The Christmas jigsaw murders

Benedict stumbles with her disappointing third yuletide whodunit (after Murder on the Christmas Express). Octogenarian Edie O'Sullivan, known as the "Pension Puzzler" for her work making crosswords for British newspapers, has hated the holidays ever since her mother died giving birth to her younger brother on Christmas Day in 1946. Now, she receives an anonymous package on December 1 with a half-assembled jigsaw puzzle and a note threatening to kill four people by Christmas Eve unless Edie finishes it ("You are known for your crosswords, but can you set your sights on a murderer?"). She takes the evidence to her grand-nephew, Sean, a detective inspector Edie raised after the death of his parents. He warns Edie to stay out of the official inquiry, but after one of her neighbors is nearly bludgeoned to death and left with a jigsaw piece in his hand, she can't help putting her puzzle-solving skills to the test. Benedict squanders the intriguing setup with an overreliance on boilerplate mystery beats. Readers seeking a sturdier execution of a similar concept should check out Nero Blanc's Crossword Mystery series. (Oct.)

Murder strikes again and again without leaving a single emotional trace in this game-heavy seasonal bonbon. Readers who think the story is the main event here will be briskly redirected by the author's opening announcement that the book contains three different word puzzles--involving Dickens novels, Fleetwood Mac numbers, and a Christmas song--before the killer gets down to business by sending a taunting message signed "Rest in Pieces" to Edie O'Sullivan, the Pensioner Puzzler renowned among fans for the ingenious crosswords she creates. Edie is a high-maintenance octogenarian who begins by recalling her breakup with a lover, Sky, 20 years ago and then proceeds to quarrel with her son, DI Sean Brand-O'Sullivan, his husband, Liam Brand-O'Sullivan, and her 90-year-old next-door neighbor, Riga Novack, at every opportunity. She's the kind of person who thinks reflexively in anagrams, and the target audience for this brainy confection will be kindred spirits. Four locals will die in the week before Christmas, each corpse found with a corner piece of a jigsaw puzzle, each victim otherwise utterly disposable (three of them are introduced shortly before their demise). The murderer, once identified, is equally forgettable. What readers in Benedict's sharply limited niche will remember long after they've forgotten the plot is the abundance of games played by and on the characters throughout the story. Even the closing acknowledgments take the form of three anagrammatic crossword puzzles, though the appended recipes are written in plain English. Put on your thinking cap, and check your empathy at the door. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.