The Christmas Jigsaw Murders

Benedict stumbles with her disappointing third yuletide whodunit (after Murder on the Christmas Express). Octogenarian Edie O’Sullivan, known as the “Pension Puzzler” for her work making crosswords for British newspapers, has hated the holidays ever since her mother died giving birth to her younger brother on Christmas Day in 1946. Now, she receives an anonymous package on December 1 with a half-assembled jigsaw puzzle and a note threatening to kill four people by Christmas Eve unless Edie finishes it (“You are known for your crosswords, but can you set your sights on a murderer?”). She takes the evidence to her grand-nephew, Sean, a detective inspector Edie raised after the death of his parents. He warns Edie to stay out of the official inquiry, but after one of her neighbors is nearly bludgeoned to death and left with a jigsaw piece in his hand, she can’t help putting her puzzle-solving skills to the test. Benedict squanders the intriguing setup with an overreliance on boilerplate mystery beats. Readers seeking a sturdier execution of a similar concept should check out Nero Blanc’s Crossword Mystery series. (Oct.)