Customer Reviews

Last Puzzle & Testament

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Last Puzzle and Testament is an intriguing approach to the "whodunit" genre. Set in a small town and revolving around the rich old maid who dies and her money-grubbing relatives, the story has the potential to be just another one of hundreds of similar stories. The gimmick that makes this novel different is the crossword writing amateur sleuth and a treasure hunt for the heirs that is based on, you guessed it, a crossword puzzle. Cora Felton is a celebrity in the small town of Bakershaven. She is cruciverbalist, a crossword puzzle constructor, with a national syndication as The Puzzle Lady. The only problem is that she knows more about multiple marriages and martinis than vocabulary. Cora's niece and companion, the divorced Sherry Carter, is really the crossword expert, but started using her aunt as a front for her image and to overcome the problem of being too young for credibility. Now they are stuck with the subterfuge. When elderly spinster Emma Hurley dies her attorney, following her instructions, assembles the potential heirs and informs them that the bulk of the estate is to be awarded to the first one to solve a puzzle she has devised. She also names the local celebrity, The Puzzle Lady, as the sole judge and referee. Then, as the puzzle solving begins, people start to die. The twists and turns of the puzzle, and of the detecting, involve Sherry and Cora in a variety of situations, all leading up to a very unexpected resolution. Part of the charm of this mystery is the character of Cora herself. A good-heated soul, she just drinks a little more than she should, and a lot more often. She and Sherry go through some interesting gyrations in order to cover up that Cora just doesn't have what it takes to solve, much less create, a crossword puzzle. The romantic interest is provided by Aaron Grant, reporter for the Bakershaven Gazette. He has already figured out that Sherry really writes the crosswords, but wants her to tell him as a sign of their developing relationship. Sherry, on the other hand, doesn't feel right about letting a relationship develop until she tells him the truth. Every time one of them is about to bring the matter to a head, something happens to distract them. Last Puzzle and Testament, by Parnell Hall is an amusing little mystery, well worth the read.

The other evening, I sat in the waiting room during my daughter's dance class, reading Last Puzzle and Testament. I was probably three-quarters of the way through with it, when suddenly I dropped my head into my hands, rubbed my temples and moaned. Another parent there turned to me and said, "Do you have a headache?"

I looked up at him and said, "No, this book is really stupid."

Emma Hurley was the eccentric rich old maid in town before she died of old age. Now her relatives are gathering to hear her last will. And it's a doozy. The first one to solve a puzzle will inherit ten million dollars; the rest will walk away with ten thousand each. Not a bad conciliation prize, but for the greedy family, second place is not good enough. To win, there will be a race to solve a puzzle.

Called on to judge the contest is famed "Puzzle Lady" Cora Felton. Which only makes sense when the puzzle turns out to be a crossword grid with a quarter of the clues. The catch, of course, is the Cora knows nothing about cross word puzzles, so her niece Sherry must work behind the scenes to keep her aunt's public image intact.

Racing to stay ahead of the heirs would be bad enough if it weren't for the murders. First it's the town drunk. But then one of the heirs is found dead. Is the competition getting to be too much? And where will the crossword puzzle lead?

Not being a crossword puzzle fan, I put this series off for way too long. While there is a puzzle the reader is invited to solve from the clues in the book, ignoring the grid doesn't dampen the enjoyment one bit. This is a fast paced story that keeps the reader engaged and guessing from the start to the surprising climax. Honestly, I don't think I'd want to take time out to work the puzzle on my own even if I liked them.

The first book seemed to have four main characters as the reader got the story from multiple viewpoints fairly consistently. This time around, the focus has definitely shifted to Cora, even though the other three characters still play important parts of the book and we occasionally see the action from their eyes. Cora is still a drunk alcoholic at the beginning, but once the story gets going, she sobers up. I must say I prefer watching a sober Cora in action. The word play between characters is cut down a little, too, which is a disappointment to me, although what is in the books is still great. The author does use a lot of dialog and a writing style that flows well, so the book is a surprisingly fast read.

After reading the first in the series, I decided I'd wait and read another before I decided for sure if I liked the series or not. I'd say it's official. I'm already looking forward to reading the third in this entertaining and original series.

This book will make a great Christmas present for a mystery reader. Parnell Hall did a great job developing the characters as well as the plot. I thoroughly enjoyed trying to solve the puzzle along with the characters. The plot twists and turns provided a lot of excitement. I could not put it down and stayed up into the wee hours of the night finishing it. Overall, it was great fun!

This was better than the first in the series! I can't wait to read the next one. Cora Felton and the surrounding characters are interesting people, and the author does a great job showing each person's individual views on the crossword puzzle, and the rules for solving it. I could not put this book down, and I hope the series continues beyond 3 books.

Everyone in the small town of Bakerhaven, Connecticut is familiar with local celebrity Cora Felton. Better known as the Puzzle Lady, her syndicated crossword puzzles appear in over two hundred and fifty newspapers across the nation. There is a secret concerning Cora that very few people in town know. The cigarette smoking, hard drinking woman does not write the crossword puzzle column. Her niece Sherry Carter does because the young woman thinks that Cora fits the image of the PUZZLE LADY.

When eccentric and wealthy Emma Hurley dies, all her heirs gather together to learn they are to participate in a series of puzzle solving. If the person gets the puzzle right, as judged by Cora Felton, they receive more puzzles. The first person to solve the entire puzzle will gain the whole fortune. The avaricious relatives will go to any lengths to see that they are first and they do so with the murder of one participant. Since the pair was so successful at solving Bakerhaven's last homicide, Cora and Sherry turn detective.

Parnell Hall is an excellent storyteller who knows how to entice his readers into wanting to buy and read his puzzling and exciting works as soon as they come out. The puzzles included in each novel make the reader feel like part of the story and that makes them want to finish the book in one sitting. The well-drawn characters seem like people the readers know. Cora's heart of gold personality gives LAST PUZZLE AND TESTAMENT a special feel that turns this novel into a keeper that will be read many times over in the years to come.

Harriet Klausner

The second installment in Parnell Hall's Puzzle Lady series finds cruciverbalist Sherry Carter and her bibulous Aunt Cora caught up in another crossword-related crime spree in the small town of Bakerhaven, Connecticut. (Sherry writes a popular syndicated crossword puzzle column, but the puzzles are attributed to her aunt, who is the public face of the "Puzzle Lady.") It turns out that the recently deceased Emma Hurley has stipulated in her will that her prospective heirs undergo a sort of trial-by-puzzle to determine which of the lot will wind up with the largest share of her multi-million-dollar estate. Cora Felton, meanwhile, because of her reputed prowess as a puzzle solver, is named judge of the contest, a highly lucrative if unlikely assignment. As the various greedy and unpleasant heirs discover, Emma Hurley's millions seem to be riding on the successful completion of a crossword. The puzzle is relatively straightforward--suspiciously so, considering the sums involved--but the mystery surrounding the Hurley will is far more complex than any of the principals--the innocent ones, at least--suppose. Before the puzzle ladies can solve the mystery, two corpses, their murders somehow connected to the crossword contest, join Emma's in the local cemetery.

Parnell Hall's mysteries are complex enough to keep readers guessing and written with sufficient wit to keep them appreciative. ("Beasley's trip up the stairs was perilous at best. While he did not actually crawl, he did not actually walk, either.") The relationship between Cora and her niece in particular makes for pleasant reading. Hall might tone down Cora's self-destructive tendencies, however: that the grandmaternal "Puzzle Lady" is in reality so unlike her public persona is the principal joke of the series, but one worries about the effect of excessive smoking and drinking on her health. These are not charming or inherently amusing habits. One may note that Colin Dexter's Detective Morse likewise drinks to excess, but Morse's problems with alcohol are not, I think, milked for humor. Perhaps rather for pathos.

Crossword lovers and cozy fans--and readers of the Nero Blanc series of crossword mysteries in particular--will enjoy Hall's take on the amateur sleuth genre.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

I loved this book! Cora Felton, drunk or sober, is absolutely hilarious! I enjoy reading books by this author as he draws the reader into the action which makes the book even more intersting and I could not put this book down for more than a few minutes.
I can't wait for the next book.

The plot and pace were great so I continued reading to the end but I was really turned off by the main character being a drunk and chain smoker. The author presents that as humorous - I don't get the joke! Certainly he could have found something else to make her "quirky"! I think the series would be far better off without glorifying alcohol and cigarettes!

This second book in the series is a far cleverer mystery than the first. The double twist leaves a nice surprise ending that is still believable. And the multiple crossword grids being solved piece by deceptive piece are enjoyable. But the characterizations are far more disappointing than the first book, and other detail flaws persist.

Cora is a cartoon, too impaired when drunk and by contrast too clever when sober. I know no one who would let glasses dangle off one ear, for example. She is not funny or endearing, we see no driving reason to make her more sympathetic, and her niece is a serious enabler. Additionally, the Beasley character and the twins, Philip and Phyllis are annoyingly slapstick.

The details still grate: every post office is open 24/7 so people can get to their boxes, but the author has this one locked all night. A town that can barely support a daily newspaper would have possibly half a dozen florists (I know, I live in one); the author gives this town none.

If some of the characterizations get ironed out this series may prove to be a real winner. It is still entertaining enough to be worthwhile as is, however.