Rating: 
Summary: Last Puzzle & Testament
Review: As clues spring up everywhere in the picturesque village of Bakerhaven, Cora Felton, the modern-day Miss Marple, is about to discover that up, across, or down--murder spells DANGER!
Rating: 
Summary: Great cerebral mystey
Review: Everyone in the small town of Bakerhaven, Connecticut is familiar with local celebrity Cora Felton. Better known as the Puzzle Lady, her syndicated crossword puzzles appear in over two hundred and fifty newspapers across the nation. There is a secret concerning Cora that very few people in town know. The cigarette smoking, hard drinking woman does not write the crossword puzzle column. Her niece Sherry Carter does because the young woman thinks that Cora fits the image of the PUZZLE LADY.When eccentric and wealthy Emma Hurley dies, all her heirs gather together to learn they are to participate in a series of puzzle solving. If the person gets the puzzle right, as judged by Cora Felton, they receive more puzzles. The first person to solve the entire puzzle will gain the whole fortune. The avaricious relatives will go to any lengths to see that they are first and they do so with the murder of one participant. Since the pair was so successful at solving Bakerhaven's last homicide, Cora and Sherry turn detective. Parnell Hall is an excellent storyteller who knows how to entice his readers into wanting to buy and read his puzzling and exciting works as soon as they come out. The puzzles included in each novel make the reader feel like part of the story and that makes them want to finish the book in one sitting. The well-drawn characters seem like people the readers know. Cora's heart of gold personality gives LAST PUZZLE AND TESTAMENT a special feel that turns this novel into a keeper that will be read many times over in the years to come. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: I loved this book! Cora Felton, drunk or sober, is absolutely hilarious! I enjoy reading books by this author as he draws the reader into the action which makes the book even more intersting and I could not put this book down for more than a few minutes.
I can't wait for the next book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Puzzling Case
Review: Last Puzzle and Testament is an intriguing approach to the "whodunit" genre. Set in a small town and revolving around the rich old maid who dies and her money-grubbing relatives, the story has the potential to be just another one of hundreds of similar stories. The gimmick that makes this novel different is the crossword writing amateur sleuth and a treasure hunt for the heirs that is based on, you guessed it, a crossword puzzle. Cora Felton is a celebrity in the small town of Bakershaven. She is cruciverbalist, a crossword puzzle constructor, with a national syndication as The Puzzle Lady. The only problem is that she knows more about multiple marriages and martinis than vocabulary. Cora's niece and companion, the divorced Sherry Carter, is really the crossword expert, but started using her aunt as a front for her image and to overcome the problem of being too young for credibility. Now they are stuck with the subterfuge. When elderly spinster Emma Hurley dies her attorney, following her instructions, assembles the potential heirs and informs them that the bulk of the estate is to be awarded to the first one to solve a puzzle she has devised. She also names the local celebrity, The Puzzle Lady, as the sole judge and referee. Then, as the puzzle solving begins, people start to die. The twists and turns of the puzzle, and of the detecting, involve Sherry and Cora in a variety of situations, all leading up to a very unexpected resolution. Part of the charm of this mystery is the character of Cora herself. A good-heated soul, she just drinks a little more than she should, and a lot more often. She and Sherry go through some interesting gyrations in order to cover up that Cora just doesn't have what it takes to solve, much less create, a crossword puzzle. The romantic interest is provided by Aaron Grant, reporter for the Bakershaven Gazette. He has already figured out that Sherry really writes the crosswords, but wants her to tell him as a sign of their developing relationship. Sherry, on the other hand, doesn't feel right about letting a relationship develop until she tells him the truth. Every time one of them is about to bring the matter to a head, something happens to distract them. Last Puzzle and Testament, by Parnell Hall is an amusing little mystery, well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: A Puzzling Case
Review: Last Puzzle and Testament is an intriguing approach to the "whodunit" genre. Set in a small town and revolving around the rich old maid who dies and her money-grubbing relatives, the story has the potential to be just another one of hundreds of similar stories. The gimmick that makes this novel different is the crossword writing amateur sleuth and a treasure hunt for the heirs that is based on, you guessed it, a crossword puzzle. Cora Felton is a celebrity in the small town of Bakershaven. She is cruciverbalist, a crossword puzzle constructor, with a national syndication as The Puzzle Lady. The only problem is that she knows more about multiple marriages and martinis than vocabulary. Cora's niece and companion, the divorced Sherry Carter, is really the crossword expert, but started using her aunt as a front for her image and to overcome the problem of being too young for credibility. Now they are stuck with the subterfuge. When elderly spinster Emma Hurley dies her attorney, following her instructions, assembles the potential heirs and informs them that the bulk of the estate is to be awarded to the first one to solve a puzzle she has devised. She also names the local celebrity, The Puzzle Lady, as the sole judge and referee. Then, as the puzzle solving begins, people start to die. The twists and turns of the puzzle, and of the detecting, involve Sherry and Cora in a variety of situations, all leading up to a very unexpected resolution. Part of the charm of this mystery is the character of Cora herself. A good-heated soul, she just drinks a little more than she should, and a lot more often. She and Sherry go through some interesting gyrations in order to cover up that Cora just doesn't have what it takes to solve, much less create, a crossword puzzle. The romantic interest is provided by Aaron Grant, reporter for the Bakershaven Gazette. He has already figured out that Sherry really writes the crosswords, but wants her to tell him as a sign of their developing relationship. Sherry, on the other hand, doesn't feel right about letting a relationship develop until she tells him the truth. Every time one of them is about to bring the matter to a head, something happens to distract them. Last Puzzle and Testament, by Parnell Hall is an amusing little mystery, well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: A Puzzling Case
Review: Last Puzzle and Testament is an intriguing approach to the "whodunit" genre. Set in a small town and revolving around the rich old maid who dies and her money-grubbing relatives, the story has the potential to be just another one of hundreds of similar stories. The gimmick that makes this novel different is the crossword writing amateur sleuth and a treasure hunt for the heirs that is based on, you guessed it, a crossword puzzle. Cora Felton is a celebrity in the small town of Bakershaven. She is cruciverbalist, a crossword puzzle constructor, with a national syndication as The Puzzle Lady. The only problem is that she knows more about multiple marriages and martinis than vocabulary. Cora's niece and companion, the divorced Sherry Carter, is really the crossword expert, but started using her aunt as a front for her image and to overcome the problem of being too young for credibility. Now they are stuck with the subterfuge. When elderly spinster Emma Hurley dies her attorney, following her instructions, assembles the potential heirs and informs them that the bulk of the estate is to be awarded to the first one to solve a puzzle she has devised. She also names the local celebrity, The Puzzle Lady, as the sole judge and referee. Then, as the puzzle solving begins, people start to die. The twists and turns of the puzzle, and of the detecting, involve Sherry and Cora in a variety of situations, all leading up to a very unexpected resolution. Part of the charm of this mystery is the character of Cora herself. A good-heated soul, she just drinks a little more than she should, and a lot more often. She and Sherry go through some interesting gyrations in order to cover up that Cora just doesn't have what it takes to solve, much less create, a crossword puzzle. The romantic interest is provided by Aaron Grant, reporter for the Bakershaven Gazette. He has already figured out that Sherry really writes the crosswords, but wants her to tell him as a sign of their developing relationship. Sherry, on the other hand, doesn't feel right about letting a relationship develop until she tells him the truth. Every time one of them is about to bring the matter to a head, something happens to distract them. Last Puzzle and Testament, by Parnell Hall is an amusing little mystery, well worth the read.
Rating: 
Summary: Creative puzzle, yet poorly written-
Review: Parnell Hall appears to have won much critical acclaim with his writing yet I found reading 'Last Puzzle & Testament' quite tedious at best. If you are looking for a 'hook', give up. After the reading of the will in chapter 8, I found it difficult to stay interested. Though the puzzle is crafty, his style of writing leaves much to be desired. As for Cora Felton, 'The Puzzle Lady', I found her character completely unbelievable. I cannot imagine anyone with some semblance of a life going through her day with nothing but a cocktail in hand morning to night, staggering drunk or nursing a daily hangover. Seriously, if it's a page-turner with some style you're looking for, move on.
Rating:
Summary: Empty calories
Review: Pleasant, but absolutely nothing to set it above hundreds of
other "cozy" mysteries. The writing and pacing is third rate, and I thought we had long since passed the point where drunks are cute. The interplay
between Cora and Sherry is almost unreadably annoying. You
want to smack these people upside the head and tell them to
act like adults. This is the intellectual equivalent of a made for TV movie at best.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like a McDonald's cheeseburger eats.
Review: The other evening, I sat in the waiting room during my daughter's dance class, reading Last Puzzle and Testament. I was probably three-quarters of the way through with it, when suddenly I dropped my head into my hands, rubbed my temples and moaned. Another parent there turned to me and said, "Do you have a headache?" I looked up at him and said, "No, this book is really stupid."
Rating:
Summary: Reads like a McDonald's cheeseburger eats.
Review: The other evening, I sat in the waiting room during my daughter's dance class, reading Last Puzzle and Testament. I was probably three-quarters of the way through with it, when suddenly I dropped my head into my hands, rubbed my temples and moaned. Another parent there turned to me and said, "Do you have a headache?" I looked up at him and said, "No, this book is really stupid."
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