverbalists” (USA Today).

Bakerhaven, Connecticut, seems like the ideal place to host a charity crossword-puzzle tournament–after all, the town is home to Cora Felton, the beloved puzzle columnist known as the Puzzle Lady. A slew of celebrity contestants are on the way. And the locals have been invited to challenge the veteran puzzlers head-on. But soon the town’s attention is fixated on something far more controversial than crosswords...when the body of the town tart is discovered lying dead on her kitchen floor. Before anyone can stop her, Cora is hot on the trail of the truth, interviewing nosy neighbors, digging up dirt, and drawing out a lonely recluse who just may hold the key to cracking the crime. But will she solve the case before the contest comes to a deadly end? Cora once again proves that sleuthing spells S-U-S-P-E-N-S-E–up, across, and down!

Publishers Weekly

In this third book of a well-received series (Last Puzzle and Testament, etc.), we have puzzles within puzzles in every sense of the word. Cora Felton, hailed as the "Puzzle Lady" for her prowess in constructing newspaper crossword puzzles, in truth knows nothing about crosswords. She receives the adulation of the puzzle world while her niece, Sherry Carter, does all the work. Cora's real love is solving murder mysteries in the Murder She Wrote vein. When the townspeople of Bakerhaven, Conn., decide to hold a crossword puzzle contest, after much debate over the propriety and usefulness of such a contest, Cora, who's cohost of the event, gets her chance to do some sleuthing. The town tart turns up dead on her kitchen floor, and soon two more murders follow. What ties all the murders together is that a crossword puzzle (or in one case, a doodle) is found with each body. The author provides us with two crosswords from the contest to solve, though these have only a tenuous connection to the murders. Poor Chief Harper of the Bakerhaven Police Department, Cora's foil, is somewhat befuddled ("Tell me again why she couldn't have done it," he asks her). Numerous suspects, both out-of-town contestants and locals, keep the action moving. The dust jacket, depicting a subtly sinister autumnal landscape with a crossword-grid sky, elegantly conveys the novel's contents. (Nov. 6) FYI: Hall is also the author of Cozy (Forecasts, May 21). Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.