Dead Man's Puzzle, by Parnell Hall

Dead Man's Puzzle, by Parnell Hall
Adult, 2009

Cora Felton is in a bind when Chief Harper brings her a crossword puzzle to solve that was found at a murder scene. Since her niece, Sherry, has left for her honeymoon, it's been a little hard keeping up her facade as the newspaper's puzzle lady, something her niece does for her. But with some smart cracks, some amateur sleuthing, and some good old-fashioned logic, she might just solve the triple homicide before anyone finds out.
The tenth (yes, that is 10!) in the series, I picked it up on a whim and found myself laughing over and over at the witty conversation. The characters all seemed too much alike, and the mystery is just ok - a little vague with an ending that kind of made you go 'huh', but it was fun to read and I still picked up the first in the series. A great book for when you just need a light mystery to read, it comes with crossword puzzles and sudoku (sometimes) for the puzzle aficionado. It was also, I might add, very clean with only some light swearing.
Graded a B-.