Celebrity Sudoku

Table of Contents

 

 

Ghost Sudoku

“These are fast, fun reads with enough intrigue to satisfy any mystery reader, and the added bonus of included puzzles. If you’re not up on your sudoku-solving skills, there are tips and clues to help you get started. If you’re already a puzzle person, you’ll enjoy the puzzles.”

—
CA Reviews

 

Killer Sudoku

“Puzzles are included for fans of sudoku but, fans or not, readers will enjoy this fast-paced mystery.”

—
Cozy Library

 

Sinister Sudoku

“A wonderful addition to Ms. Morgan’s Sudoku Mystery series! The narrative hits the ground running, incorporating sudoku strategy with a treasure hunt and a tantalizing whodunit! I look forward to more!”

—
The Romance Readers Connection

 

Murder by Numbers

“Kaye Morgan has written a cleverly constructed mystery that reflects the finely crafted sudoku puzzles that are included for fans to enjoy.”

—
The Mystery Gazette

“Whether you are interested in sudoku or not, this mystery is fun and challenging.”

—
MyShelf.com

 

Death by Sudoku

“Kaye Morgan is a talented storyteller who will go far in the mystery genre.”—
The Best Reviews

“Puzzles and codes surround a vast pattern of murder.”

—
Spinoff Reviews

DEATH BY SUDOKU
MURDER BY NUMBERS
SINISTER SUDOKU
KILLER SUDOKU
GHOST SUDOKU
CELEBRITY SUDOKU

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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

 

CELEBRITY SUDOKU

 

A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with Tekno Books

 

PRINTING HISTORY

Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / December 2010

Copyright © 2010 by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-44558-7

 

BERKLEY
^®
PRIME CRIME
Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY
^®
PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME logo are trademarks of Penguin Group
(USA) Inc.

 

 

 

In past books in this series, I’ve thanked various members of my family. This time around, I’d like to express my appreciation to the Berkley Prime Crime family for all they’ve done to make the Sudoku Mysteries a success . . . especially Michelle Vega, who aided, abetted, and edited.

 

Many thanks to you all.

“So, Rusty, what do you want?” Liza Kelly asked. The dog definitely wanted something—he had his best begging face on.

The Irish setter mix headed immediately for the kitchen door and tried to nose down the leash hanging from the doorknob.

“A walk, is it? Not so fast. I still have to finish my tea.” Liza followed him into the kitchen, her cup in her hand, and took a sip.

The four glass panels set in the door gave a view of her piece of Maiden’s Bay, Oregon—Hackleberry Avenue, to be exact, a pretty quiet street this time of the morning.

Maybe you should have gone with reinforced glass after the break-in.
That annoying voice in the back of her head started up a long-running argument.
Or even solid wood. It might be safer, if you’re going to keep getting involved in murders.

“I don’t get involved in murders,” Liza muttered. “I write a column about sudoku that’s syndicated all over the country, and I still do publicity work for Michelle Markson down in L.A.”

Rusty looked up at her, his head cocked to one side. Then he launched into a series of barks and whines.

“You’re right. I should move faster. And I’m talking to myself.” Liza finished her tea and got the leash. She clicked it onto Rusty’s collar and opened the door just in time for the postal delivery. No wonder Rusty was barking.

The letter carrier arrived at the mailbox, reached into his bag, and came out with a very large package. Liza could see it wouldn’t fit, but the guy spent a couple of minutes trying to find the magic angle. Then he headed for the door, drawing a low growl from Rusty.

“Quiet, you,” Liza told the dog. “He may be carrying a can of Mace.” She closed the door on Rusty and headed down the path to meet the mailman.

“Sent Priority,” he said. “I guess they really wanted you to get it.” He passed the bulky package to Liza, added a few envelopes, and headed back to the sidewalk.

“Is that a present from an admirer?” a hopeful voice called from off to Liza’s left. She turned to see her next-door neighbor, Elise Halvorsen, appear from behind the shrubbery. The older woman’s gardening clothes were slightly muddy, but her eyes were bright with interest.

“No such luck, Mrs. H.,” Liza replied. “It’s business.”

“Are you doing a sudoku book?” Mrs. Halvorsen asked, her eyes still on the package.

Liza heard a bark from behind and turned to see Rusty with his paws on one of the bottom windowpanes, peering out at her.

Looks as if everybody’s curious,
Liza thought, leading the way back to her kitchen. Rusty gave Mrs. H. a big welcome, barking and capering around. Smile lines filled the older woman’s round face as she bent to pet him.

She quickly straightened as a weird noise came from her pocket. “Text message,” Mrs. Halvorsen explained, digging out a phone.

After squinting at the tiny screen, she sighed and began tapping on the keys. “And this is just to send an answer.”

Mrs. H. brought her index finger down. “Ed—that’s two taps on the number three for
E
, bip-bip, then pause for that to set in, and another hit on three for
D
, pause, hit zero for a space, three times on six for
O
, bip-bip-bip, two on the five for
K
, bip-bip, and then send.”

She gave Liza a look of embarrassment mixed with exasperation. “I definitely have to upgrade to a phone with a keyboard. My finger is going to fall off with all this rigmarole.”

“If you get a keyboard, you’ll be complaining about your thumbs,” Liza told her, then began to laugh. “And didn’t you get this phone just a month ago? You’re turning into that white-haired lady on the cell phone commercial with the BFF.”

“Well, I am white-haired,” Mrs. H. said.

“And instead of a BFF, you’ve got an Ed that you’re saying ‘okay’ to. What’s all that about?” Liza was fond of Mrs. H., but her neighbor was an inveterate matchmaker. Now Liza had the chance to turn the tables.

Mrs. Halvorsen’s face got a little pinker. “He’s a nice widower about two towns over who asked if I’d like to go to the movies. Since I didn’t have the finger strength to ask if they had low-fat, low-sodium popcorn, I just said okay.”

“Way to go, Mrs. H.!” Liza said as she removed the wrapping from her package to reveal a telephone-book-sized binder.

“Are you going back to school?” Mrs. H. asked.

“I’ll have to study this a little,” Liza admitted. “This is the production info for
D-Kodas
.”

“Oh, the game show you’re going to be on.”

“For about two seconds,” Liza said. “They decided they wanted some celebrity puzzle experts to create the stuff the celebrity contestants have to decode.”

She broke off, still feeling a little funny about that. Yes, she was well-known in the fairly obscure world of Sudoku Nation, but her celebrity status came more from finding a couple of murderers than from providing a daily puzzle fix.

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine,” Mrs. Halvorsen said loyally.

“Well, I sent the puzzles in, along with Will Singleton and Wanda Penny, who does acrostics.” Liza shrugged. “They just want to tape us giving a couple of explanations and answering a few questions to use as filler between rounds of competition.” She paused for a second. “I was going to ask if you could take care of Rusty while I was gone.”

“He’ll get lonely, left on his own here for a week.” Translated, that was Mrs. H. warning she wouldn’t be responsible for any damage Rusty might do.

“It won’t be that long,” Liza quickly said.

Mrs. Halvorsen gave her a puzzled look. “But the ads on TV talk about Celebrity
Week
on
D-Kodas.
”

“It will only take a day to tape five shows,” Liza explained, “and I agreed to come in a day early.” She gave her neighbor a crooked smile. “That’s the difference between us pseudo-celebrities and the real ones—the TV people feel free to impose on our schedules.”

“Well, I’ll certainly be glad to take care of Rusty.” Mrs. H. stopped as Rusty responded to his name with a loud woof. “We’ll have a good time, won’t we, you large, silly dog?”

Rusty seemed to nod, lolling his tongue out of his mouth.

Mrs. Halvorsen watched with interest as Liza opened the binder. “So what do you have to study?”

“It’s not so much studying as familiarizing myself,” Liza said. “This section here covers the whole production crew for the show, lighting, cameramen, set and makeup people . . .” She paged through. “Here are the producers, the director, the cast . . .”