The Crossword Murder

Rating:
Summary: Reading Pace Changes When Clues Presented
Review: 5/9/03 I purchased the book at a small suburban bookstore ,which specializes in fiction due to the creative jacket of the book(which has a hand filling in the crossword spaces with a red Bic pen... ...the 306 page paperback was not a total intrigue.. Its many puzzles(Pgs 68,126,180,234,260 and a post script puzzle Pg 297)(and "answers" Pgs 301-306)..as well as a little humor in the use of a few Nursery Rhymes as "thoughts to ponder"(Yankee Doodle Dandy/Peter,Peter Pumkin Eater) and the mention of a few current people/entity(s)(e.g. Pg 189 "..calling his office or car phone would be useless and dialing 911 seemed not only a tad hysterical but also premature"),places,things*(e.g.Pg 137 "her chin resting in the palm of her left hand as her right hand drummed the 'Herald's'crossword puzzle with the tip of a red Bic* pen" &(Pg 284/285) a raft of '3' letter Hawaiian words:"lei,hoi,ava,hee,hui,koa,aku,imu,poi" & 4 letter Greek of "Ares,Hera,Leda,Cora,Nike,Hebe,Zeus,Eros,Gaia,Eris,Letodo" spark curious interest ongoingly on everything but solving the mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Good Not Great
Review: I picked up this book while shopping one day, intrigued by the fact that it included some crossword puzzles and I am a fan of them. After reading the book, I realised the crossword puzzles were extraneous and that I did not have to do the puzzles to help figure out who committed the murder.
Private investigator Rosco Polycrates is hired by the mother of a murder victim (crossword editor for a local newspaper) to investigate the death, which is first ruled natural causes. He has the help of sexy (of course) but married Anabella Graham, the crossword maven for the rival newspaper.
The writing was lively in some spots, but amateurish in others, particularly in its characterizations of the secondary characters, who mostly came across as stereotypes - ugly secretary in love with handsome boss, prissy society column writer, cheating aging sex goddess married to older man, etc.
Not for sure if I will pick up the second in the series or not.

Rating:
Summary: The Crossword Murder
Review: In this series opener of the pseudonymous Nero Blanc's crossword mysteries, private eye Rosco Polycrates investigates the murder of crossword editor Thompson Briephs. Briephs is a scion of the local aristocracy, the son of imposing patrician Sara Briephs and the nephew of her brother, democratic senator Hal Crane. Briephs is also a bit of a loon. Eschewing his family's more traditionally tasteful lifestyle, Briephs lives alone on an island in a house that was built to his specifications, a labyrinthine, red-walled replica of an ancient Minoan palace. This is unlikely in the extreme, of course, but it does provide an excuse for numerous classical references in the book, including a quotation from Sophocles' Ajax: "Silence gives the proper grace to women."

The character quoting Sophocles with disapproval is a crossword editor herself, Thompson Briephs's counterpart in a rival newspaper. Anabelle Graham is beautiful and intelligent, capable of reciting a list of four-letter Greek goddesses even in trying circumstances, and she is, unfortunately for Rosco, married. As the solution of Briephs's murder depends on the solution of a series of crossword puzzles--anticipating his demise, Briephs left clues--Belle becomes involved with Rosco's investigation and interested in the private eye himself.

Although The Crossword Mystery strains credibility in its description of Briephs's island home, the book is a good read, and the hesitant flirtation between Rosco and Belle is fun to watch. Crossword enthusiasts in particular will enjoy the book: it includes six puzzles for readers to solve along with Belle, among them Harrison Briephs's posthumous cryptics.