FRIDAY: The Sudoku Murder

Kate McDonald returns home to New Hampshire at the request of her mentor, PT Avondale to help him with problems at his Puzzle Museum. When PT is killed, Katie tops the suspect list. She figures she better find the killer if she wants to save herself and her beloved museum.

It took me awhile to warm up to this story and the characters. Katie has a lot of baggage - memories of being teased by bullies for being so smart as well as family issues. I had to hang with the story for a few chapters to start to like her enough to care about her story. PT was withdrawn and frail, and there are plenty of bitter, nasty people making Katie's life difficult that added to the time it took for me to start liking the book.

But the story of how PT reached out to Katie as a little girl who tragically lost her mother and later to a young man in an abusive home sucked me in and I enjoyed the rest of the story. I would love to find a really Puzzle Museum to visit - it sounds like a lot of fun! Knowing how to do sudoku is not a requirement for enjoying the book. (first in a series)