THE PRINCESS AND THE POISON written by Carol E. Ayer is the first in the Storybook Park Mystery series! This is a great story idea for a mystery and different than many cozy mysteries. With the setting a theme park with sights of all your favorite childhood fairytale stories, Ayer describes a mystery that could have any of the characters with a motive to commit a murder. It left me interested in what she will do next in the series with all the other possibilities of exciting mysteries for the main character to solve.

Ashling Cleary owns the Storybook Park in California. She hires some of the most confusing and interesting teenagers and everyone is so excited to have the latest hot star Katrina Irvine performing for the play Sleeping Beauty for the summer. What they do not know yet is that attention is about to be magnified after she is murdered in the first performance.

This short cozy is different in a way than what I am use to. The sleuth in this mystery does not have a close relationship to anyone in the police department. Of course this is not a have to, but usually helps. It is refreshing to read something different, but it also leaves a challenge for the sleuth to be taken seriously by authority. However, I can see that there is plenty of room to grow the relationship between the main character and the officers of the law. If you are looking for an easy quick but interesting read, then you should pick up THE PRINCESS AND THE POISON written by Carol E. Ayer.

Book Summary

Ashling Cleary, the owner and manager of a storybook theme park in Northern California, isn't exactly leading the fairy tale life she'd always dreamed of. She's stress-stuffing herself like Jack Sprat's wife who could eat no lean, her happily-ever-after with her boyfriend isn't going as expected, and her employees are an unruly, if loveable, bunch of teens. Ashling hopes things will turn around when she lands the hot Hollywood actress Katrina Irvine to star in the lead of their summer Sleeping Beauty play. But when Katrina is murdered—right in the middle of a performance!—Ashling's luck goes from bad to worse. And when her best friend becomes the number one suspect, it's up to Ashling to figure out who the true killer is before anyone else comes to a not-so-fairytale ending in her park.

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