Lights! Camera! Puzzles!

February 1, 2019
The Puzzle Lady goes to Hollywood.Cora Felton, famous for creating crossword puzzles, is actually hopeless at them. Her success as her niece's frontwoman and her genuine abilities as a wisecracking sleuth are about to be tested by a former husband's tell-all book, which reveals her checkered past. Melvin Crabtree has sold the movie rights to his book, but Cora and her lawyer, Becky Baldwin, have negotiated a contract that allows her some control over her portrayal. Upon her arrival at the New York City shoot, the director gives Cora a crossword puzzle that she ignores, since she's much more interested in the casting call to select the two actresses who'll play the present-day Cora and the Cora once married to Melvin. The first day of auditions is capped by a midnight phone call from NYPD homicide cop Sgt. Crowley, with whom Cora's been briefly involved, telling her that someone's been murdered at the theater. Cora recognizes the victim as production assistant Karen Hart. Her boyfriend is also found dead, a possible suicide, but when Cora learns he has tickets for Hamilton she becomes convinced it's murder, because, after all, no one would kill himself before seeing the show. Cora's not happy with the casting of her present-day self, but she's thrilled with the casting of talented star Angela Broadbent as the younger Cora. True, the actor cast as Melvin is awful, but he's found hanging in his trailer just before he can be fired--another murder made to look like suicide. Apart from some weather-related problems, everything runs more smoothly once a much better actor is cast as Melvin, until the director's almost smashed by a falling light. Cora learns a great deal about which staffers are sleeping with whom in order to get better jobs, but the motive for the murders eludes her until she remembers the crossword puzzle she ignored.Although the latest in Hall's long string of amusing mysteries (The Purloined Puzzle, 2018, etc.) features only a single crossword, there's still plenty to be puzzled about.

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February 18, 2019
At the start of Hall’s enjoyable 20th mystery featuring Bakerhaven, Conn., crossword puzzle creator Cora Felton (after 2018’s The Purloined Puzzle), Cora is less than thrilled to learn that her ex-husband, Melvin Crabtree, has sold his tell-all memoir, Confessions of a Trophy Husband: My Life with the Puzzle Lady, to Hollywood and is styling himself as executive producer. To keep an eye on the project, Cora heads to New York City for the filming and is immediately embroiled in murder when a sandbag lands on the head of gofer Karen Hart. The subsequent murders of Karen’s fellow gofer Melinda Fisher, actor Fred Roberts, and Karen’s boyfriend, Patrick Monahan, as well as an attempted assault on director Sandy Delfin and an unsolved crossword puzzle, complicate the case for Cora and Sergeant Crowley, her former lover. Cora and the film’s shrewd leading lady, Angela Broadbent, team up to scan the cast and crew for possible suspects. Hall’s sly swipes at the movie business enhance this lively tale that keeps readers guessing about the culprit to the end.

April 1, 2019

If Cora Felton, the Puzzle Lady, didn't need the money, she certainly wouldn't be sitting in a theater watching actresses audition to play her in the movie made from her fifth ex-husband's trashy tell-all book. But, when a production assistant is murdered before filming even starts, Sergeant Crowley, a homicide detective and one of Cora's ex-boyfriends, calls her to the scene. Lovers' spat gone wrong? It's possible, because the woman's boyfriend is found dead as well. Something doesn't feel right to Cora, but she's sidetracked when a TV actress steps in to play her in the film. Filming might start, but murders continue to roll. While Cora is willing to let Crowley solve this series of murders, it's actress Angela Broadbent who pushes her to investigate. The one-liners and witty comebacks never stop in the latest "Puzzle Lady" romp. VERDICT Hall's humorous mystery takes us behind the scenes in the film world. Readers who appreciate fast-paced cozies with an outrageous amateur sleuth will relish puzzling out the follow-up to The Purloined Puzzle.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2019
Cora Felton returns in her twentieth wild adventure (after The Purloined Puzzle, 2018), and it is becoming difficult for reviewers to come up with new adjectives to apply to her. Inimitable comes to mind, since she is (mercifully) not able to be imitated. Just one of her is sometimes one too many?at least for those who cross her orbit. Not only has her ex-husband published a sensational tell-all memoir, Confessions of a Trophy Husband: My Life with the Puzzle Lady, but it has been optioned for film as well, and in a feeble attempt at gaining some control, Cora insinuates herself into the production as an associate producer. Instead of quiet on the set, there is murder, and although the Milli Vanilli of Cruciverbalists can't actually solve Sudoku or crosswords, she successfully dodges a bullet and manages to link four homicides to one suspect. The movie is eventually scrapped, but Cora manages to land on her feet in an ending that promises further adventures. The reader is left hoping that the police give Cora those Hamilton tickets she finds?in the course of disproving a suicide?as a reward.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)