Two Down [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Nero Blanc (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2000

Readers can solve the puzzles--and solve the crime.

In this brain-teasing follow-up to the smash-hit debut, The Crossword Murder, P.I. Rosco Polycrates returns to discover that--up, down, or across--S.O.S. spells danger...

When a famous Hollywood actress and her friend set sail off the coast of Nantucket Island--and never return, it sounds like foul play to P.I. Rosco Polycrates and his paramour/crossword editor Belle Graham. They are sharpening their pencils and their minds to solve this case. But the truth is not so easily spelled out, and it will take all their sleuthing skills to fill in the missing blanks.

Includes six crossword puzzles to help readers solve the crime (answers in the back of the book)--the Bantam crossword mystery by Parnell Hall only has one puzzle and the reader is warned not to do it until after reading the book because it gives away the mystery.

Praise for Nero Blanc's The Crossword Murder:

"A puzzle lover's delight...a touch of suspense, a pinch of romance, and a whole lot of clever word clues...sure to appeal to crossword addicts and cozy lovers alike. What's a three-letter word for this book? F-U-N." --Earlene Fowler

"Evoe! At last puzzle fans have their revenge...super sleuthing and solving for puzzle lovers and mystery fans." --Charles Preston, Puzzle Editor, USA Today

"Adroit word play and high society intrigue...an enjoyable, complex solution and likable protagonists....Clever." --Publishers Weekly

"Good summer entertainment." --Philadelphia City Paper

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Constructing a mystery around a crossword puzzle is nothing new. Dorothy Sayers's 1929 Lord Peter Wimsey short story, "Uncle Meleander's Will," is an early and particularly charming example. After all, logic, extrapolation, and methodical musings are all stock-in-trade for detectives and puzzlers alike.

Two Down, the second crossword-puzzle mystery from Nero Blanc (nom de plume of cowriters Cordelia Frances Biddle and Steve Zettler), marks the return of private investigator Rosco Polycrates and crossword editor Belle Graham, first thrown together in The Crossword Murder. Easygoing Rosco and charmingly absent-minded Belle--an intellectual who seems to sustain herself entirely on deviled eggs--are now tentatively navigating the uncertain waters of romance in Newcastle, Massachusetts. More treacherous waters, however, claim an unlikely pair of victims when Hollywood femme fatale Jamaica Nevisson and her friend Genie Pepper, an experienced yacht racer, disappear off the coast of Nantucket, leaving only a charred boat hull behind. When their dinghy washes up in a cove where the tide can't reach, Rosco, Belle, and Genie's husband Tom begin to wonder whether they were murdered. The arrival of a series of cryptic crosswords strengthens their suspicions. Obscure hints of fraud, jealousy, and murder send Belle into a pile of thesauri and dictionaries--and Rosco into some decidedly unfriendly situations. Divining the clues behind the clues will take two heads and a willingness to confront the slightly seedy underbelly of Newcastle's aggressively genteel, Waspy upper crust.

It's all fun, but the premise of a crossword-puzzle mystery comes across less as a game of wits than as a gimmick. It seems odd that everyone, including stodgy police sergeant Al Lever, is perfectly willing to accept anonymous crossword puzzles as prophecies from some scurrilous oracle. Readers probably won't guess who the crossword constructor is, and by the time this person is unmasked, many may not care. The puzzles themselves, though, are delightful. One hopes that in future novels, Nero Blanc will polish the plots and characters to better surround these little gems. --Kelly Flynn --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

The case of two women lost at sea off Nantucket interferes with the burgeoning romance of crossword puzzle editor Belle Graham and her beau, PI Rosco Polycrates, in this second engaging crossword mystery from Blanc (The Crossword Murder). A wealthy investment banker, Tom Pepper, calls in Rosco after Newcastle, Mass., fishermen tow into the harbor the charred hulk of the sailboat rented by Tom's wife, Genie, and her famous actress friend, Jamaica Nevisson. The distraught Tom is convinced that the man who rented Genie the sailboat was negligent. While Rosco investigates the rental agent and the Coast Guard searches for the women, Belle begins to receive ominous crossword puzzles. The first one insinuates through pointed clues that something dire has happened to Jamaica. Rosco thinks Belle is imagining links to his case, until he finds human blood in the fishermen's boat. Then the missing women's inflatable life raft surfaces on a remote beach, well above the tide line and with a large gash in its side. Rosco fears for Belle's safety, since later puzzles not only suggest their constructor is watching both of them closely but contain veiled personal threats. Clever, charming Belle and meticulous, plodding Rosco have to hustle if they're to prevent a missing persons investigation from turning into a homicide case. In an interactive touch that adds to the problem-solving fun, the author supplies copies of the six crossword puzzles that Belle receives, so readers can fill in the blanks for themselves. (July) FYI: Nero Blanc is the joint pseudonym of husband and wife Steve Zettlerand and Cordelia Frances Biddle.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime (July 1, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0425175103
• ASIN: B000H2MZZ4
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,368,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good cerebral mystery, July 12, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Down (Paperback)

Tired of the paparazzi that follow her every movement seeking a scandal and the acrimonious actors she toils with, renowned soap opera star Jamaica Nevisson leaves her TV show. Known for her role as Cassandra Lovett on Crescent Heights, Jamacia travels to Newcastle, Massachusetts to stay at the home of her best friend Genie Pepper.

Genie and Jamaica goes sailing, but their boat catches fire. The two women are missing and presumed dead. Genie's husband Tom hires former police officer Roscoe Polycrates to find out what happened to his wife. The private detective immediately locates the beached dinghy, but has evidence that anyone survived the ordeal. Roscoe's girlfriend, brainy puzzle editor Belle Graham surprisingly believes someone is holding the women for ransom because she receives anonymous strange crossword puzzles that hint at a kidnapping. As they have successfully done before Roscoe and Belle team up in search of the two missing women.

Nero Blanc's second crossword puzzle mystery, TWO DOWN, is as entertaining as the series debut tale, THE CROSSWORD MURDER. The novels are originals that provide genre fans with a different type of puzzle that brings the reader more intimately involved in the case than normally occurs. The story line is smooth with crossword puzzles for the audience to solve that add to the overall fun. Readers who enjoy a different type of who-done-it starring two likable characters and six puzzles will fully relish Mr. Blanc's latest across and down novel.

Harriet Klausner

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stilted writing coupled with flat characters, October 29, 2000

By 

J. Hitchin (Redmond, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Down (Paperback)

I'm an avid crossword buff. I get the New York Times simply for the daily crossword, so when these books came out that brought together crosswords, with my favorite genre, I was really hoping for a great book with some fun wordplay. I got neither, unfortunately.

The writing was really, really bad. It read like some of the high school short stories I had to wade through when I did my T.A. work senior year. It was packed full of words that caromed off staircases, wrapped around the crystal sconces and hide in the chandeliers. Dialog is one repetitious phrase after another. "Oh! Look at that scandalous frock!" "Isn't this the rage?" "His column is all the rage of local socialites!"

The characters are flat, obnoxious people who I would never want to spend time with, let alone care about. After page after page of women having "a bevy of frothy conversation" about who is wearing what, makeup, how lovely their jewelled bags are, and oh, did you READ what was in the gossip column today, I wanted to go out to the local Target store just to hear real conversation about things that matter in the real world. Yes, I understand that this is fiction, but still, some semblance of reality has to be maintained in order for a book to be believable.

All in all, this book should be avoided unless you're a masochist. I have to admit I did keep reading for a while in morbid fascination just to see how much worse it could get, and let me tell you, it's one long, slow descent into extreme pain.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars an enjoyable whodunit, March 7, 2002

By 

"psaronius" (Americus, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Two Down (Paperback)

This is an enjoyable mystery set in the often underappreciated state of Rhode Island. The puzzle-constructing amateur sleuth is an interesting character and the interaction with her private eye love interest provides a means of letting the reader in on things in a natural way. I also very much liked the larger format of the book. My only quibble is that the puzzles (which are fun) are not as integral to the plot as one might wish. It stretches my imagination, at least, to think of them as providing clues.