Cora Felton is known as the Puzzle Lady, a symbol of crossword puzzle design mastery. Her shameful secret: she doesn’t know the first thing about crossword puzzles. Her real talents: guzzling liquor and solving murder mysteries, as the central character along with her niece Sherry in the Puzzle Lady series of annual whodunits by Parnell Hall beginning in 1999.

If you enjoy mildly humorous dialogue, American small town setting, short chapters, a colorful senior woman main character, or clues in the form of various puzzles — this cozy series of 11 titles is for you.

Excerpt: “Cora, you’re getting all worked up.” “It’s the caffeine in the coffee.” “It’s decaffeinated.” “I knew it! Sherry, I need the caffeine.” “Clearly you don’t.”

The First Entry: A Clue for the Puzzle Lady: Two murder victims are found in a small town, each with a crossword puzzle clue on their person. Local crossword “expert” Cora is called in to help the police investigate and solves the crimes after a series of cruciverbal clues are unfolded before the reader.

The Latest: The Puzzle Lady vs. the Sudoku Lady: These two rivals on the Japanese bestseller puzzle book list meet in Cora’s hometown. A murder gives Cora the chance to frame the Sudoku Lady for the murder, but her subsequent arrest pushes her book sales way ahead of Cora’s. Cora is forced to solve the murder to save her own skin and the Sudoku Lady’s.

Here is the author talking about the Puzzle Lady and his other series.