Here at BOOKGASM, we don’t get many puzzle books to review. SNAKES ON A SUDOKU excepted, the closet we get is Parnell Hall’s STALKING THE PUZZLE LADY.
A selling point of the Puzzle Lady mystery series is the inclusion of actual, workable crossword puzzles. Having only read the first in the series, A CLUE FOR THE PUZZLE LADY, I knew at least one puzzle was included with them all. But this seventh entry sports four crosswords, which also serve as clues in the case. Being more familiar with Hall’s Stanley Hastings books, I knew his style down pat. The Puzzle Lady is best described as a chain-smoking, former-drinking Miss Marple – a lady who takes no guff from anyone with a string of ex-husbands as long as the series.
The Puzzle Lady, aka Cora Felton, is a bit of a sham, since her niece Sherry is the real brains behind the puzzles. But they don’t let that on to anyone outside the immediate family. Cora is the spokesperson for an awful-tasting cereal, whose company wants to shoot reality-type commercials with her. They have Cora and crew board a bus and make camp in Mystic, Conn. But there is a stalker who wants Cora to have some sort of secret relationship with him by way of puzzles, yet Cora also has to put up with Sherry’s ex-husband; a former school chum; a little poodle; Sherry’s current boyfriend, a reporter named Aaron; and Aaron’s ex, a voluptuous lawyer.
The stalker takes a dangerous step by turning serial killer and placing crosswords at the scene to be solved by Cora. You feel like Hall is tipping his hand in certain areas, but actually he has improved his mystery writing since those Hastings books. In those titles, it was more apparent who the killer was and why. Here, Hall gives us fun and light mysteries with plenty of red herrings, some of which are even pointed out as such by the killer. For those who like a little fun with their crime, the Puzzle Lady series is a welcome breath of air. Bring your eraser. –Bruce Grossman
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