New Releases by Parnell Hall

Miss Cora Felton, the eccentric amateur detective better known as the Puzzle Lady, likes nothing better than to solve a good mystery–and this time she’s got a killer on her hands. What isn’t puzzling is why critics agree that “Cora is emerging as a lovable and unique sleuth” (Chicago Sun-Times) in “a fun series for mystery fans and cruciverbalists” (USA Today). Bakerhaven, Connecticut, seems like the ideal place to host a charity crossword-puzzle tournament–after all, the town is home to Cora Felton, the beloved puzzle columnist known as the Puzzle Lady. A slew of celebrity contestants are on the way. And the locals have been invited to challenge the veteran puzzlers head-on. But soon the town’s attention is fixated on something far more controversial than crosswords...when the body of the town tart is discovered lying dead on her kitchen floor. Before anyone can stop her, Cora is hot on the trail of the truth, interviewing nosy neighbors, digging up dirt, and drawing out a lonely recluse who just may hold the key to cracking the crime. But will she solve the case before the contest comes to a deadly end? Cora once again proves that sleuthing spells S-U-S-P-E-N-S-E–up, across, and down!

Good old Stanley, always willing to do a favor. Stanley Hastings, the worst private detective in New York--maybe in the known universe--enters the big league. When asked to investigate Sergeant MacAullif''s son-in-law, Stanley gets himself into trouble yet again. Doing favors can create a lot of problems. When Stanley takes on the case, he ends up doing one more favor than he expected: he unwittingly takes the blame for the questionable dealings of MacAullif''s son-in-law. Now he must find a way out of this mess. Maybe he''ll learn to be more cautious next time he''s asked to do a favor.

Cruciverbalists, rejoice! Pick up a pencil and get ready to solve a puzzling murder-and an actual crossword puzzle-in this sparkling debut of a unique amateur detective: Miss Cora Felton, an eccentric old lady with a syndicated puzzle column, an irresistible urge to poke into unsettling events, and a niece who''s determined to keep her out of trouble. When the body of an unknown teenage girl turns up in the cemetery in the quiet town of Bakerhaven, Police Chief Dale Harper finds himself investigating his first homicide. A baffling clue leads him to consult Bakerhaven''s resident puzzle expert-his first big mistake. Soon Cora''s meddling, mischief-making behavior drives Chief Harper to distraction and inspires many cross words from her long-suffering niece, Sherry. But when another body turns up in a murder that hits much closer to home, Cora must find a killer-before she winds up in a wooden box three feet across...and six down.

While tracking the source of threatening phone calls to bestselling author Kenneth P. Winnington''s wife, P.I. Stanley Hastings becomes the prime murder suspect when those threats turn deadly.

Working for an ambitious defense attorney, Hastings has a ringside seat at a juicy murder case plus $200 a day to investigate the accused''s ironclad alibi. But the more Stanley investigates the alibi, the more it crumbles around him.

Stanley Hastings must work to clear his name when the people involved in his most recent case, including his client, start turning up dead.--

When Manhattan private eye and part-time actor Stanley Hastings gets an offer to have his screenplay produced, he thinks he''s finally hit it big. But when corpses keep turning up, he sees he will have to re-write the ending, to catch the killer.

Agreeing to help a seemingly innocent girl who is threatened by someone claiming to have erotic photographs of her, private detective Stanley Hastings acquires the photos only to learn that the claims--and the girl''s identity--are bogus. Reprint.

Stanley Hastings is called to Connecticut as a last-minute replacement for an actor in a play, and when the stage manager is mysteriously murdered, Stanley becomes the prime suspect

This Edgar Award-nominated series features Stanley Hastings, the unsinkable Manhattan sleuth who always seems to find himself in big trouble. Hastings gets set to investigate the romantic intentions of a young man who''s courting his client. But the young Romeo winds up dead, and Hastings'' only paying client is getting booked for the crime. Mystery Guild Selection. Fine.

Annie Laird is Juror 224. A sculptor with a career going nowhere. A single mother struggling to raise a son. A good citizen who has been summoned to what looks like a rountine tour of civic duty, but the trial she is called to serve on is no ordinary trial. It is a mob trial, whose outcome has been meticulously orchestrated by a man of insidious power and deadly precision. A man who lives by the teachings of Lao Tsu, whose magnetism is irresistible and whose mind is as brilliant as it is twisted. He is know to some as the Teacher, and he''s set his sights on Annie Laird.

Blessed with a paying client, Stanley Hastings soon finds himself cursed with the onus of suspicion when the woman he is following is murdered, and the sleuth''s efforts to clear his name take him to the highest levels of New York government

A Stanley Hastings novel of suspense, by the author of F̀avor'' and D̀etective''.

When Stanley Hastings, a chivalrous gentleman but mediocre detective, agrees to help prostitute Pamela Berringer free herself from her pimp, Stanley winds up as the number one suspect in a murder investigation