crossword puzzles & sudoku mysteries

Professor P. T. Avondale, proprietor of the Avondale Puzzle Museum, is found murdered at his desk, his own letter opener protruding from his neck, a half-finished sudoku puzzle in front of him. Katie McDonald, member of the Institute of Theoretical Mathematics and master puzzle-solver, has returned home to Granville, New Hampshire, only days before to save her childhood mentor's museum from being auctioned to make way for an outlet mall.

Rumour has it that the devastating fire at the Collins family stables may have been a torch job-and no wonder, with all the family feuds going on. Belle Graham guesses that someone in the quarrelsome clan already knows the answers. (If you want to start at the beginning of the Crossword Mysteries series: The Crossword Connection, 2001)

Chief Harper comes to Cora Felton, asking her to solve a crossword puzzle found on the body of Old Man Overmeyer. Cora pokes into Overmeyer's death, hoping to prove he died of natural causes and soon learns the cranky hermit was the sole surviving member of a forty-year-old stock pooling agreement. (If you want to start at the beginning of the Puzzle Lady Mystery series: A Clue for the Puzzle Lady, 1999)