Brenda H. (booksinvt) -
Lights! Camera! Puzzles is the twentieth installment of the Puzzle Lady mystery series featuring Cora Felton and set in the small town of Bakerhaven. The options to Cora's ex-husband Melvin's memoir about their marriage is being made into a movie filming in New York City and Cora has signed on as an Associate Producer in order to keep an eye on how she's going to be portrayed.
Right off the bat one of the gopher girls on set is murdered, quickly followed by her boyfriend, another gopher girl and one of the actors. You'd think with all of this action and with Cora teaming up with Sergeant Crowley to find the killer that this book would be a hit. For me it was a dud.
I have always enjoyed this series, spending time with Cora and her niece, solving puzzles and laughing at the witty one-liners but the last few additions read as though the author is just trying to meet a quota. I actually started and put this book down three times over the course of the past two years before finally forcing myself to finish it. There was just too much back and forth conversation and it was very difficult to keep the characters straight - the murders also seemed to take a backseat to the "witty" conversation. Only two puzzles, neither having anything do to do with the murders and just a few brief glimpses of Sherry and the other characters we've come to love was a big let down as well.
Right off the bat one of the gopher girls on set is murdered, quickly followed by her boyfriend, another gopher girl and one of the actors. You'd think with all of this action and with Cora teaming up with Sergeant Crowley to find the killer that this book would be a hit. For me it was a dud.
I have always enjoyed this series, spending time with Cora and her niece, solving puzzles and laughing at the witty one-liners but the last few additions read as though the author is just trying to meet a quota. I actually started and put this book down three times over the course of the past two years before finally forcing myself to finish it. There was just too much back and forth conversation and it was very difficult to keep the characters straight - the murders also seemed to take a backseat to the "witty" conversation. Only two puzzles, neither having anything do to do with the murders and just a few brief glimpses of Sherry and the other characters we've come to love was a big let down as well.
