Earth and Space News: Fast Food and Safari Food Are For Puzzle Ladies in Dead Man’s Puzzle

Summary: Fast food and safari food are for puzzle ladies Cora and Sherry, not for toy poodle Buddy, in Dead Man’s Puzzle, 10th Puzzle Lady mystery by Parnell Hall.

Sherry Carter Grant perhaps accustoms herself to not arranging all meals for Aunt Cora and for second husband, Aaron Grant, while appreciating her two-week honeymoon with the latter in Masai Mara, northern Kenya. She nevertheless agonizes over whether common (Phacochoerus africanus) and desert (P. aethiopicus) warthogs are the appetizing sources of safari bacon: Thomas Fuhrmann (Snowmanstudios). CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Fast food and safari food are for puzzle ladies, not for a toy poodle, in Dead Man’s Puzzle, 10th mystery in author Parnell Hall’s (Oct. 31, 1934-Dec. 15, 2020) Puzzle Lady series.

Number puzzle lady Cora Felton and crossword puzzle lady Sherry Carter Grant respectively bite into fast food and safari food during the latter’s second-marriage, two-week-long honeymoon. The former collects canine comestibles for toy poodle Buddy Felton, who customarily consumes whatever the latter creates for Aunt Cora and for second husband, Aaron Grant. She dislikes the disastrous coffee that she drinks from the Carter/Felton/Grant automatic-drip coffeemaker to which she delegates sometimes heaping, sometimes level doses from different-purposed, different-sized scoops.

Butter Almond Thins from Trader Joe’s supermarket enable Cora, who enjoys coffee drinks over coffees, and Bakerhaven Police Chief Dale Harper to endure her execrable coffee.

Cora favors for herself an unidentified scone with latte (from Latin lac, via Italian latte, “milk”), for Dale a blueberry scone with creamed, large, sugared coffee.

Cruciverbalist (from Latin crux, “cross” and verbum, “word”) Harvey Beerbaum, like Dale, gets Mary Cushman’s Bake Shop-brewed coffee and Cushman-imported muffins from Manhattan-garrisoned Silver Moon Bakery. Dale successively hankers for coffee with blueberry-ginger muffin, three coffees, four coffees with corn muffin and cranberry scone and, from Cora, coffee with raisin bran muffin. Cora itinerates less to the downtown library and more to Bakerhaven mall for Burger King and McDonald’s fast foods instead of for Starbucks drinkable, edible items.

Fast food and meat-jammed safari food perhaps respectfully jeopardize puzzle ladies Cora’s jar-like silhouette and Sherry’s judicious journeys juxtaposing elephants, giraffes, lions, monkeys, wildebeests and zebras.

Dennis Pride, as Cora’s ex-nephew-in-law and Sherry’s first husband, knuckles under to carryout coffee outside a Manhattan insurance company and unspecified alcohol at Country Kitchen bar.

Cora once loved her gin and tonic even as lately she leaves it alone and lets herself like Diet Coke with lemon wedge at McCorly’s Pub. She manages without brain freeze from manhandling Starbucks venti Frappuccino (from Italian venti, “20[-ounce]” and from French frappe, “milkshake” and Italian cappuccino, “brown-red [Capuchin monk hoodlet]”). She navigates side streets for attorney Becky Baldwin’s law office, not for Bakerhaven pizza parlor below, despite noting daily specials nuancing chicken, pepperoni and sausage ingredients.

Dead Man’s Puzzle ladies respectively obtain fast food and, perhaps with, perhaps without chicken-like poached warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus, P. africanus), bacon-, eggs-, pancakes-, toast-overloaded safari food.

Cora plaintively perceives the Herbert Overmeyer cabin, where an ant-packed apple, beer bottles and Domino’s Pizza prevail, and protests against Chinese takeout’s cheese- and sauce-poor pizza.

Cora questions Harmon Overmeyer’s alibi questing pre-dinner drinks in his motel room and Snively’s alibi never quitting over-ginned Bob and deaf Madge Mercer’s bed and breakfast. She rues Fred Goldman reconstructing perhaps Burger King, perhaps McDonald’s carryout, dining-room, perhaps drive-through repasts and Harmon rendering his Country Kitchen dinner waitress an 8-percent tip. She samples pot pies and Sam Brogan’s Juicy Fruit gum pack; serves Buddy biscuits, kibble and puppy treats; shuns stale-milked cornflakes; and suffers scorched egg noodles.

Fast food tempts puzzle ladies such as Cora less than breath-shortening cigarettes and Wicker Basket French fries, more than Granville Grains Corn Toasties and safari food.

Perhaps Carter/Felton/Grant house residents and visitors are contemplating a movable sign above the country-style kitchen for when number puzzle lady Cora Felton avails herself of any drink- and food-processing equipment. Coffee drinkers and egg-noodle eaters are not going to appreciate what Cora achieves despite automatic-drip coffeemakers and stove-top pans and pots. They are properly warned with the words, Abandon all hope, ye who enter here, from the Hell-gate inscription, Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate from Canto III of Inferno, first part of Divina Commedia ("Divine Comedy") by Dante Alighieri (1265?-Sep. 14, 1321); The Inscription Over Hell-Gate by English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake (Nov. 28, 1757-Aug. 12, 1827): 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:

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. 22 June 2021. "Alabama and New York Add to Bakerhaven Traffic in Dead Man’s Puzzle." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/06/alabama-and-new-york-add-to-bakerhaven.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 June 2021. "All Are Aware of Private Investigators in The Sudoku Puzzle Murders." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/06/all-are-aware-of-private-investigators.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 June 2021. "Martini, Muffins, Pancakes and Scotch Allay The Sudoku Puzzle Murders." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/06/martini-muffins-pancakes-and-scotch.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 June 2021. "Bakerhaven, New York and Tokyo Are Close in The Sudoku Puzzle Murders." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/06/bakerhaven-new-york-and-tokyo-are-close.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 25 May 2021. "Betting, Puzzling, Suing Are Why You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/05/betting-puzzling-suing-are-why-you-have.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 May 2021. "Starbucks Caramel Adds Acuity in You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/05/starbucks-caramel-adds-acuity-in-you.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 May 2021. "You Have the Right to Remain Puzzled Alerts Us About Bakerhaven Trains." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/05/you-have-right-to-remain-puzzled-alerts.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 May 2021. "One Knife, Two Deaths, Four Puzzles Aid in Stalking the Puzzle Lady." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/04/granville-grains-corn-toasties-appall.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 April 2021. "Granville Grains Corn Toasties Appall Cora in Stalking the Puzzle Lady." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/04/granville-grains-corn-toasties-appall.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 April 2021. "Coastal Connecticut Attracts Reality Ads in Stalking the Puzzle Lady." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/04/coastal-connecticut-attracts-reality.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 April 2021. "And a Puzzle to Die On Augments Bakerhaven Acquaintances by One." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/04/and-puzzle-to-die-on-augments.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 April 2021. "A Birthday Bash And a Puzzle to Die On Await Cora and an Outsider." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-birthday-bash-and-puzzle-to-die-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 30 March 2021. "Bakerhaven Maps Aim a Victim at a Birthday Bash And a Puzzle to Die On." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/03/bakerhaven-maps-aim-victim-at-birthday.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 23 March 2021. "Four Cryptograms Assure Two Deaths in With This Puzzle, I Thee Kill." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/03/four-cryptograms-assure-two-deaths-in.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 March 2021. "Honeyed Lemoned Teas Are For Fiancees in With This Puzzle, I Thee Kill." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/03/honeyed-lemoned-teas-are-for-fiancees.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 March 2021. "Manhattan and San Diego Account For Why With This Puzzle, I Thee Kill." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/03/manhattan-and-san-diego-account-for-why.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 March 2021. "Christmas Carolers Are Three Voices Short in A Puzzle in a Pear Tree." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/03/christmas-carolers-are-three-voices.html

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/

Earth and Space News

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Fast Food and Safari Food Are For Puzzle Ladies in Dead Man’s Puzzle

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