A DEADLY ROW by Casey Mayes

A Mystery By The Numbers
Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
Release Date September 7, 2010
First in a Brand New Series

Savannah Stone is a math whiz and makes her living creating puzzles that are syndicated daily in many newspapers throughout the United States for others to solve.  Her agent constantly pushes her to come up with some of the most difficult puzzles she can.

Zach Stone, her husband, is a retired police chief from Charlotte, North Carolina.  When he retired they left the big city behind for a small mini farm in Parson's Valley in the beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Zach's retirement was not his idea, unfortunately he was shot in the line of duty and had to retire for medical reasons.  He keeps his hands in on police work by doing consultant work for various police departments in North Carolina and sometimes across the country.

Zach was feeling very unsettled one day putzing around the house trying to keep busy when a call came in from his old department.  Savannah told the new chief that Zach was too busy to help him and basically hung up.  Savannah is a terrible liar and when she told Zach the call was a "wrong number" he did not believe her at all.   She ended up telling him who it really was and after one short phone call they were packed up and in the car headed back to Charlotte.

There was a killer on the loose in Charlotte and the mayor was receiving threatening messages saying he would be the next victim.  The mayor was their friend, how could they not go to help.  Savannah was basically along for moral support and thought she could catch up with old friends while Zach helped with the police investigation.  Little did she know that she would be enlisted to help solve one of the most difficult puzzles of her life, and if she failed to solve the puzzle in time someone else would die.

This was a fun, quick read.  The puzzle element was very intriguing and kept the pages turning.  I found myself trying to solve the puzzle just like Savannah, of course she figured it out first. These are definitely two characters I want to read more about.  I just think it may be strange if every case Zach is called in to consult on involves a puzzle for Savannah, so I am very interested in how the author will continue to have these characters evolve and unfold.  I will be patiently awaiting the next book in this numerically inspired series.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime, a division of Penguin Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”