A Grid For Murder
Authors: Casey Mayes
Praise for
A KILLER COLUMN
“This is obviously a well-thought-out and -plotted series…
A Killer Column
is a brainteaser of a mystery.”
—OnceUponARomance.net
“A really great mystery. There were plenty of suspects to go around…and I was kept guessing throughout.”
—
Fresh Fiction
A DEADLY ROW
“Do the math—this book’s a winner! Make this number one on your must-read list.”
—Laura Childs,
New York Times
bestselling author
“A dazzling debut indeed. Fans of mysteries that make you stop and think will find
A Deadly Row
the start of a brilliant series.”
—
Fresh Fiction
“
A Deadly Row
is a very different and exciting mystery with a conclusion that will surprise most readers.”
—
Creatures’n Crooks Bookshoppe
“Fascinating…Character driven with several terrific twists, readers who enjoy mysteries like those of Parnell Hall’s Puzzle Lady will enjoy observing the two Stones methodically work separately and together on their first joint case.”
—
Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine
“Mayes is quite good at planting clues and red herrings…
A Deadly Row
is quite a pleasant traditional mystery, with just enough police procedural thrown in to keep it interesting.”
—ReviewingTheEvidence.com
“The mystery is engaging and well constructed…
A Deadly Row
reads a bit like a younger, hipper Carolyn Hart or Nancy Fairbanks novel. It makes a welcome addition to the cozy scene, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the sequel.”
—
The Season
Berkley Prime Crime titles by Casey Mayes
A DEADLY ROW
A KILLER COLUMN
A GRID FOR MURDER
A GRID
FOR MURDER
Casey Mayes
BERKLEY PRIME CRIME, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
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.
A GRID FOR MURDER
A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author
publishing history
Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / October 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Tim Myers.
Puzzles by the author.
Cover illustration by Sawsan Chalabi.
Cover design by Rita Frangie.
Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.
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.
ISBN: 978-1-101-61155-5
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
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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is
stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the
author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
For Emily Myers,
and all of the books we’ve shared together over the years!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Asheville, North Carolina, is without a doubt one of my favorite places in the world. It offers beautiful vistas, an eclectic downtown, quirky citizens, and the ambience of what a city should be, at least for me. As always, I’ve taken liberties with some of the locations, distances, and manner in which the police operate, but many of the places I write about, from the obelisk downtown to the Botanical Gardens, are very real indeed, and well worth the visit.
As always, I hope the people of Asheville forgive me for making murder a resident in their beautiful city.
S
HE DESERVED TO DIE.
If I hadn’t done it, someone else would have, so I don’t feel like a killer. I just saved someone else the trouble of taking care of her. My conscience is clean enough.
You can’t treat people like that and expect to keep getting away with it.
I tried telling her that again and again, but she wouldn’t listen to me.
And then all of a sudden, she ran out of chances.
The world will be a better place without her.
If I’m being honest about it, I’m not even sorry for what I did.
And if that snoopy Savannah Stone doesn’t stop nosing around business that isn’t hers, I’m going to add her to my list.
It’s got to get easier the more times you do it.
“I
’M GOING INTO ASHEVILLE,” I CALLED OUT TO MY HUSBAND
, Zach, who was currently picking up fallen branches in our cottage’s front yard and hauling them into the nearby woods. Zach was the retired chief of police of Charlotte, North Carolina, but now he worked as a consultant for any law enforcement agency that had a tough case, and the budget to pay him. My income writing puzzles was a nice supplement to that, and we were fairly comfortable living on what we had, though we weren’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.
I loved all of the seasons on our land, but this was my favorite time of year. It was the beginning of the end of autumn, and we’d had a pretty intense storm the night before.
I looked at Zach. He wasn’t paying me all that much
attention, because he was focused on getting the grounds cleared. That was his style. Whenever he tackled a problem, no matter how large or small, it tended to occupy the whole of his concentration. “Do you need anything while I’m gone?” I asked again, this time loud enough to make it impossible for him to continue ignoring me.
