Parnell Hall 

I love Parnell Hall’s Puzzle Lady series (as you can tell from the reviews of his books) featuring Cora Felton and her niece Sherry. But until I started doing some research on Parnell Hall, I did not realize that, under the pseudonym J.P. Hailey, he wrote the Steve Winslow series starting in the late 1980s. I went back to my book journal and saw that I read all five of the books (which were not cozy) back then and gave them very high ratings (yes, I was rating books that long ago!). I remember particularly liking The Naked Typist. (One of the J.P. Hailey books, The Baxter Trust, is available as a trade paperback from www.e-reads.com.) When you visit his website, (www.parnellhall.com), make sure to listen to the songs Parnell has written and performed for his fellow authors, and his mystery and crossword puzzle fans. I’m listing only his Puzzle Lady books here, but he has complete lists of his two earlier series featuring Steve Winslow (courtroom dramas) and Stanley Hastings (private detective) on his website.

Books:

The Puzzle Lady Series

Author Profile

Parnell Hall graduated from Marlboro College in Vermont and has over the years since been an actor, teacher, folk-singer, screenwriter, songwriter, private detective and – lately – a crossword puzzle constructor. His movie credits include work in A New Leaf (1971) with Walter Matthau and Elaine May and in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first movie, Hercules in New York (1970), in which Mr. Hall was clad in a leopard skin. Parnell Hall has several screenplays to his credit, including the underground horror movie C.H.U.D., which has been satirized on Saturday Night Live. One biography mentioned that when he was 15, Parnell sold “The Literacy Test Song” to folk singer Pete Seeger, who recorded it on his album, Gazette, Vol. 2, in 1961. I found a graphic of the album cover and liner notes in the Smithsonian collection, and credit was spelled “Parnee Hall.” You can see the album cover if you go to  http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/containerdetail.aspx?itemid=388 then click on “download liner notes.”

As research for the Puzzle Lady books, Parnell competed in the National Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, Connecticut, where out of a field of 254 contestants he finished 250th, just ahead of the four people who failed to turn in a paper. Parnell composed the puzzles for his earlier books. He now has them created by New York Times constructor Manny Nosowsky, and edited by National Tournament winner Ellen Ripstein.

Parnell also writes the Stanley Hastings mystery novels, and the Steve Winslow courtroom dramas. His first novel, Detective, was nominated for an Edgar award by the Mystery Writers of America, and a Shamus award by the Private Eye Writers of America. His tenth Stanley Hastings novel, Movie, was nominated for a Shamus award for Best Private Eye Novel of 1995, and for a Lefty for the funniest mystery novel of 1995. Recently, Stanley and his wife Alice vacationed at a New England bed-and-breakfast in Cozy, a takeoff on that subset of the genre; the book is full of recipes and the cat solves the crime. Stanley returned to the mean streets of Manhattan in Manslaughter.

Parnell worked for two years as a private detective in New York City. His experiences form the basis for his Stanley Hastings series. He has no courtroom experience, however, and owes his Steve Winslow series to a childhood spent reading Erle Stanley Gardner.

Parnell Hall is a former President of the Private Eye Writers of America, and a member of Sisters in Crime. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons, and Sophie, their Portuguese water dog.

Photo of Parnell and Sophie from Parnell's website. Used with permission.

Author Website: http://www.parnellhall.com/