Presumed Puzzled
A Puzzle Lady Mystery
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“Jessica Fletcher meets Groucho Marx!”—RT BookReviews
A shocking crime of passion has Bakerhaven buzzing!
In Parnell Hall's Presumed Puzzled, the Puzzle Lady gets more than she bargained for when she’s hired to track down Paula Martindale’s straying husband. She finds him, all right—hacked to pieces on his living room rug, while his blood-drenched wife haunts the crime scene clutching a butcher knife.
It’s a tough spot for attractive young attorney Becky Baldwin. Paula is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but try to find one juror who’s going to think so.
It’s up to Cora to find the evidence to save the day. She has just two problems: She’s a witness for the prosecution, and every bit of evidence she finds in Paula’s favor, from crossword puzzles to Sudoku to alibi witnesses, tends to indicate that Cora herself is the killer!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fans of clever wordplay will enjoy Hall's 17th Puzzle Lady mystery (after 2015's Puzzled Indemnity) starring Cora Felton, a feisty, lusty, oft-married but for the moment single lady, who fronts for her niece's syndicated puzzle column a secret known to only a few. When Bakerhaven, Conn., police chief Dale Harper and Cora follow up a missing-person report from Paula Martindale, whose husband, Roger, has failed to come home, they find the couple's front door open, Paula holding a bloody knife, and Roger's body on the floor. It's hard to believe that Cora could end up a suspect in the killing, but in Hall's capable hands evidence and clues (some provided by puzzles) serve to exonerate Paula and implicate Cora. Prosecutor Henry Firth is only too happy to swap prosecuting Paula for a chance to try Cora. The supporting cast, including lawyer Becky Baldwin and airhead TV reporter Rick Reed, play important parts, but it's Cora's bravura courtroom performance that provides this entry's highlight.
