A PUZZLE IN A PEAR TREE

Merry Christmas from the Puzzle Lady, Cora Felton, whose sweet face fronts the undercover crossword construction of her niece Sherry Carter and masks her own year-round Bah Humbug spirit. Cora is suffering through rehearsals as one of the eight maids a-milking, all of whom said goodbye to their maidenly days some time ago, in a purposely ironic interpretation of the Twelve Days of Christmas as directed by the theatrical (not to say histrionic) Rupert Winston, determined to make the Bakerhaven Christmas Pageant a tribute to his artistic genius. Sherry, originally one of the 11 ladies dancing, lands a breakout role as the Virgin Mary in Bakerhaven’s traditional live crèche, in which actors pantomime the Nativity. Sorely in need of a respite from Rupert’s ridicule of her singing, Cora gets it when an unknown hand attaches a threatening acrostic to the pear tree presented to the star of the pageant, Sherry’s nemesis, beautiful Becky Baldwin. Chief Harper relies on Cora to figure out the puzzle until Jonathon Doddsworth arrives. A Bakerhaven alumnus visiting his daughter Maxine, Doddsworth, now working for Scotland Yard, is happy to lend a hand. But when Maxine’s best friend Dorrie is killed while posing as the Virgin Mary, Doddsworth’s help lands Sherry in jail.

Cora’s indifference to proper holiday spirit and everyday civility saves the day as she untangles tinsel and public charades: overall, less abrasive and more amusing than her previous outings (Puzzled to Death, 2001, etc.).