Puzzling Ink
Quinn Carr wishes her life could be more like a crossword puzzle: neat, orderly, and perfectly arranged. At least her passion for puzzles, a flair for words, and a mild case of OCD, have landed her a gig creating crosswords for the local paper. But if she ever hopes to move out of her parents’ house, she can’t give up her day job as a waitress. She needs the tips. But when a customer ends up dead at her table, face down in biscuits and gravy, Quinn needs to get a clue to find whodunit.
It turns out that solving a murder is a lot harder than creating a crossword. Quinn has plenty of suspects, up, down, and across. One of them is her boss, the owner of the diner, who shares a culinary past with the victim. Two of them are ex-wives, her boss’s, and the victims. A third complication is the Chief of Police, who refuses to allow much investigation, preferring the pretense their town has no crime. To solve this mystery, Quinn has to think outside the boxes before the killer gets the last word.
Series: A Crossword Puzzle Mystery – Book #1
Author: Becky Clark
Genre/Catagory: Cozy – Amateur Sleuth/Hobbies
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Page Count: 207
Rating: 
First off, I have to say that I did enjoy this book, to an extent. Puzzling Ink has tremendous potential for a new series. Most of the characters are charming and easy to like, even if they are a little rough around the edges. I loved Quinn’s mom and dad; they added humor and quirkiness to the story. I like having the crossword puzzles be the main character’s focus, and it gives the story a unique twist. However, there are some glaring issues with this story.
Quinn really isn’t all that liable. Describing her as having “a mild case” of OCD is like describing Buckingham Palace as quaint. In reality, Quinn’s OCD would be a significant problem, and not just when she was feeling stressed. Unfortunately, having her OCD as the storyline’s main focus made it challenging to get into the puzzle (mystery) aspects. The constant dialogue about counting, color coding, and general habits, with the rubber band snapping and so forth was distracting at best and added very little understanding to the character, to those with OCD, or the story.
The murder investigation was not as prominent as it should have been, and there was little interaction with any real suspects. Evidence is also lacking distinction. The killer is barely in the story, and what twists and turns there are don’t add any action or drama to the plot. I think the puzzles should have been more of a factor, as I felt it would have made a solid foundation for future installments. However, I can live with all of the issues I listed above, but the fact that not all of the questions were answered, even those that seemed to be important to the investigation, is where I have to draw the line. It is imperative in a cozy book, no matter that it is part of a series, that in the end, all questions brought up as evidence or possible motives have to be resolved. In this book, some questions were left open, with no relevance to future books.
Overall, I felt Puzzling Ink was a puzzle of its own and could have been much better, but I also see the potential for future books that hopefully will address the issues of this first one. I know that Ms. Clark is a talented writer with a sense of humor, so I know she can make the next book far better than this one.
Other interesting cozies readers will enjoy include Annelise Ryan’s latest addition to the “A Helping Hands Mystery” series or Mary L Ashford’s mouth-watering “A Sugar & Spice Mystery”.
About the Author:
Becky Clark is the seventh of eight kids, which explains both her insatiable need for attention and her atrocious table manners. She likes to read funny books, so it felt natural to write them too. She surrounds herself with quirky people and pets who end up as characters in her books. Her stout-hearted dog keeps her safe from menacing squirrels, leaves, and deer, but not plastic bags. Those things are terrifying.
Becky won the 1st place “Best in Category” Mystery & Mayhem Award from the Chanticleer International Book Awards for Fiction Can Be Murder, book one in the Mystery Writer’s Mystery series.
Becky lives in Colorado with her husband and the adorable Nala. One of them can never get enough cookies, loves to be outdoors, and needs constant grooming. The other is a dog.
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