NYPD Puzzle

November 4, 2013
Hall’s delightful 15th Puzzle Lady mystery (after 2013’s Arsenic and Old Puzzles) takes Bakerhaven, Conn., puzzle lady Cora Felton and her lawyer chum, Becky Baldwin, to the Big Apple for a meeting with a mysterious potential client. It’s all speculative fun and games until the duo find a body in a penthouse apartment and surprise the probable killer, who flees, leaving Cora and Becky to face the cops and explain the crossword puzzle clue on the dead man’s chest. The NYPD’s Sergeant Crowley puts two (dead man, puzzle) and two (Cora, her hand gun) together, and arrests her for the murder. Meanwhile back home in Bakerhaven, police chief Dale Harper is stymied by a seemingly pointless break-in at the town hall. But when more crossword puzzles turn up and more break-ins occur, not to mention at least one more murder, it looks as if there’s a link between the New York and the Bakerhaven crimes. Between Hall’s snappy dialogue and Will Shortz’s puzzles, comic mystery buffs have plenty to enjoy.

December 1, 2013
Tagging along to New York City with beautiful Bakerhaven, Connecticut, lawyer Becky Baldwin as she meets with a new client should be a simple outing for Cora Felton, the Puzzle Lady. Why, they'd even planned a night at the theater afterward. Except this is Cora we're talking about. Sure enough, they get to the client's apartment only to find the door ajar and the man dead, with a crossword puzzle on his chest. There's a masked man reaching into the safe, but he leaps out of the window as Cora shoots. NYPD officers arrive to take Cora into custody, but Becky convinces the gruff Sergeant Crowley to release her, and they do go to the theater after all. As they drive home, Cora sees that they are being followed. And thus begins a cat-and-mouse game, punctuated by three more crossword puzzles and some Sudoku, as well as unlikely break-ins and another murder. Both a target and a suspect, Cora also tries to investigate the crimes, resulting in many comic moments and much circuitous repartee.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)