Earth and Space News: Puzzle Lady Mystery Series book 4

Showing posts with label Puzzle Lady Mystery Series book 4. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

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:

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/

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

A Puzzle in a Pear Tree Alters a Christmas Pageant and a Live Nativity

Summary: A Puzzle in a Pear Tree alters a Christmas pageant and a live Nativity, in the 4th mystery in the 20-book Puzzle Lady series authored by Parnell Hall.

The English Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas, from a chanted rhyme by 1780, abounds with danceable, joyous music in its traditional folk melody arranged in 1909 by English composer Frederic Austin (Mar. 30, 1872-Apr. 10, 1952). It acts as an idea list for those who are clueless about assembling attractive presents acceptable to all givers and receivers. It appeases dinnertime appetites with its edible calling birds (Passeri suborder of Passeriformes order), French hens (Faverolles), geese (Anatidae family), goose eggs, partridges (Phasianidae family), pears (Pyrus), swans (Cygnus) and turtledoves (Streptopelia turtur) and potable milk and water: Xavier Romero-Frias, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

A Puzzle in a Pear Tree alters a Christmas pageant and a live Nativity, in the 4th mystery in the 20-book Puzzle Lady series by Parnell Hall (Oct. 31, 1934-Dec. 15, 2020).

Edible references bandied about Christmas pageant rehearsals perhaps bother lead actress skinny, slender, slim, thin, trim attorney Becky Baldwin less than buxom maid a-milking Cora Felton. And yet no one compares breakfasts at Mary Cushman’s Bake Shop, daily specials at Bakerhaven pizza parlor, lunches at Wicker Basket or suppers at Country Kitchen. Bakerhaven Police Chief Dale Harper digests two daily breakfasts, one with wife Ellen and daughter Clara, and one, two, three more on Cushman coffee and pastries.

Acrostic (from Greek ἀκροστιχίς, “[first-most] topmost [letter in each line of] verse) puzzles and two pageanters expiring perhaps enervate Sherry enough to erode her coffee-making expertise.

Automatic-drip coffeemaker and fixtures furnishing other hot drinks favor Dale with respectively warm coffee not hot-feeling after 15 seconds in a microwave oven and fine cocoa.

Perhaps Dale and Jonathon Doddsworth III of Scotland Yard gravitated Cora respectively to home- instead of bakery- and restaurant-generated coffees and to alcoholic gulps rehearsal week. Cora heads to the alcoholic lane, not the non-alcoholic line, to the punch bowl, where she has something amber over cracked ice, in the Grant household. She ignores the first, buffet table and the second, bar table for the third, punch-bowl table even as Jonathon inundates his shirt while imbibing his martini.

A puzzle in a pear tree, not a partridge amid pears, jeopardizes Bakerhavenite appetites during a week juggling a Christmas pageant rehearsal and a live Nativity.

Her smock with all its cigarette burns and liquor stains perhaps kindles Cora chain-smoking cigarettes before, during and after a Bloody Mary and Cutty Sark whisky.

Sherry likes caffeinated coffee, which Cora loves, less than decaffeinated coffee and the latter less than Earl Grey, which Jonathon loves, Red Zinger and Sleepytime teas. She makes a lunchtime meal, perhaps gourmet, for Bakerhaven Gazette reporter Aaron Grant and a refrigeratable dessert, perhaps for Aaron, perhaps from scratch and perhaps gourmet. She nourishes Becky and Cora with asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) risotto (from Italian risotto, “[short-grain] rice”) and with baked, boiled, cooked or fried, mishmashed chicken and vegetables.

A puzzle in a pear tree oppresses appetites somewhat inside, very much outside Bakerhavenite households during a week occasioning Christmas pageant rehearsals and a live Nativity.

Cora prefers one candy cane from Pamela Doddsworth’s Christmas tree, and her cigarettes even as Mindy Taggart puffers her own, to polite cups of hot drinks.

Fresh milk, not custard pudding in a weeks-old cup, in the kitchen refrigerator and Oreo cookies in the kitchen cupboard qualify as the quintessential kitchen-table dessert. Pageant director Rupert Winston relishes Evian water with purple tablets, whose role remains as medicine, recreation or sugar-candy props, and perhaps for almond-flavored, bitter-tasting hot teas. Pamela never says what Jonathon seizes from her refrigerator even as Sherry never states what she serves Aaron and herself, what she never saves for Cora.

A Puzzle in a Pear Tree, without a talismanic, traditional partridge, and troubling acrostics threaten tranquil Bakerhaven’s Christmas pageant and live Nativity and thwart holiday appetites.

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's niece Sherry Carter apparently abstains from her usually abundant baking and cooking. She accomplishes some unspecified dessert during her aunt''s absence. There are no leftovers in the refrigerator, where Cora archives a weeks-old cup of custard pudding for some day when she adheres to less rigid standards of freshness date and product quality. So Cora and Sherry instead appreciate Oreo cookies dunked in milk; Thursday, March 11, 2010, 07:57: Chase Lindberg, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Super_Slow_Motion_Oreo_Dunk_in_Milk.jpg; Chase Lindberg (Chase Lindberg Photography), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/chaselindberg/4425175698/

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