Sudden Death Sudoku: A Katie McDonald Mystery

Katie McDonald is the Avondale Puzzle Museum's curator and is sponsoring The First Annual Avondale Sudoku Challenge. Lots of people are attending and participating in the challenge. She has gotten many of the local businesses and residents to participate in making the challenge a success. Scandal soon rears its ugly head when Katie is made aware of a cheating scandal related to a top challenger, Gordon Lott. Katie's Aunt Pru thinks he would make a great husband for Katie. She's always on the lookout for a husband for Katie. Katie watches Gordon as he competes and doesn't see him cheat. Even though some of the locals who know his past want him disqualified, Katie lets him continue to compete. When he makes a mistake and loses, he is quite upset. With a snowstorm bearing down on the town, everyone leaves quickly from the first day of competition. When they arrive early the next day to finish the clean up and setting up, Gordon is discovered dead in the snow. Police Chief Brandon Mitchell wants to shut down the competition. Katie and the local merchants have too much at stake and she finally gets him to agree to keep it open. When the prime suspect turns up dead, things really start to heat up. With everyone going home after the competition, investigating proves to be much more difficult. Plus there seems to be tension between the Police Chief and Harry, Kate's teenaged assistant, who lives with him. Kate worries that this tenuous relationship she's pushed upon them will not last. Can Kate and Harry help the Police Chief without putting themselves in any danger and getting him upset with them? This is such a fun series. I'm not a Sudoku lover, but I love the setting, the characters, and the plots. The writing is so great that I just fly through each book. While I enjoy that, it means I'm soon waiting another year for the next book! I hope this is a series that goes on for years. Kate, Harry, Brandon, and Pru are such fun characters. Plus the other puzzle lovers and locals really round out the cast of characters. I highly recommend this book and series.

Great second book in this series. It is already on its way to a new reader for this series so enjoy!