Perhaps Fun Night Attendees Ate All Free Desserts in Puzzled to Death

Summary: Perhaps Fun Night attendees ate all free desserts in Puzzled to Death, 3rd mystery in the 20-book Puzzle Lady series authored by Parnell Hall.

Number puzzle lady Cora Felton acknowledges tomato juice as a daily beverage. She rarely appreciates it straight up, no matter how aesthetic or how alluring the arrangement; Thursday, March 20, 2008, 12:59, image of tomato juice with tomato slice and celery sprig: Davide (Davide Restivo), CC BY SA 2.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps Bakerhaven Charity Crossword-Puzzle Tournament Fun Night attendees ate all free desserts in Puzzled to Death, 3rd mystery in the 20-book Puzzle Lady series by Parnell Hall (Oct. 31, 1934-Dec. 15, 2020).

Small-town Bakerhaven’s first-ever tournament begins Friday evening at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time with Fun Night, which boasts a bountiful table bearing free coffees and free desserts. Adopted and cradle Bakerhavenites customarily congregate at Mary Cushman’s Bake Shop for morning coffees and desserts and at Country Kitchen restaurant for coffees afternoons through nights. Police Chief Dale Harper drinks dastardly coffee at the all-night diner, not Cushman-brewed coffee or decaffeinated coffee done by puzzle lady Cora Felton’s niece, Sherry Carter.

Reporter Aaron Grant eschews diner coffee, albeit nearer Bakerhaven Gazette, for Carter-brewed coffee, which attorney Becky Baldwin and Cora respectively enjoy black and milk- and sugar-whitened.

Charlotte Drake, Sy Fishman and Sara Pickens favor Fun Night free coffees and, respectively Country Kitchen bar drinks, Rainbow Room beers and Fun Night free cheesecake.

Charlotte and Widow Roth, unlike adopted and cradle Bakerhavenites, respectively gravitate to Sherry-style decaffeinated coffee and, like Sherry and tournament co-host Harvey Beerbaum, to hot teas. Harvey hosted last Septembers backyard, pre-tournament barbecue, from which attendees Charlotte, Craig Carmichael, Ned Doowacker, Marty Haskel, Paul Thornhill and Judy Vale headed to Rainbow Room. Don Hinkle, Beverly Platt and Zelda Zisk itinerated to the backyard barbecue but never imbibed mixed drinks with other invitees or ingested bar-counter peanuts with Ned.

All barbecue attendees but Beverly and Don in Puzzled to Death journey to Fun Night, where they jam free coffees and free desserts into their mouths.

Perhaps Fun Night refreshments kindle such blood sugar kinetics that Craig and Zelda then knuckle under to amber alcohol and green liqueur at Country Kitchen bar.

Perhaps blood sugar levels lead Paul Thornhill to leave Olsens’ Bed and Breakfast for liquor-store brandy since wife Jessica likens decentered sherry to lethal, liquid strychnine. Her drawstring purse manifesting a cigarette lighter and minimally one cigarette pack and one vodka flask means that Cora manages high blood alcohol and sugar measurements. Cora notes as necessary nutrition gin and tonic nestled into scotch and soda glasses at Rainbow Room and spices, tomato juice and vodka in Bloody Mary.

Jail-cell occupancy occasioned nobody observing Joey Vale, who ordinarily opts for beer, milk and orange juice, obtaining free coffees and free desserts in Puzzled to Death.

Gin-, scotch-, and vodka-packing Cora presents Billy Pickens, who prefers Rainbow Room beer and, with daughters Ellie and Wendy, parlor pizza, with scotch on the rocks.

Cora never queues for free coffees and free desserts, perhaps from welcoming committee member Mary Cushman’s Bake Shop, even as she quests her nieces chocolate desserts. She relishes not only brownies, perhaps realized from scratch and refrigerated since the day before, with cold milk, but also boxed, cupboard-stored, store-bought chocolate chip cookies. Smoking, spirits-sated, sweet-toothed Cora savors summer-grilled fish, hamburgers and steak in the Carter/Felton backyard and, as living-room dinners, pork medallions with egg noodles, spinach and wine.

One perpetrator terminated one victim who tended their drinks and two more who took free coffees and free desserts during Fun Night in Puzzled to Death.

Cora adores caffeinated coffee even as business partner, cook, housemate and niece Sherry Carter appreciates decaf. She agonizes against awful-tasting decaf even as she always allows herself only over-creamed, over-milked, over-sugared, over-sweetened cupfuls no matter whether caffeinated or decaffeinated coffees are available; New-York Tribune ad for Kaffee Hag, July 31, 1914, page 9: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Number puzzle lady Cora Felton acknowledges tomato juice as a daily beverage. She rarely appreciates it straight up, no matter how aesthetic or how alluring the arrangement; Thursday, March 20, 2008, 12:59, image of tomato juice with tomato slice and celery sprig: Davide (Davide Restivo), CC BY SA 2.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomato_Juice.jpg; Davide Restivo (Davide Restivo), CC BY SA 2.0 Unported, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/43698630@N00/2346870767

Cora adores caffeinated coffee even as business partner, cook, housemate and niece Sherry Carter appreciates decaf. She agonizes against awful-tasting decaf even as she always allows herself only over-creamed, over-milked, over-sugared, over-sweetened cupfuls no matter whether caffeinated or decaffeinated coffees are available; New-York Tribune ad for Kaffee Hag, July 31, 1914, page 9: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaffee_hag_newspaper_ad.png; via Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress @ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1914-07-31/ed-1/seq-9/

For further information:

Hall, Parnell. 2019. Lights! Camera! Puzzles! New York NY; London UK: Pegasus Crime.

Hall, Parnell. 2018. The Purloined Puzzle. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2017. A Puzzle To Be Named Later. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2016. Presumed Puzzled. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2015. Puzzled Indemnity. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2014. NYPD Puzzle. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2013. Arsenic and Old Puzzles. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2012. $10,000 in Small, Unmarked Puzzles. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2011. The Kenken Killings. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2010. The Puzzle Lady vs. The Sudoku Lady. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2009. Dead Man's Puzzle. New York NY: Minotaur Books, A Thomas Dunne Book for Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2008. The Sudoku Puzzle Murders. New York NY: Thomas Dunne Books St. Martin's Minotaur, an imprint of St. Martin's Press.

Hall, Parnell. 2006. You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled. New York NY: Bantam Books, division of Random House, Inc.

Hall, Parnell. 2005. Stalking the Puzzle Lady. New York NY: Bantam Books, division of Random House, Inc.

Hall, Parnell. 2004. And a Puzzle to Die On. New York NY: Bantam Books, division of Random House, Inc.

Hall, Parnell. 2003. With This Puzzle, I Thee Kill. New York NY: Bantam Books, division of Random House, Inc.

Hall, Parnell. 2002. A Puzzle in a Pear Tree. New York NY: Bantam Books, division of Random House, Inc.

Hall, Parnell. 2001. Puzzled to Death. New York NY: Bantam Books, division of Random House, Inc.

Hall, Parnell. 2000. Last Puzzle & Testament. New York NY: Bantam Books, division of Random House, Inc.

Hall, Parnell. 1999. A Clue for the Puzzle Lady. New York NY: Bantam Books, division of Random House, Inc.

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 January 2021. "New Yorkers Adapt to Less Light and More Parking in Puzzled to Death." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/new-yorkers-adapt-to-less-light-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 January 2021. "Fifteen Million Dollars Avenge Old Wrongs in Last Puzzle and Testament." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/fifteen-million-dollars-avenge-old.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 January 2021. "Chicken Soup Awes All But Appears Nowhere in Last Puzzle and Testament." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/chicken-soup-awes-all-but-appears.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 January 2021. "Interstate Highways Add More Hurley Heirs to Last Puzzle and Testament." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/interstate-highways-add-more-hurley.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 December 2020. "Bakerhaven Acquaintances Afford A Clue for the Puzzle Lady." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/12/bakerhaven-acquaintances-afford-clue.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 December 2020. "Bakerhaven Alcohol Acts as A Clue for the Puzzle Lady." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/12/bakerhaven-alcohol-acts-as-clue-for.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 December 2020. "An Actual Bakerhaven Map Never Appears as A Clue for the Puzzle Lady." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/12/an-actual-bakerhaven-map-never-appears.html

"Puzzle Lady." Parnell Hall.com > Books. Website by Kate Anchev/Outbox Online Design Studio.
Available @ http://parnellhall.com/puzzle-lady/