Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Fun story
and characters
Cons: Weak but
satisfying ending
The Bottom Line:
The ending is weak
But characters and humor
More than compensate
The Puzzle Lady Faces Marriage (Again) and Murder
With This Puzzle, I Thee Kill is the fifth entry in the fun Puzzle Lady Mysteries.
Cora Felton is our detective. She is well known across the country for her
daily cross word puzzle column syndicated across the country. What most people
don't know is that her niece Sherry Carter is actually responsible for creating
those puzzles every day. Cora is remarkably good at solving murders, however,
and their small town of Bakerhaven , Connecticut seems to
have more then its fair share. Each murder seems to have a different kind of
puzzle attached, and puzzle fans are invited to solve it right along with the
characters.
Cora Felton is getting married. Again. She may have lost
track of how many times she's walked down the aisle, but this time it will work
out. Really.
Her niece Sherry Carter isn't happy about the arrangement,
convinced that her aunt is making a mistake again.
Unfortunately, Cora's nuptials aren't the only ones pending.
Sherry's best friend has just announced her engagement - to Sherry's abusive ex
Dennis.
Between the two weddings, there was enough drama even before
the first cryptogram shows up. It's a warning to Cora to abandon her plans to
wed. More and more follow before the first dead body appears. Now Cora needs to
set aside her wedding veil and pick up her sleuthing hat to find the cryptic
killer. Can she succeed?
This series is nothing heavy or dark, but lots of light fun.
Cora started out the series a chain smoking drunk. She's still a chain smoker
here, but she has finally given up the drinking, something she's been working
on with every book. It's a nice change. Sherry's reaction to the events is
quite believable. In fact, I felt quite sorry for her at some points in the
story. Readers had never met Brenda or Dennis before this book, although we'd heard
plenty about him. And he lived down to everything we'd heard. Even with his
multiple faults, he wasn't a one dimensional character. In fact, none of them
are.
The writing is smart and fast. Much of the dialog is snappy,
which is fun to read. I love it when the characters descend into work play,
which happens a couple times in this book. The chapters are short as well. I
fairly flew through this book.
The only weak part of the story is the plot. It's a little
while before we find the first body, but the suspense was building nicely, so I
really didn't mind. My problem was the climax. As with the other books in the
series, the ending was a little abrupt. Several of the important clues are
sprung on us as Cora is explaining events. That's not to say the ending isn't
satisfying or logical. I just wish the clues were planted better earlier in the
book.
A weak ending is hardly a reason to pass on With This Puzzle, I Thee Kill or this fun series.
It may not "play fair" with the reader like I normally prefer, but
the ride to the end is entertaining anyway.
Looking for the rest of the series? Here's The Puzzle Lady Mysteries in order.
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