THE SUDOKU MURDER (Shelley Freydont)

This is the first book in a delightful new cozy series . The heroine, Katie McDonald, is a mathematician who returns to her hometown at the request of her mentor, Professor P.T. Avondale of the Avondale Puzzle Museum. Fearing for the future of the museum and its outstanding puzzle collection, Katie agrees to stay on as acting curator (and amateur detective) after P.T. is found murdered. If this novel is any indication, the Katie McDonald series will be a great success. It has all of the essential elements for a successful cozy: an amateur sleuth with a unique talent, some quirky townspeople, an unusual sidekick, and potential for romance between the sleuth and the local chief of police. The mystery itself was quite good. It was not one of those puzzles that is meant to be solved by the reader; we aren't given enough information for that, although a clever reader could figure out enough to identify the motive. The outcome, however, is very satisfying and very logical given the clues that build up to the identity of the murderer. There are no sudden twists and turns and no blatant red herrings, just a group of people who could possibly be guilty of murder. The ending isn't a surprise, but rather an "Of course!" moment. The author is a fan of sudoku, which explains the well-organized, logical feel of the story!