Death on the Diagonal
Nero Blanc

Originally published in Trade Paperback.

When crossword editor Belle Graham arrives at the Evening Crier, the latest gossip is about the devastating fire at the Collins family stables. It's tempting to think it's a torch job. The Collinses made their fortune in bootlegged Prohibition whisky before morphing into a legitimate multimillion dollar corporation. Now Newcastle high society, they're living the lives of the rich and shameless, feuding amongst themselves as the family's aging patriarch marries younger and younger women. The latest is even younger than his children - who have been pushed aside by their new "step-mom."

Belle's P.I. hubby, Rosco, is investigating the fire for the insurance company. The blaze is being blamed on the barn manager, a hard drinker who was sober enough to rescue the horses before falling debris - or something else - knocked him into a coma. And as Rosco searches for a needle in a haystack of clues, Belle is guessing that someone in the quarrelsome Collins clan already knows the answers...

(Crossword Mystery #8)
Berkley (Prime Crime), July 2007
Featuring: Belle Graham
288 pages ISBN: 0425216373
Paperback (reprint)
$7.99

Also by Nero Blanc:
A Crossworder's Delight, October 2006
Death on the Diagonal, July 2006
Another Word for Murder, June 2006
A Crossworder's Delight, October 2005
Wrapped Up In Crosswords, October 2005
Another Word for Murder, July 2005
Anatomy Of A Crossword, June 2005
Wrapped Up in Crosswords, November 2004
A Crossworder's Gift, October 2004
Anatomy of a Crossword, July 2004
Corpus de Crossword, June 2004
A Crossworder’s Gift, October 2003
A Crossword to Die For, July 2003
The Crossword Connection, July 2001
The Crossword Murder, October 2000
Two Down, July 2000

(Notify me via e-mail when Nero Blanc releases a new book.)