Fatal Deduction-Gayle Roper

Fatal Deduction
Gayle Roper
Multnomah, May 2008, $12.99
ISBN: 9781601420138

In Philadelphia great aunt Stella left her estate with specific instructions if her nieces, twin sisters, Libby (accompanied by her teenage daughter Chloe) and Tori Burton are to inherit. To obtain her house, the siblings must both reside there for six months. If either leaves early neither inherits.

They move in, but Libby is stunned when she trips over a corpse on the front porch and finds valuables stolen. With the dead body is a crossword puzzle. Libby believes she must solve the puzzle to solve the murder and insure neither she, Tori or Chloe become the next victims. She would like to depend on the neighbor Drew Canfield whom she is attracted to, but he does not trust women his age and besides Jenna comes first.

This is an entertaining inspirational amateur sleuth that uses crossword puzzles to add to the overall fun. The story line is fast-paced from the moment that Libby and Chloe arrive at the Colonial Era house and never slows down until the final confrontation. In between there is plenty of family disputes especially between the twins. Fans will enjoy Gayle Roper’s strong whodunit as real life issues surface that even with the belief that God is in your corner remain difficult to deal with.

Harriet Klausner