In a follow up to The Rutherford Cipher, Matt Rutherford and Lisa Li return in a suspenseful tale of murder, intrigue and hidden secrets.
The story begins when Matt is asked to help identify the severed head of a would-be hit man. It turns out that his apparent intended victim was one Stewart Jarrard, a lawyer from “up North” who had moved to rural Georgia seeking a more slow-paced lifestyle. Unfortunately, he carried with him a series of lethal secrets that eventually result in his death. Jarrard’s killers are convinced that he shared his knowledge with Matt, who then becomes the killers’ target. When an attempt on Matt’s life fails, he and Lisa are offered refuge in an FBI “safehouse,” but soon discover that rather than being protected, they are being watched.
In a fast moving plot that ranges from the former luxury hideout of a drug smuggler in western North Carolina, to old-line legal firms in New York, and on to the luxury of Sea Island on the Georgia coast, Matt and Lisa race against time to discover what Jarrard knew, and in the process save their own lives.
Masterful! Rawlings chauffeurs you along with comfortable prose and easy dialogue, then slams you with a violent twist or abrupt murder. And climaxes keep coming. There are more action peaks than the Himalayas.
- - Jack Markley
International Business Consultant, Retired Division Head, Proctor & Gamble Company
___________________________________________________________
What Dan Brown spawned in his Da Vinci Code, William Rawlings has mastered in his fourth mystery, Crossword, a cruciverbalist’s dream that pits language against mathematics in a furious hunt for a top-secret, life-saving truth.
A master of surprise reversals, Rawlings spreads suspense from Walkerville, St. Simons, and Savannah, Georgia, to Highlands, North Carolina, and New York, where every character is suspect in a perilous scheme of deception and wide-spread annihilation. Indeed, the heroine of this intricately crafted novel rivals the author in the clever way she entices the reader to discover clues that might ward off the last and most significant of a series of mystifying murders and suicides. Like invisible messages penned with lemon juice, not till the very end does Rawlings bathe them with light.
- - Randolph P. Shaffner
Professor Emeritus, retired Publisher, Author and Founder of Cyrano’s Bookshop, Highlands, N.C.
___________________________________________________________
The clues to the puzzle are clever, creative, and quick. The answer is Crossword. Rawlings's fourth novel is his best to date. A must-read.
- - Larry Walker
Attorney and Former Georgia State House Majority Leader
___________________________________________________________
If one puzzle isn’t enough, William Rawlings gives you four to solve in Crossword—with a couple of homicides to boot. This is an absorbing page-turner with a conclusion that blows you away. A great read for all who love mysteries.
- - Charles F. Rinkevich
Director (Retired), Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Saint Simons Island, Georgia
___________________________________________________________
Crossword is crammed full of mystery, colorful characters, and intellectual challenges, particularly to those having even casual aspirations as "cruciverbalists". Charming! Readers will have great fun with this one, and will flock to the movie house when this thriller eventually finds its way there.
- - John Diaz
CEO of Diaz de Navarra, Vineyards, Inc., Lt. Col. (Ret.), Special Forces