Customer Reviews

Death by Sudoku (A Sudoku Mystery)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked this one up purely because of the title. I'm a puzzle nut and I love logic puzzles, though my tastes tend towards the picture forming logics and not so much to Sudoku, but I had to see how Sudoku fit into the murder plot.

The answer is, "Thinly." It's there, but it could really be any kind of puzzle that uses numbers or words. There were also only five puzzles in the book. Considering one could pick up a magazine for three dollars that contains nearly 200 puzzles, one would think a novel could be a little more forthcoming at $6.99.

The plot also is too far-fetched to be believable, and it ends too abruptly. I hit the end and thought, "But there's still some book left!" Yes, the last twenty-five pages of the book are not part of the novel, but are tips and tricks on how to solve Sudoku.

This isn't to say it's a bad book. The characters are a lot of fun, I loved the protagonist and the writing style is nicely sparse. I was hoping for more local color in Oregon, but Ms. Morgan got L.A. down cold.

So all in all, it's a nice start. Hopefully, experience with make subsequent books more engaging.

Liza is a great character, fully developed and well fleshed-out, but characterization is not a problem in Death By Sudoku. The problem is the plot. The story didn't maintain its momentum to the end of the book, and the way she solved the mystery left me saying "What? That makes no sense."

Death By Sudoku was a big disappointment, and I'm sad to say I won't be reading any more. I just didn't care about the characters or the plot enough by the end of the book to stay interested. It was very contrived and convenient.

This is a light and peppy mystery with a lot of very well presented information about sudoku, including some puzzles to solve if you choose to. I took it along on a weekend camping trip, and it was great company. As a serious sudoku addict who loves hard-but-solvable puzzles, I was afraid the sudoku theme would be too simplistic, but I was pleasantly surprised. The story line may be a bit unrealistic, but it is so well presented and written that I was willing to suspend disbelief.

Death by Sudoku is a lively, well-constructed mystery plot with neatly dropped clues and a large cast of appealing characters you just want to take home with you. Plus, it gives an outsider a birds-eye view of the hidden world of topflight sudoku tournaments.

I speak as one who tried a sudoku puzzle for about five days, then gave it up thinking, life's too short and I'm not a brain surgeon! I swear, you'd have to be a genius to get all the numbers lined up in a row, and that's just in one row. How do people ever get all the numbers filled in? Well, maybe not many do. In this book Liza Kelly has a new job constructing challenging sudoku puzzles for the subscribers to the paper of a peaceful Oregon coastal town. Meanwhile, up in Seattle, her opposite number is mysteriously creating puzzles which, if interpreted broadly, give us Biblical allusions to horrible catastrophes that haven't even occurred yet. And meanwhile, down in Southern California, Liza meets an old acquaintance, Derrick a former actor, who is now obsessed with the Seattle area sudokus and uses the occasion of a sudoku tournament to try to talk Liza into helping him expose the hidden eminence-gris behind what looks to be a long series of murders.

Derrick is a likeable rogue and his niece, Jenny, could very well be the next Julia Roberts. Lisa, who is also a Hollywood agent, takes the liberty to trying to sign jenny to an exclusive representation contract, but when she gets to the scene, Jenny has disappeared and poor Derrick's body lies hanging from a spooky bush. Author Kaye Morgan never promises that a dope like myself could learn sudoku from reading her book, but apparently some of the clues are to be found in the puzzles, just like some of the clues to Agatha Christie's CARDS ON THE TABLE are to be found in the bridge scoring that accompanies the book, and I tell you, I never followed a line of that either. Half Asian half Irish Liza is a sparkling addition to the roster of great paperback detectives. She is married to one man, and strikes sparks with another, torn between the two like a sudoku puzzle clipped by a fan and then torn in two by a hostile and ignorant anti-sudoku mob. I've ordered the followup book just to see what happens next.

I love Sudoku! I first took it up while waiting endless hours in airports across the United States and around the world. It kept me busy, entertained me and took my mind off post 9/11 travel in the world. It has become a favorite past time. So it was with a grin that I picked up Death by Sudoku by Kaye Morgan and hoped, really hoped, I was in for a fun ride. I wasn't disappointed.

Liza Kelly left the bright lights of Hollywood and her husband for her hometown, Maiden's Bay. It's a lot different than the big city of Los Angeles. Located on the Oregon Coast, it's scenic, which is great because she's not working in PR and she's `home.'

Since Liza is a Sudoku puzzle master, she takes a job with the Oregon Daily, as a Sudoku expert. Look out, Will Shortz (the real-life Sudoku expert, known to Sudoku players everywhere), your job and those numerous books might be in jeopardy.

Liza enters a Sudoku tournament (I didn't realize they existed) and runs into an old friend, Derrick Robbins. He used to be a `biggy' in television but he's veered off the path into puzzles and conspiracy theories. When Derrick turns up dead after the tournament, it's up to Liza to find the killer. Is Sudoku itself involved in the murder? Liza better find out before there are other deaths.

Death by Sudoku is unique, fun and a fast read. I love the concept (because I love the puzzles) and look forward to Kaye Morgan's next Sudoku mystery.

Armchair Interviews says: Read Death by Sudoku. If you haven't taken up the game, you might.

I haven't been "into" Sudoku but found this book fun and a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon. I was at a friend's place over a week-end and found this to read. I enjoyed it.

I liked the characters, but certain parts of the book were boring. Didn't keep me captivated. But I liked the main character, Liza, and the kind of love triangle. Which I think will be represented more in the next book. I will read the next book to see if I like her series though.

For a themed mystery, Ms. Morgan got many things right. Characterization was probably better than most, and sense of place was also interesting, taking the reader between the Oregon coast and Southern California. I must agree with the other reviews -- the plot line was thin and highly unlikely. The Bible references were a bit much, and tying that into a Sudoku puzzle was more stretch than story. And for this Sudoku addict, the tips were a little on the strange side, oddly complicated. All in all a cute little 200 page cozy.