cover image The Devil's Puzzle: A Someday Quilts Mystery

The Devil's Puzzle: A Someday Quilts Mystery

Clare O'Donohue. Plume, $14 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-452-29737-1

Near the outset of O'Donohue's satisfying fourth cozy set in the Hudson River town of Archers Rest (after 2010's The Double Cross), Oliver White, a prominent English artist, shows series heroine Nell Fitzgerald a grim discovery: a skeleton at the bottom of a hole dug in the rose garden of Nell's grandmother, Eleanor Cassidy. Oliver was planning that night to propose to Eleanor, who runs a quilting shop in Archers Rest, but as Oliver indicates to Nell, this unsettling find has left him in no mood to discuss marriage. While Nell investigates what appears to be a homicide, Mayor Larry Williams, who owns the local travel agency, seizes on the mystery of the skeleton to promote the town's upcoming Fourth of July and 350th anniversary celebration. Nell's special relationship with the Archers Rest police chief, Jesse Dewalt, and her helpful group of quilters add warmth and interest. (Oct.)