I'm very pleased to say that fortunately it didn't actually require on any math ability of my own to enjoy the book. In fact, I could ignore the original puzzles in the book completely and just read the story, and not feel that I missed a thing.

I imagine for those who do love Sudoku, the book would have one additional treat for them.

Liza Kelly works in public relations, but she is also the Sudoku maven for the Oregon Daily. She used to live and work in Los Angeles, but after becoming involved in the investigation of the death of a close friend the year before, she moved to Maiden's Bay, Oregon where she took on Sudoku full-time and public relations part-time. She is representing a new young actress in her first film. It was the actress's uncle - Liza's friend - who had been killed the year before. This film was his last project, and he had planned it to be Jenny's break-through role into real stardom as an actress.

So it's like a recurring nightmare when once again murder comes to bear on this project. This time the victim is the producer who took over the film when Jenny's uncle was killed. He was buried up to his neck in the sand and left to drown as the tide rolled in.

It's not like anyone's actually mourning his death. He was a complete bastard and a total crook, and he was using the film to line his own pockets and planning on screwing everyone involved in the project both financially and artistically.

So the number of suspects is large. After all, who DIDN'T want the bastard dead?

As Liza works to help Jenny cope both personally and professionally with one more murder, she also finds herself working on finding who did it. Just as she would compulsively search for clues in a tough puzzle, she searches for clues about why someone would hate this man enough to kill him in such a horrible way.

Of course, ultimately, it does have something to do with "the numbers." In this case those of the finances of many different people both in the past and the present.

Liza is a strong character, and there are many romantic challenges in her life as well. It's definitely a mystery worth investing the seconds, minutes, hours... the numbers that you have to give it.