Christmas Carolers Are Three Voices Short in A Puzzle in a Pear Tree

Summary: Christmas carolers in the Bakerhaven band are three voices short in A Puzzle in a Pear Tree, 2nd mystery in the Puzzle Lady series by Parnell Hall.

Bakerhaven Village Green accommodates a live Nativity each year. The living tradition anchors in the first Nativity arranged by St. Francis of Assisi (Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, 1181/1182?-Oct. 3, 1226) in 1223 and the first painting of the Nativity by Giotto di Bondone (1267–Jan. 8, 1337) in 1295: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Christmas carolers in the Bakerhaven band are three voices short in A Puzzle in a Pear Tree, 2nd mystery in the Puzzle Lady series by Parnell Hall (Oct. 31, 1934-Dec. 15, 2020).

A caroling band, a Christmas pageant, a live Nativity and a Russian play bring cast and crewmen and town residents to Bakerhaven High and Main Street. Music teacher Hodges, Broadway director Rupert Winston, art teacher Charlie Ferric and drama teacher Erskine chose and coaxed band, pageant, Nativity and play cast and crew. Lords a-leaping such as crossword-puzzle constructor Harvey Beerbaum and maids a-milking such as puzzle lady Cora Felton and librarian Edith Potter draw band and pageant membership.

Attorney Becky Baldwin, Cora's niece Sherry Carter and Bakerhaven Gazette reporter Aaron Grant embrace solo, ladies dancing and drummers drumming leads and three Nativity roles daily.

Bakerhaven High School senior Alfred Adams and teacher Jesse Virdon function as scene painter, set designer, stage manager and technical director and light-man and as Joseph.

Maxine Doddsworth and Dorrie Taggart garner bit and lead roles in Bakerhaven High’s The Seagull by Anton Chekhov (Jan. 29, 1860-July 15, 1904) and as Mary. The Nativity and the pageant have Bakerhaven High senor Lance Ridgewood as Joseph and Dick Larson and Edith Potter’s son Jimmy as drummer and pear-tree holder. Wendy Brill, as Bakerhaven High School student, and Mabel Cunningham inhabit the girls’ dressing room in Bakerhaven High School as costume assistant and costume mistress, respectively.

One death at Bakerhaven High, another downtown, another in residential Bakerhaven jeopardize three carolers jubilating with the Christmas band in A Puzzle in a Pear Tree.

The live Nativity on Village Green keeps downtown Bakerhaven kinetic with visitors such as Carl Perkins, wife Nancy and sons Jed and Randy of Greenwich, Connecticut.

Reverend Kimble leads Bakerhaven Congregational Church, whose organ loft’s front-wall window looks down upon the live Nativity 10 to 20 yards (9.14 to 18.29 meters) away. Menacing acrostic puzzles and moving sandbags mean that Bakerhaven Police Chief Dale Harper makes Police Officers Sam Brogan and Dan Finley monitor Becky, Cora and Sherry. A dart nursing curare, a noose around a bludgeoned victim’s neck and a cup nursing cyanide necessitate Emergency Medical Services and Medical Examiner Dr. Barney Nathan.

Three deaths occasion five openings in Christmas pageants and live Nativities and three carolers short in the Christmas band in A Puzzle in a Pear Tree.

Jerry Lynch, as Surf & Sun motel-keeper in New Jersey and then in Bakerhaven, puts Cora in unit 7 and Jonathon Doddsworth III in unit 12.

Cora qualifies as quick check-in, quick check-out since she quests information about the Scotland Yard investigator's Bakerhaven investigations from his unit and quickly quits her unit. Cora retains Becky at $10,000 to represent the Nativity murder suspect against County Prosecutor Henry Firth in arraignment proceedings under Judge Hobbs at Bakerhaven County Courthouse. She seeks crime-solving support at the Doddsworth and the Taggart residences of Jonathon’s ex-wife Pamela and daughter Max and of Horace, Mindy and their daughter Dorris.

Cora tells Channel 8 on-camera reporter Rick Reed nothing about three deaths truncating the Christmas band by three carolers in A Puzzle in a Pear Tree.

Bakerhaven High School achieves two productions for the Christmas season: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov (Jan. 29, 1860-July 15, 1904) and The Twelve Days of Christmas. Its art teacher angles some actors from the former and some from the latter for the live Nativity on Bakerhaven Village Green. One student, as daughter of perhaps the town's richest, wealthiest family, appears in two acclaimed roles, as Mary in the live Nativity and Nina in The Seagull; Anton Chekhov reads The Seagull to Moscow Art Theatre members, including (to Chekhov's right) founder Konstantin Stanislavski and Olga Knipper (Chekhov's wife) and (to Chekhov's left) Stanislavski's wife, Maria Petrovna Alexeyeva (stage name: Maria Lilina), in 1898 photograph by Petr Petrovich Pavlov (1860-1925): 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:

Bakerhaven Village Green accommodates a live Nativity each year. The living tradition anchors in the first Nativity arranged by St. Francis of Assisi (Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, 1181/1182?-Oct. 3, 1226) in 1223 and the first painting of the Nativity by Giotto di Bondone (1267–Jan. 8, 1337) in 1295: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giotto_-_Legend_of_St_Francis_-_-13-_-_Institution_of_the_Crib_at_Greccio.jpg

Bakerhaven High School achieves two productions for the Christmas season: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov (Jan. 29, 1860-July 15, 1904) and The Twelve Days of Christmas. Its art teacher angles some actors from the former and some from the latter for the live Nativity on Bakerhaven Village Green. One student, as daughter of perhaps the town's richest, wealthiest family, appears in two acclaimed roles, as Mary in the live Nativity and Nina in The Seagull; Anton Chekhov reads The Seagull to Moscow Art Theatre members, including (to Chekhov's right) founder Konstantin Stanislavski and Olga Knipper (Chekhov's wife) and (to Chekhov's left) Stanislavski's wife, Maria Petrovna Alexeyeva (stage name: Maria Lilina), in 1898 photograph by Petr Petrovich Pavlov (1860-1925): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anton_Chekhov_reads_The_Seagull.jpg

For further information:

Corcoran, Vanessa. 18 December 2019. "How St. Francis created the Nativity scene, with a miraculous event in 1223." The Conversation > Ethics + Religion.
Available @ https://theconversation.com/how-st-francis-created-the-nativity-scene-with-a-miraculous-event-in-1223-124742

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. 23 February 2021. "A Puzzle in a Pear Tree Alters a Christmas Pageant and a Live Nativity." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-puzzle-in-pear-tree-alters-christmas.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 February 2021. "Tristate Access Adds a Broadway Director to A Puzzle in a Pear Tree." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/02/tristate-access-adds-broadway-director.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 February 2021. "Attorney Becky Baldwin Maybe Aces New York Lawyers in Puzzled to Death." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/02/attorney-becky-baldwin-maybe-aces-new.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 February 2021. "Perhaps Fun Night Attendees Ate All Free Desserts in Puzzled to Death." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/02/perhaps-fun-night-attendees-ate-all.html

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/