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Professional mathematician and lover of Sudoku puzzles Katie McDonald gets a message from her oldest friend, octogenarian Professor PT Avondale asking her to go back to her home town because he needs help. Katie returns right away because the professor and his museum of puzzles were the only things that got her through the death of her mother when she was a young girl. Katie has an aunt Pru and a father, but they didn't know how to deal with a little girl who was a mathematical genius. Even now Pru is still dealing with Katie the only way she knows, trying to get her married to a good catch. The professor and his museum permitted young Katie to grieve in her own way and he also helped Katie learn about and enjoy the realm of mathematics. And now Katie is a mastermind in mathematics and has a job in a government think tank. Katie returns home to find that the museum is in a state of disrepair even though its board has recently taken out a large loan from the bank to do maintenance. And it looks as though the bank has not received any of the payments and is going to take the museum. The brilliant Professor always had troubles with everyday matters and he doesn't know what happened to the money from the loan and he swears that he has been signing checks that were going to pay the bank. Katie is a bit jealous when she hears that the Professor has taken an interest in a teenage boy who has family troubles and is thought to be a math genius too, like Katie was. But the 14-year-old boy has been missing for a week and there are worries as to where he can be and if he is all right. One night as Katie is on a bad date that her aunt Pru put together for her, the professor calls Katie and asks her to go to him right away. Katie rushes to the museum where the Professor lives and finds him dead at his desk, over a strangely filled-out sudoku puzzle and with a letter opener lodged in his neck. Katie calls 911 while trying to give the professor first aid. By the time help arrives she is covered in blood – and she's arrested for murder! But when she's made the curator of the museum, Katie searches for a way to save the museum, find the missing young boy and uncover the real killer. THE SUDOKU MURDER starts out as a very promising book. The characters are very well crafted; we get a real sense of community and of the location. The dialogue is well written and keeps our attention. In fact most of the book has to be classified as absolutely first rate. Unfortunately when writing a murder mystery, more than just a likable cast is needed. The mystery section of the story must make sense and come to a satisfying conclusion. And that's where THE SUDOKU MURDER completely falls apart and is ruined. One by one answers are given to the different questions that were raised in the story. The sad result is, if the reader thinks about everything we were told by the end of the book, the solution makes no sense. So much of this book has a lot of promise and I can see that there is a plan that it will be the first in a new series. I can only hope that in the future the writer Shelley Freydont will spend more time in putting the mystery section of this series together. As it stands THE SUDOKU MURDER as a puzzle has no good solution.
Reviewed by A. L. Katz, May 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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