Crosswords in fiction

The Internet is a constant source of, “Hmmmm, I never thought about that before.” For example, what are you favorite examples of crosswords in fiction? That’s question asked by Guardian writer Alan Connor in his crossword blog. I never thought about crosswords in fiction. I’ve probably never encountered one before. As of now, no one has yet responded to Connor’s request for examples, but here’s one he doesn’t like:

The worst? Well, for example, I am rarely impressed by the use of a crossword to indicate that a character is deranged, obsessive or otherwise ill-suited to conventional society. At the beginning of the 2009 “mixed-reviews” rom-com All About Steve, we see in a trice that Sandra Bullock’s character is so detached from what anyone would consider reasonableness that she might plausibly spend the next 98 minutes stalking him from The Hangover around the States. How do we know? Perhaps … because she solves crosswords? Worse. Reader, she sets them. Well, I’ve met crossword setters and I can tell you: relatively few of them would stalk anyone across more than a few county lines.

But then again, I’ve never heard the phrase “crossword setter.”