Alice Pepper has one busy life. She’s director of the West Hazel, Oregon, public library. She’s the center of a group of friends—all puzzle fanatics—who regularly meet for meals and puzzling. And she’s got plenty of family members, like her nieces, whose lives she needs to keep an eye on. She may have had to put off retirement because her divorce has wiped out much of her savings, but Alice always keeps focused on what’s important. And in much of this book it’s the disappearance of her friend Michelle Chong, martial and visual artist, that has Alice’s attention. Did Michelle run away, finally escaping from that no-good husband to create a life elsewhere, or was she a victim of domestic violence? Nearly half the book is devoted to searching for Michelle, and once that’s resolved this second book in the series (after Puzzle Me a Murder) expands deeper into Alice’s world—which is loving and caring, yes, but also features major pieces of the past she has been unable to resolve. For fans of Richard Osman, Nancy Bush, and Leslie Meier.
