A scavenger hunt to solve a crossword takes a deadly turn in Last Puzzle & Testament.
After reading the first instalment in Parnell Hall’s ’Puzzle Lady’ series, you might well wonder how he would maintain the crossword theme in a second murder mystery, especially when the first culprit was caught at the end of book one. Would a copycat murderer imitate the same method, or would Parnell Hall come up with something entirely new?
It was obvious from the first page of Last Puzzle & Testament that this novel was going to take a different approach. Like A Clue for the Puzzle Lady, Last Puzzle & Testament opens with a crossword grid — but this one has no clues. Where A Clue for the Puzzle Lady’s crossword was designed to be solved by the real-world reader of the novel, Last Puzzle & Testament’s crossword is actually part of the story.
Sherry sighed. Sometimes life seemed more complicated than puzzles.
Emma Hurley’s heirs race to solve a crossword, the clues scattered scavenger-hunt style through the town of Bakerhaven. As well as making the crossword an integral part of the story, the competitive aspect adds an engaging thrill.
Having the crossword be integral to the story feels much more satisfying than having it be totally separate, but the downside is that it makes the puzzle much harder for the reader to solve along at home, requiring flipping back and forth between different pages. Arguably even more annoying, Last Puzzle & Testament gives readers the answers to the first quarter of the puzzle before giving them the clues to the second.
There is a solid reason behind this decision. All becomes clear at around the 75% mark when Parnell Hall’s story takes a clever twist which I won’t spoil for you here. Even so, if what you loved about A Clue for the Puzzle Lady was the traditional murder mystery and being given a crossword to solve, be aware that Last Puzzle & Testament has a very different focus. While there are still murders, these take a back seat to the crossword competition until the very end.
‘Well, I had a dream. A bad dream. A nightmare. I was having drinks with a walking thesaurus who kept gabbling about words.’ ‘That wasn't a dream. That was a puzzle expert.’
Of course, Cora and Sherry are still ‘puzzle ladies’, and the crossword being an integral part of the story means there are still plenty of fun puzzles references. Sherry's editorial humour was a particularly nice touch, as was Cora’s reaction to her crossword-compiling colleague.
While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend trying to solve the crossword in Last Puzzle & Testament, it’s still thrilling to join in with the story!
Book Two of the ‘Puzzle Lady Mysteries’
