A Crossworder's Holiday

Nero Blanc. Berkley Publishing Group, $22.95 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-425-18733-3

Crossword buffs can curl up with Nero Blanc's Crossworder's Holiday, a collection of five Christmas-themed tales, each with its own crossword puzzle (answers in the back). Blanc is the pseudonym of husband and wife Steve Zettler and Cordelia Frances Biddle. In the best holiday spirit, they are donating a portion of the book's earnings to the St. Barnabas Mission in Philadelphia.

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