Book Review: A Puzzle in a Pear Tree

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

A Puzzle in a Pear Tree     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Parnell Hall
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Humorous   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Puzzle Lady Mysteries - Cora Felton # 4
Bantam, Dec 2002, $23.95, 352 pp.

Everyone in the town of Bakerhaven is caught up in the holiday season from the people taking part in the Christmas pageant to the folks posing in the live nativity. One of the highlights of the pagent is the humorous take on The Twelve Days of Christmas directed by Broadway producer, Rupert Winston. Cora Felton, known to the whole town as the puzzle lady, is one of the maids a milking if she survives the rehearsals without throttling the odious director.

Cora’s niece Sherry is one of the women starring as the Virgin Mary. She receives quite a jolt when the actress playing the role before her is murdered. The girl that was killed was a high school teen who had every privilege and was one of the most popular students in her school. The father of Dorrie’s best friend is visiting while on vacation from Scotland Yard and takes an active role in the investigation. All the circumstantial evidence leads him to Sherry as the perpetrator. Cora is not about to let her niece be tried for murder so she goes into sleuth mode to ferret out the murder.

Parnell Hall has written another excellent amateur sleuth novel starring his recurring character the Puzzle Lady. Cora is a natural comedienne who lightens the plot up when the action becomes very intense. This is a very convoluted mystery with so many twists and turns, dead ends, and viable suspects that readers will want to finish the book in one sitting so they can puzzle out who did what to whom.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner