SINISTER SUDOKU
A Sudoku Mystery - #3
Kaye Morgan
Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN 9780425223062
August 2008
Mystery

Liza Kelly's sudoku adventures continue in this third installment of the cozy mystery series by author Kaye Morgan. The Seacoast Correctional Facility has invited Liza to teach a test class in sudoku. Among the students is a spoiled and dim-witted heiress, a mobster, a white-collar crook, and a high-profile art thief. On the day of his release, the thief, Chris Dalen, presents to Liza a seventeen clue sudoku puzzle of his own creation. She is impressed, but later when Dalen turns up dead, Liza is once again at the center of a murder investigation. Suspects with ties to her sudoku class come out of the woodwork, all with the intent to find a long missing painting worth an estimated three million dollars. Liza is also interested in finding the painting for the sake of her elderly neighbor, who also happens to be the dead man's sister. With a killer on the loose, a persistent insurance investigator and unscrupulous fortune hunters on the trail, Liza and friends are in a race to recover the painting before anyone else dies!

SINISTER SUDOKU is a wonderful addition to Ms. Morgan's Sudoku Mystery series! Charming Liza, her sweet neighbor Mrs. H, plus Liza's suitors (old high school flame Kevin and not-yet-ex-husband Michael respectively), make a return appearance to the delightful coastal Oregon town of Maiden's Bay. The narrative hits the ground running incorporating sudoku strategy with a treasure hunt and a tantalizing whodunit. What I find really appealing about SINISTER SUDOKU is how the author allows readers to really get a good sense of Liza as heroine without being told everything point blank. Whether you have a casual interest in sudoku or can't get enough, this book provides readers a good mystery with great characters. I believe this series will continue to gain strength and momentum, and I look forward to more!

Reviewed by Melissa Fowler
Rating 4