Earth and Space News: Puzzle Lady Mystery Series book 10

Showing posts with label Puzzle Lady Mystery Series book 10. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Intestate Acts Are, Are Not Intestate Actualities in Dead Man’s Puzzle

Summary: Intestate acts perhaps are or perhaps are not intestate actualities in Dead Man’s Puzzle, 10th mystery in the Puzzle Lady series authored by Parnell Hall.

The first death in Dead Man's Puzzle initially, superficially appears as naturally arising from cancer-activated renal failure and old age. A subsequent autopsy associates it with arsenic poisoning; alchemical symbol for arsenic: Bryan Derksen, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Intestate acts perhaps are or perhaps are not intestate actualities in Dead Man’s Puzzle, 10th mystery in the 20-book Puzzle Lady mystery series authored by Parnell Hall (Oct. 31, 1934-Dec. 15, 2020).

Cindy Barrington, Fred Goldman, Harmon Overmeyer, Snively and Alan and Ellen Weston bethink themselves heirs to the bitty track and the cabin built by Herbert Overmeyer. A cabin between a two-story Colonial on a commodious tract and a considerable house on a like-sized forest perhaps contains assets concealed by a 92-year-old miser. Herbert, unlike north-side neighbor Arlington and south-side neighbors George and Juliet Brooks, perhaps derived money from a convenience store/gas station robbery in Mobile, Alabama in 1956.

Rudy Clemson endured shrapnel embedded in one hip and post-traumatic stress syndrome as Korean War after-effects that encouraged engaging in criminal endeavors and endangered his wife.

A 32-caliber Smith and Wesson, fit under the bedroom floorboards, from Rawley’s Hardware and Sporting Goods in West Virginia figured in that robbery with two fatalities.

The 32-caliber gunned down former soldiers Claude Barnes fatally and Mickey Dare even as a .357 Smith and Wesson Magnum gunned down the station clerk fatally. Claude and the clerk perhaps had respective hometown and Mobile burials that year even as Rudy had his burial in Macon County, Georgia, one year ago. Medical Examiner Dr. Barney Nathan identifies as initial cause of the Overmeyer death old age and cancer-induced renal failure until an in-depth autopsy indicates arsenic poisoning.

Intestate acts of money nowhere in plain sight perhaps jumpstart intestate realities of dead Herbert journeying no farther than Bakerhaven Hospital Morgue in Dead Man’s Puzzle.

Perhaps Bakerhaven Hospital Morgue keeps dead Herbert until Kelly’s Funeral Home director knows that a probate hearing in Judge Hobbs’ courtroom kindles payment by Overmeyer heirs.

Herbert left perhaps $20,000, perhaps $30,000 to one legitimate heir who lives in San Antonio, Texas, if the latter lets go of Overmeyer land and lodging. The mystery man monikered Stockholm meets with puzzle lady Cora Felton about his father maintaining a Philip Morris stock-pooling agreement with Herbert, Rudy and someone else. Two more murders necessitate cruciverbalist (from Latin crux, “cross” and verbum, “word”) Harvey Beerbaum crossword and number puzzle-solving with Cora for Bakerhaven Police Chief Dale Harper.

Intestate acts of funds nowhere in plain sight occasion intestate actualities of Cora and attorney Becky Baldwin operating as unofficial estate administrators in Dead Man’s Puzzle.

Dennis Pride, Sherry Carter Grant’s and then Brenda Wallenstein’s first husbands and President and CEO Norman Wallenstein’s Wallenstein Textiles salesman son-in-law, perseveres as uncredentialed, unofficial detective.

Sarah Finestein of 15 Charles Street and Austin and Preston Samuels as respective bartender and actor/bartender at McCorly’s Pub on Amsterdam Avenue qualify as quintessential Manhattanites. Dale requires that Overmeyer heirs remain reachable, by Police Officers Sam Brogan and Dan Finley, in Bakerhaven motel units or Crowley, Johnson and Mercer bed-and-breakfast rooms. Jimmy, as Bakerhaven town librarian Edith Potter’s son back from a two-year degree spread over three years, succeeds in supplying Cora photographic if not computer-search support.

Intestate acts and intestate actualities perhaps trouble Cora less than Associated Press employee Betty Rosenberg touting emailing as attached files unfaxable crosswords in Dead Man’s Puzzle.

The Korean war (June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953) and its shrapnel altered the activities and the aspirations of many a military servant. Herbert Overmeyer appeared less agonized by his service than his best friend forever, Rudy Clemson. The latter approached post-war years through the anxious lenses of post-traumatic stress syndrome and of shrapnel archived in his hip; illustration of bursting shrapnel shell, USSR People's Commissariat of Defense, Artillery, second edition (1938): 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. 29 June 2021. "Fast Food and Safari Food Are For Puzzle Ladies in Dead Man’s Puzzle." Earth and Space News. Tuesday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2021/06/fast-food-and-safari-food-are-for.html

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/

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

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