Parnell Hall Books in Order

Stanley Hastings is a struggling actor and writer who chases accident leads for a lawyer, not a real detective. Then his first true case lands in his lap, and he has to figure it out fast.

Stanley tries to help a suburban mother tricked into working for an escort service. Instead he gets pulled into prostitution, pornography, blackmail, and murder in a nasty corner of Manhattan.

Doing Sergeant MacAullif a favor sends Stanley to Atlantic City to watch a wayward son-in-law. Naturally, the trip ends in grand larceny trouble and a murder investigation.

Sheila Benton risks losing a fortune if scandal touches her name, which makes the dead blackmailer on her kitchen floor especially bad timing. Steve Winslow takes the case, though he still needs his cab job.

Stanley has a terrible problem signing up negligence clients for Richard Rosenberg. Somebody keeps strangling them before he can get there.

A ten-thousand-dollar cash retainer arrives in the mail with no client attached. Steve might have enjoyed the fee more if it had not led straight to a murder investigation and his own arrest.

Stanley finally lands his first paying client and is promptly framed for murder. Not getting paid turns out to be the smallest problem in the whole deal.

Jury duty looks hopelessly dull until one of the jurors is murdered. Stanley turns a boring civil case into a murder investigation, complete with a very strange courtroom climax.

Steve Winslow helps a young secretary sue her former employer for wrongful termination after she was hired to type in the nude. Then she disappears, and it turns out even her name was fake.

Steve first has to prove that a wealthy man who abandoned his mansion for life in the subway is sane. Then he has to prove who killed him before the wrong person takes the fall.

Stanley tries to prove his client did not kill her lover and gets shot for his efforts. Getting fired and dragged before a grand jury does not improve the week.

A wealthy collector fears a stolen outlaw's revolver will be used to frame him for murder. Steve Winslow swaps in another gun, and somehow that only makes the murder case trickier.

Stanley is pressed into playing the lead in *Arms and the Man* on two days' notice. A backstage murder during dress rehearsal makes the performance a lot harder to finish.

A blackmail payoff involving explicit photographs should have been simple. Instead Stanley fails to stop the blackmailer, and nearly everyone he talks to afterward winds up dead.

Stanley finally sells a screenplay, only to learn the production is a gloriously awful karate movie. Then members of the crew start dying, and his big break turns into another murder case.

When Richard Rosenberg defends a man accused of murder, Stanley is sent out to investigate. Before long he is in court himself, teetering between useful witness and contempt citation.

Stanley's client is lying to him, which would be manageable on its own. The bigger problem is the crooked cop trying to pin three murders on him.

Stanley is hired to protect a suspense writer's wife from threatening calls, though bodyguard work is not exactly his thing. The calls keep coming, and the danger gets much more real.

When a young girl's body is found in the cemetery with a clue in her pocket, Bakerhaven's police turn to Cora Felton. Unfortunately, the celebrated Puzzle Lady cannot actually solve a crossword.

An eccentric old woman's will sends greedy heirs on a crossword scavenger hunt for her fortune. Cora has to referee the madness while the body count makes the game much riskier.

Stanley and Alice head to a New England bed-and-breakfast for rest and quiet. Instead they find recipes, suspicious guests, and a murder case that even the cat seems ready to solve.

Bakerhaven hosts a crossword puzzle tournament, which sounds wholesome enough until murder arrives. Cora dives into the case, bringing her usual mix of bluff, nerve, and comic disruption.

Christmas in Bakerhaven brings a staged *Twelve Days of Christmas*, a live Nativity, and murder in both directions. Cora and Sherry have seasonal duties, but homicide keeps stealing the spotlight.

A young basketball star drops dead during practice, and Stanley ends up investigating what really happened. It is a short case with sports pressure, hidden motives, and another body where no one expected one.

Stanley takes on an ex-con being blackmailed over an old killing and winds up knee-deep in fresh trouble. Crime scenes, extortion, lawyers, and cops all get messier once Stanley starts helping.

Cora is heading toward yet another wedding, including a deeply awkward double ceremony, when murder crashes the event. Family chaos, romance, and homicide make an especially unruly combination.

Cora starts poking into a twenty-year-old murder case and quickly learns somebody wants the past left alone. The more she pushes, the harder a present-day killer pushes back.

Cora is stuck on a dreary publicity tour for a cereal company until a killer starts stalking her and leaving crossword clues. Suddenly the shopping malls are a lot less boring.

Stanley is pulled into the murder of a soccer coach and has to sort through a neatly tangled little mess. It is a short Hall mystery, quick on its feet and full of trouble.

A simple job helping Chief Harper with some stolen chairs should not end with Cora under arrest for murder. But Bakerhaven is not built for simple jobs, especially when Cora is involved.

When a poker player drops dead, Stanley Hastings has to read the table, the players, and the lies in the room. He ends up dealing a very dangerous hand to trap the killer.

Stanley never planned to work for a hitman, but suddenly he is trying to keep one alive long enough to learn who wants him dead. It is classic Hall, funny, tense, and deeply inconvenient for Stanley.

Cora may be hopeless at crosswords, but she is a whiz at sudoku, which matters when Japanese publishers arrive in Bakerhaven. Then murder strikes, and the clues refuse to stick to just one kind of puzzle.

With Sherry away on her honeymoon, Cora has to manage on her own when a hermit is found dead with a crossword clue. For a woman who cannot solve crosswords, that is especially rude.

A Japanese puzzle celebrity arrives in Bakerhaven and immediately gives Cora real competition, both in puzzles and in crime solving. Their rivalry gets sharper when murder enters the picture and suspicion starts flying.

Stanley takes what looks like an easy job, finding out why a teenage girl is skipping school. Naturally, it turns into something bigger, stranger, and far more dangerous than he was promised.

A young woman insists on hiring Steve even though her petty theft charge has already been plea-bargained away. Then she is rearrested for murder, and Steve and his secretary get dragged in with her.

Cora's ex-husband Melvin is already making trouble in court when witnesses start dying and KenKen puzzles appear on the bodies. The worst part is that he may be innocent, and Cora may have to help him.

A blackmail payoff goes spectacularly wrong when the money vanishes and Cora winds up near a corpse. Add crossword clues, an ex-husband in trouble, and danger circling Sherry's family, and the chaos multiplies.

A poisoning at a Bakerhaven bed-and-breakfast echoes an old movie plot, but the danger is real enough. Cora has to sort through bodies, clues, and crossword mischief before the joke turns deadlier.

At a snowbound Vermont inn, Stanley and Alice find a dead body under the Christmas tree. With the local police stuck, Stanley, and even their dog Zelda, have to help sort out the crime.

Stanley cannot believe he has been hired to follow a vampire. The joke stops being funny when the case turns deadly and he realizes his strange new client may not be joking at all.

Cora is dreading a charity luncheon talk until one of the guests is poisoned. A bad afternoon improves considerably once she gets to stop speaking about puzzles and start solving a murder.

A routine surveillance job leaves Stanley standing over a corpse when the police arrive. To clear himself, he has to jump bail, improvise wildly, and chase the truth through another beautifully awful mess.

Steve Winslow takes a court-appointed case defending a caretaker accused of killing his employer. If he loses, he may end up stuck with the dead man's cat, which somehow raises the pressure even more.

A trip to a New York penthouse should have been simple, until Cora and Becky Baldwin find the client dead with a crossword on his chest. Soon Cora is staring at murder charges of her own.

Stanley and Alice finally make it to Zambia for a dream trip, only to find murder in the middle of the tour. Wildlife, odd fellow travelers, and real danger turn the vacation into another case.

Stanley's boss, Richard Rosenberg, is charged with murdering his girlfriend, and the trial becomes a circus. Stanley has to survive outrageous courtroom tactics and solve the case before the defense collapses.

A suspicious insurance policy makes one wife sure her husband is planning murder. When he turns up dead instead, Cora has to clear the widow before the wrong theory becomes an arrest.

A woman is found drenched in blood over her dead husband and headed for trial. When Cora starts helping the defense, the evidence she uncovers seems to point straight back at her.

When a delicate national problem needs someone who does not play by ordinary rules, Stone Barrington turns to Teddy Fay. The result is a fast covert thriller built on disguises, nerve, and high-level intrigue.

When a Yankees rookie comes to quiet Bakerhaven to rehab an injured arm, peace does not last long. Cora soon finds herself surrounded by puzzles, gossip, and another murder to untangle.

Young lawyer Herbie Fisher is pressed into defending a college student on a drug charge that reeks of political payback. Meanwhile, a loan shark wants money, and Herbie's life is getting complicated fast.

Working undercover in Hollywood, Teddy Fay investigates blackmail threats aimed at a film's leading actress. The deeper he digs, the clearer it becomes that the target may be much bigger than one performer.

Cora's least favorite ex-husband, Melvin, is in jail for murder and making things worse by writing a tell-all about her. That is more than enough reason for Cora to start asking dangerous questions.

Cora Felton's life is being turned into a movie, which sounds flattering until somebody starts targeting the cast and crew. Bakerhaven chaos meets show business mayhem in this breezy Puzzle Lady outing.

Teddy Fay heads to Paris on what looks like a straightforward mission to hunt a traitor. Instead he uncovers a bigger conspiracy, one that mixes espionage, money, and a threat with global consequences.

Teddy Fay is back in Hollywood, juggling a nasty smear campaign against a rising star and a dangerous enemy with a personal grudge. It is a glossy, fast-moving thriller full of disguises, studio intrigue, and sudden violence.

Two killers carve a path across Manhattan while hunting a mysterious man named Jack Jones. A disgraced cop, a tabloid reporter, and a Broadway crowd get dragged into a darkly funny chase with rising stakes.

Stanley's client is dead, but that does not stop the case from getting worse. He keeps digging anyway, following a trail of danger and suspicion that someone hoped would die with the victim.

Stanley Hastings is caught with a dead naked woman, and the police are not feeling patient. To clear his name, he has to solve the case before the evidence, and his luck, run out.