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Nero Blanc

Four holiday whodunits in one—the perfect present for puzzle fans! “Light-hearted capers . . . Each as frothy as a cup of good eggnog” (The Wall Street Journal).
 
 Together, crossword editor and amateur sleuth Belle Graham and her private detective husband, Rosco Polycrates, are “a great investigative team in the tradition of Nick and Nora” (Bookbrowse). In this holiday-themed collection—featuring two story anthologies and two novels by national bestselling author Nero Blanc—Belle and Rosco follow the clues and fill in the blanks to find the answers to some very puzzling mysteries.
 
A Crossworder’s Holiday: In these five short mysteries, Belle and Rosco solve puzzles in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, Nantucket, and a haunted house in the Cotswolds. Perhaps the most challenging is the case of mobster Freddy Five Fingers, who was sending tip-offs to the cops via crosswords printed in the local tabloid—before he croaked.
 
A Crossworder’s Gift: Five more Yuletide mysteries take Belle and Rosco from sunny St. Lucia where they decipher clues to find a buried treasure to a blizzard that strands a sewing circle. And in Las Vegas, a high roller has strewn clues throughout his suite to form a crossword puzzle that leads to loot.
 
Wrapped Up in Crosswords: With Christmas approaching, Belle does her part creating a Noel crossword contest while Rosco dons a red suit and snowy-white beard to collect toys for the town’s annual children’s drive. But his good will starts to dim when he and two Newcastle Police Department colleagues are mistaken for escaped convicts masquerading as small-town Santas.
 
A Crossworder’s Delight: Just in time for the holidays at Newcastle’s historic Paul Revere Inn, Belle discovers an abandoned treasure: a book of dessert recipes written in the form of crosswords handed down from mother to daughter. But as nice as that is, someone else has been naughty: A valuable Longfellow poem has been stolen from its place of honor on the wall of the inn’s front parlor. As he starts to investigate, Rosco finds himself with a new sleuthing partner, twelve-year-old E. T. Whitman—a bit of a wordsmith himself.

Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller

Crossword Mysteries

The Crossword Mysteries Holiday Collection: A Crossworder's Holiday, A Crossworder's Gift, Wrapped Up in Crosswords, and A Crossworder's Delight

Crosswords get the Hollywood treatment in this mystery featuring PI Rosco Polycrates and master puzzle solver Belle Graham 

 Jamaica Nevisson—or Cassandra Lovett, as she’s known to the adoring fans of her daytime soap—has vanished without a trace. She and her pal Genie Pepper went pleasure yachting off Nantucket, only to end up lost at sea. So far, only the charred hull of the boat has turned up. Called in by Pepper’s husband, Massachusetts detective Rosco Polycrates and crossword editor Belle Graham uncover a list of potential evildoers that reads like a who’s who of Hollywood vipers, including paparazzi stalker Reggie Flack, Jamaica’s longtime nemesis. But when Belle starts receiving cryptic crosswords, she believes the women are alive and in grave danger. Now she’s up against the clock as she races to unravel the messages before someone completes an across-the-board coup. Because with two down, that leaves only one more to go.

 This ebook includes six crossword puzzles that can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book.

Two Down is the 2nd book in the Crossword Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Two Down

PI Rosco Polycrates and crossword editor Belle Graham are about to tie the knot, but a nasty case of multiple murders could give them cold feet

 A homeless man has been found in an alley, clobbered to death. The crime seems pretty cut and dried—vagrants fighting over turf—until the Newcastle Police Department uncovers a connection to a local shelter in danger of being taken over by greedy developers. Is the dead John Doe a victim of some sinister plot? And what became of the scruffy mutt he had recently adopted?

 Recruited to find the missing puppy, private investigator Rosco Polycrates has to juggle the search with his upcoming nuptials to Belle Graham. And soon a second murder shatters the serenity of their scenic Massachusetts town. Then Rosco disappears . . . and Belle starts receiving threatening messages concealed in fiendishly clever crossword clues. Will Rosco become the third victim? With time running out, the Queen of Cryptics races to fill in the blanks before her wedding is put on hold—forever.

 This ebook includes six crossword puzzles that can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book.

The Crossword Connection is the 3rd book in the Crossword Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The Crossword Connection

Murder never takes a holiday—as husband-and-wife sleuths Belle Graham and Rosco Polycrates discover when they tackle five crimes hidden in crossword puzzles

 In “The Proof of the Pudding,” Belle and Rosco interrupt their Vermont holiday to solve a crossword that’s a recipe for murder. Pennsylvania Dutch Country is the setting for “A Partridge in a Pear Tree” as Rosco helps a college buddy crack a case of foul play concealed in a puzzle. “Mum’s the Word” for mobster Freddy Five Fingers. Before he croaked, he was sending tip-offs to the cops via crosswords printed in the local tabloid. Now Belle and Rosco are in Philadelphia to help the Feds figure out Freddy’s final puzzle.

 While in the Cotswolds to visit old friends, Belle and Rosco encounter “A Ghost of Christmas Past” when they find a fragment of a puzzle that holds clues to a haunted house’s secret history. And in the title story, Belle and Rosco are enjoying a quiet Christmas in Nantucket when a purveyor of priceless Americana asks for their help in solving a puzzle hidden inside a forgery. Now the race is on to decipher clues that could save a life.

 This ebook includes five crossword puzzles that can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book.

A Crossworder's Holiday: Five Short Tales

Murder is a family affair when crossword editor Belle Graham’s dad dies under suspicious circumstances

 Newlyweds Rosco Polycrates and Belle Graham are settling into life with a new puppy in their charming New England townhouse when Belle’s estranged father sets out to visit them. Except renowned anthropologist Theodore A. Graham never makes it off the train.
 According to the coroner, he died of a heart attack aboard the Amtrak to Newcastle. Now Belle is flying down to Florida to dispose of the effects of a man she barely knew.

 On Sanibel Island, she makes some bizarre discoveries. And when another body turns up, she vows to uncover the truth behind her father’s secret life—and death. With Rosco aiding and abetting, Belle’s on the trail of a massive conspiracy to conceal a lethal secret. Up, down, and across states, she must stay one grid ahead of a diabolical killer.

 This ebook includes six crossword puzzles that can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book, plus a bonus recipe.

A Crossword to Die For is the 4th book in the Crossword Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A Crossword to Die For

Fans of Nick and Nora, meet Rosco and Belle: a crossword-loving couple who read the clues and fill in the blanks to find killers. Puzzles included!

 The residents of the bucolic Massachusetts hamlet are up in arms. A developer has bought the sprawling Quigley homestead, and his construction crew is causing a ruckus digging up the land. The noise stops abruptly when a female skeleton is found buried in the garden.

 Hired to find out who killed Jane Doe—and why—cop-turned-investigator Rosco Polycrates and his wife, crossword editor Belle Graham, discover an insular community that doesn’t take kindly to outsiders. With the local police labeling it a cold case, they have their work cut out for them. Add arson and a double homicide, and the grid is set for a brainteaser that just might stump two of New England’s most dedicated crime busters—if it doesn’t kill them first.

This ebook includes six crossword puzzles that can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book.

 Corpus de Crossword is the 5th book in the Crossword Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Corpus de Crossword

Five Yuletide mysteries for readers to solve along with crossword legend Belle Graham and PI Rosco Polycrates

 The husband-and-wife sleuth team is back in five tales of holiday mystery and mayhem. “Holly, Jolly Roger” takes Belle and Rosco to sunny St. Lucia in the Caribbean as they try to decipher the clues to a legendary buried treasure. “The Mystery of Wordsworth House” may remain just that unless Belle and Rosco can turn their stay at a snowy Montreal inn into a chance for a family to solve the riddle of their past . . . with the help of a ghost. There’s no place like Las Vegas for the holidays, but “A Crossworder’s Gift” may never reach its intended recipient if Belle can’t match up the out-of-order clues strewn throughout a high roller’s suite to form a crossword puzzle that will lead to the cash. Guest of honor at a puzzle convention near the Grand Canyon, Belle—with the help of her detective husband, Rosco—must unravel a murdered crossworder’s last puzzle and testament in “The Eraser’s Edge.” When a blizzard strands a five-woman sewing circle, a “Cross Stitch” in time could save—or destroy—reputations and lives if a puzzling truth about a dead heiress is revealed.

 This ebook contains five crossword puzzles that can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book.

A Crossworder's Gift: Five Short Tales

Someone’s trying to write characters out of the script in this suspenseful crossword puzzler featuring PI Rosco Polycrates and crossword editor Belle Graham 

 Belle Graham is mired in New England’s snowy, late-January gloom when Hollywood comes calling. Seduced by visions of relaxing poolside in sunny Los Angeles, she heads to Hollywood to create a puzzle for a TV movie based on a crime she and her husband, Rosco Polycrates, recently cracked. The hook is that the show is interactive—viewers get to solve the crime on air with Belle.

 The trouble starts when Belle discovers that someone has replaced her crossword with a brand-new set of clues. Then a series of suspicious accidents culminates in murder. In a case in which everyone’s under suspicion—and all are harboring secrets—the backstage backstabbing is heating up to a fever pitch. Now Rosco’s jetting out to La-La Land to help Belle sort out the clues while the truth is still in development and a killer could make this show a done deal.

 This ebook includes six crossword puzzles that contain clues to solving the mystery and can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book.

Anatomy of a Crossword is the 6th book in the Crossword Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Anatomy of a Crossword

Nero Blanc’s bestselling mystery series continues in a holiday tale featuring Belle Graham, Rosco Polycrates, and dessert recipes with ingredients that are clues to the crossword puzzles 

 The Holiday Decoration Competition is in full swing at Newcastle’s historic Paul Revere Inn. As the rivalry heats up, crossword editor Belle Graham unearths an abandoned treasure: a book of dessert recipes written in the form of crosswords handed down from mother to daughter.

 While Belle is busy deciphering the ingredients for delectable dishes like “Holiday Slay Ride,” another mystery is unraveling. A valuable Longfellow poem has been stolen from its place of honor on the wall of the inn’s front parlor. Called in to investigate, Belle’s PI husband, Rosco Polycrates, discovers he has a new partner in crime. Twelve-year-old E. T. Whitman, a bit of a wordsmith himself, has all sorts of theories about the theft. But the case is far from a piece of cake. And the search for the culprit brings the detecting trio closer to a truth that’s been buried for decades.

 This ebook includes four crossword puzzles that can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book, plus four holiday dessert recipes.

A Crossworder's Delight: A Holiday Novel

What’s an eight-letter word for killjoy? Find out in this devilishly clever crossword mystery featuring husband-and-wife sleuth team Belle Graham and Rosco Polycrates 

 Belle Graham hears it first from the gossip columnist for the Evening Crier, where Belle is resident crossword editor. Fire has destroyed one of the stables at King Wenstarin Farms, the multimillion-dollar corporation owned by the notorious Collins clan, and the barn manager lies in a coma. Did someone torch the place? That’s what Belle’s PI husband, Rosco Polycrates has been hired to find out.

 Former Prohibition–era bootleggers, the Collinses live in a mansion that is more Newport, Rhode Island, than Newcastle, Massachusetts. Todd Collins, the seventy-four-year-old patriarch, is currently married to much-younger wife number three, his three children’s horsey stepmom from hell. But the family’s infamous infighting is about to morph into a nasty case of murder.

 With a media circus heating up, a second homicide rocks the New England town. Now Belle has to solve some cryptic brainteasers before she becomes the next victim of a killer ready to ride off into the sunset . . . after burying Belle six feet down—and three across.

 This ebook includes six crossword puzzles that can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book.

Death on the Diagonal is the 8th book in the Crossword Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.