Author: parnellhall
When nerdy cruciverbalist Harvey Beerbaum throws a birthday bash for Cora Felton at the Bakerhaven Library, it’s no surprise that the centerpiece, a huge cake decorated like a crossword puzzle, is a complete bust–until a corpse thrown from the second floor stacks hits it dead center and fills in 14 down. Cora may hate birthdays almost as much as she hates crossword puzzles–but when it comes to … to solving crimes, no one can hold a candle to the Puzzle Lady.more
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 … 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…
When Benny Southstreet, a small-time hustler with a big-time gift for constructing crosswords, accuses Cora of stealing one of his creations, it’s clearly a case of mistaken identity…until Cora’s own attorney files a plagiarism suit against her. To add to the enigma, when Benny is found dead, the police charge Cora with his murder!At the heart of the matter is the not-so-little white lie Cora has … lie Cora has been living for years: assuming the grandmotherly public face of her publicity-shy niece Sherry, who designs crossword puzzles and publishes them under Cora’s name—aka the Puzzle Lady. It turns out…
Crime, cryptograms, and killer conundrums abound for the Puzzle Lady in the fourth installment of the series USA Today raves is “a fun series for mystery fans and cruciverbalists!”It looks like wedding bells again for the much-married Cora Felton when distinguished widower Raymond Harstein III moves into town and makes a play for the Puzzle Lady. That is, it does until the mail brings puzzling … brings puzzling cryptograms, which, when deciphered, warn Cora off the match.Or do they?As the puzzles keep coming, a killer’s game must be played in earnest, and it’s up to the Puzzle Lady to solve…
A sensational murder trial! A young woman found naked and stabbed to death in her apartment! The woman was the girlfriend of his boss, Richard Rosenberg, and the hotshot lawyer is charged with killing her.Now Richard’s in court fighting for his life, and Stanley’s out on the firing line trying to dig up some evidence in his favor. It won’t be easy. The murdered woman was a law clerk for a … prominent judge, and everyone Stanley needs to question is currently tied up in a high-profile Global Banking trial.As Stanley races back and forth between two courtrooms, searching for…
“Groucho Marx meets Jessica Fletcher “–RT Book ReviewsWhen young attorney Becky Baldwin hires Cora Felton to make a blackmail payment drop, it couldn’t go worse: she stumbles over a corpse and a puzzle, and someone steals the money. Beckywon’t tell her who the client is, but the most likely suspect is Cora’s least favorite ex-husband, Melvin, who claims he’s being framed by a psychopath with a … framed by a psychopath with a grudge. Soon Cora finds herself in a no-win situation. Solving the murder will either put Melvin’s neck in the noose, or incur the wrath of a cunning,…
Sherry is off on her honeymoon when Chief Harper comes to Cora Felton, asking her to solve a crossword puzzle found on the body of Old Man Overmeyer. Small problem. Cora is the Milli Vanilli of cruciverbalists. Her niece, Sherry, writes the crossword puzzle column for her. Cora pokes into Overmeyer’s death, hoping to prove he died of natural causes. She learns the cranky hermit was the sole … sole surviving member of a forty-year-old stock pooling agreement, and before she can say “capital gain,” the town is full of heirs. Complicating things is Sherry’s ex-husband, Dennis, who is playing…
It’s the battle of the century when Minami, the Sudoku Lady, shows up in Bakerhaven, Connecticut, to meet Cora Felton, the Puzzle Lady, whose sudoku books have just edged Minami’s off of the Japanese bestseller list. Before the rivals have a chance to square off, a killer strikes, and a sudoku puzzle is found at the scene of the murder. Now it’s a fight to the finish to see who can unmask the … killer.Cora is eager to undo her Japanese counterpart—at least until the poor woman is arrested for murder and Cora realizes that she accidentally framed her for…
Cora Felton, the Puzzle Lady (who actually couldn’t solve a crossword puzzle to save her life), is surprisingly good at sudoku, so it’s no problem when a Japanese publisher asks her to write a sudoku book. But when two Japanese publishers show up in Bakerhaven to vie for her services, Cora is a little confused. Which one did she actually sign with? Which one has the stunning geisha wife? And … which one is about to be arrested for murder? The two men are archenemies and will go to great lengths to ace out each other. But would they stoop…
The Puzzle Lady just can’t stay out of trouble. When the late Chester T. Markowitz, a man she never met, leaves $10,000 to his beloved wife, Cora Felton, the Puzzle Lady can’t help cashing the check. Quicker than you can say legal proceedings, Cora’s least favorite ex-husband, Melvin, shows up in Bakerhaven with an attorney and a young bimbo, demanding that her alimony be terminated on the … grounds she remarried. When a key witness in the alimony hearing gets murdered, a KenKen puzzle is left at the scene of the crime. Is someone trying to tell Cora something? Before…