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"Entertaining crime caper"
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted October 1, 2005

Sherry Carter is pleased that her outgoing Aunt Cora "the Puzzle Lady" Felton takes the credit for constructing the crossword puzzles because she is so shy while her aunt is the poster girl of extroverts. Cora wants to resign because she doesn't want to go on tour as the Read more...

"The puzzle lady and murder on tour"
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle
Posted October 31, 2005

Cora Felton, the puzzle lady, is on tour promoting Granville Grains' Corn Toasties cereal. They're doing televised personal appearances at supermarkets off I-95. Not her favorite thing. Right before leaving, a crossword puzzle is pinned to her door with a knife. Cora's niece Sherry decides to Read more...

Summary

Cora Felton may look like everyone's favorite grandmother. But the white-haired, bespectacled Puzzle Lady swears, smokes, gambles, and is even dodgy on the subject of how many husbands she's had. So it strikes her long-suffering niece Sherry Carter as amusing when Cora announces, "I'm tired of living a lie!" The inspiration for this sudden burst of honesty is a promotion by Granville Grains featuring the Puzzle Lady on a bus tour of televised personal appearances. Cora can't think of anything she'd like to do less--except maybe quit smoking--than travel the supermarkets of I-95 hawking the new and improved Corn Toasties to her legions of fans. And someone else mustn't want her to go either, because they've left a knife planted in her front door with a crossword puzzle attached. But when Sherry solves the puzzle she can't decide whether the enigmatic message is a threat, a love note, or-- creepier still--both. Like it or not, Cora and Sherry must take their show on the road, along with a makeshift TV crew that includes a smarmy producer with a bad hairpiece, an abrasive director, an overambitious publicist, and two overgrown child-actors with some very adult problems. Throw in a few uninvited guests, including a roly-poly munchkin who's had an unrequited crush on Cora since high school and Sherry's abusive ex-husband, and you don't need to be a puzzle expert to know this trip is going to be murder!