Near the start of Hall's fast-paced 10th Puzzle Lady mystery (after 2008's The Sudoku Puzzle Murders), Dale Harper, the Bakerhaven, Conn., police chief, asks crossword columnist Cora Felton to solve a crossword puzzle found at the death bed of a 92-year-old cancer patient, Herbert Overmeyer. Since Cora's crosswording cohort and niece, Sherry Carter, and Sherry's husband, Aaron Grant, are honeymooning, Cora turns for help to portly puzzle maker Harvey Beerbaum. When it turns out Overmeyer died of arsenic poisoning, the authorities have a homicide case on their hands. Meanwhile, Cora and Chief Harper uncover the victim's connection to a 50-year-old convenience store robbery in Alabama. The suspense rises with the murders of two unlucky souls silenced to protect the killer's identity. Snappy dialogue and a clever resolution-plus an assortment of crosswords and sudokus-will satisfy series fans. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The Puzzle Lady series rolls merrily along. Cora Felton's niece, Sherry, has finally married her longtime fiancé, Aaron, and the two are on their honeymoon. Cora figures she can muddle by for a couple of weeks, but she doesn't count on a dead body, a mysterious puzzle that must be solved immediately, and the very real risk that, finally, her secret will be revealed: Cora, the well-known crossword-puzzle composer, is a fraud. She couldn't create, or solve, a crossword puzzle if her life depended on it and this time, it might. This is a delightful series for fans of puzzles and cozy mysteries. Cora Felton, the clever amateur sleuth whose niece secretly writes the crosswords published under Cora's name, is a charming heroine, very much in the Miss Marple/Jessica Fletcher vein, though perhaps a bit more acid-tongued and a bit less cuddly. The Puzzle Lady novels are definitely formulaic, but they're so gosh-darned good that it's hard to imagine anyone minding very much.--Pitt, David Copyright 2009 Booklist