Description (from cover):'Miss Ophelia Flax is a Victorian actress who knows all about making quick changes and even quicker exits. But to solve a fairy-tale crime in the haunted Black Forest, she'll need more than a bit of charm...
1867: After quitting her latest variety hall engagement, Ophelia acts her way into a lady's maid position for a crass American millionaire. When her new job whisks her off to a foreboding castle straight out of a Grimm tale, she begins to wonder if her fast-talking ways might have been too hasty. The vast grounds contain the suspected remains of Snow White's cottage, along with a disturbing dwarf skeleton. And when her millionaire boss turns up dead--poisoned by an apple--the fantastic setting turns into a once upon a crime scene.
To keep from rising to the top of the suspect list, Ophelia fights through a bramble of elegant lies, sinister folklore, and priceless treasure, with only a dashing but mysterious scholar as her ally. As the clock ticks towards midnight, she'll have to break a cunning killer's spell before her own time runs out...'
My thoughts:
I have been longed intrigued by fairy tales and when I saw that this was a fairy tale mystery, well I knew that I had to read it. I enjoy watching Once Upon a Time and have been enraptured by the new fairytale movies coming out recently. I thought that reading a cozy mystery series featuring fairy tales might be right up my alley. However, this book started off slow and I spent a great deal of time wondering when the story was going to pick up the pace and when I would start to enjoy it. About half-way through, is when that finally happened for me. I am not sure if I felt that the beginning was slow due to character and plot development, but nevertheless, I wasn't drawn into the story right away.
About half-way through the book, I started to warm up and enjoy the story a little more. Ophelia was an actress, but she quit her job and found herself a lady's maid to a rich American newlywed. She travels from America to Germany to the Black Forest and finds herself in a whole mess of trouble. When her boss' husband turns up dead in mysterious circumstances and Ophelia's friend is named as the murderer, she is determine to solve the mystery and free her friend. She enlists the help of a fascinating professor and sets out to discover the truth. I enjoyed the setting and the way that the author weaved fairy tale folklore into this story. It wasn't a fantastic debut, but it was a good start and I have a feeling that I will be checking this series out more in the future.
Like I stated before, it was a slow start, but I am glad that I stuck with it. After the initial plot development, the story really started to pick up and the mystery was well on its way. I am curious to see what the next book holds in store. It seems that it will be featuring the story of Cinderella and will be set in Paris. I got that little tidbit of information from the teaser of the next book at the end of this one. Nevertheless, something a little different and I found it to be somewhat enjoyable. Not a smashing debut, but one that made me curious about this author and this new series.
Overall Rating: 3
Title: Snow White Red-Handed
Author: Maia Chance
Series: Fairy Tale Fatal Mystery #1
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: November 4, 2014
Pages: 336
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was selected from the library by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
