Parnell Hall

When Benny Southstreet, a small-time hustler with a big-time gift for constructing crosswords, accuses Cora of stealing one of his creations, it’s clearly a case of mistaken identity…until Cora’s own attorney files a plagiarism suit against her. To add to the enigma, when Benny is found dead, the police charge Cora with his murder!
At the heart of the matter is the not-so-little white lie Cora has been living for years: assuming...

Harvey Beerbaum's birthday party for Puzzle Lady Cora Felton at the Bakerhaven Library leads to murder when a corpse is thrown from the second floor stack and lands in the middle of a huge cake decorated like a crossword puzzle.

Miss Cora Felton, the eccentric amateur detective better known as the Puzzle Lady, likes nothing better than to solve a good mystery, and this time she's got a killer on her hands. What isn't puzzling is why critics agree that "Cora is emerging as a lovable and unique sleuth" (Chicago Sun-Times) in "a fun series for mystery fans and cruciverbalists" (USA Today). Bakerhaven, Connecticut, seems like the ideal place to host a charity crossword-puzzle...

Two people are murdered in Connecticut and in each case the only clues are notations from a crossword puzzle. The police ask the help of sleuth Cora Felton, known as the Puzzle Lady because of her syndicated puzzles.

"When young attorney Becky Balwin hires Cora Felton to accompany her to New York City to meet a new client in his penthouse apartment, the Puzzle Lady jumps at the chance. Cora is just coming off a bad breakup, and finding out that Chief Harper testified at a parole hearing for a killer she helped put away, has her feeling old. But when she and Becky arrive at the apartment, they find the man is dead. There's a puzzle on his chest, and a prowler is...

Cora Felton contemplates wedded bliss once again when she is courted by distinguished widower Raymond Harstein III, a relationship that is overshadowed by the arrival of cautionary cryptograms in the mail.

"It's murder on the movie set! It's no surprise when Cora Felton's ex-husband's sensational tell-all memoir, Confessions of a Trophy Husband: My Life with the Puzzle Lady, is optioned for the movies, but it certainly raises eyebrows when the Puzzle Lady herself signed on as an associate producer. Cora explains gamely that she hoped to have some control over the project. The truth is that she needs the money. Now Cora is filming her life story on location...

Reluctantly embarking on a group safari trip to Zambia, Stanley Hastings finds himself at the mercy of a reckless hunter guide who enjoys encounters with dangerous animals before suspicious accidents begin plaguing fellow tourists.

"It's been a cold, lonely winter for Cora Felton. Long distance has cooled the Puzzle Lady's on-again-off-again affair with Sergeant Crowley, and the only case Chief Harper has for her to investigate is a routine liquor store robbery. So when her attorney friend Becky asks her to explore the possibility that her client Brittney's philandering husband is planning to murder her for the insurance money, Cora jumps at the chance. She brings in her loathsome...