Synopses & Reviews
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, sheand#8217;ll need more than a bit of charmand#133; and#160;
1867: After being fired from her latest variety hall engagement, Ophelia acts her way into a ladyand#8217;s maid position for a crass American millionaire. But 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 Whiteand#8217;s cottage, along with a disturbing dwarf skeleton. And when her millionaire boss turns up deadand#151;poisoned by an appleand#151;the fantastic setting turns into a once upon a crime scene.
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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. And as the clock ticks towards midnight, sheand#8217;ll have to break a cunning killerand#8217;s spell before her own time runs outand#133;
Review
"Deliciously gothic, intriguingly different, this story plunges us into the world of Brothers Grimm fairytales where the greed and evil are all too real, and everyone has something to hide." and#8211; New York Timesand#160;bestselling authorand#160;Rhys Bowen
Review
Praise for Snow White Red-Handed and#160;
and#8220;Offering a clever twist on the tales of the Brothers Grimm, this debut historical cozy (and series launch) introduces an attractive, spunky heroineand#8230;and an entertaining, well-constructed plot that will satisfy fans of folklore and fairy tales.and#8221;and#8212;Library Journal (starred review)
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and#8220;Deliciously Gothic, intriguingly different, this story plunges us into the world of Brothers Grimm fairy tales, where the greed and evil are all too real, and everyone has something to hide.and#8221;and#8212;Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author
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and#8220;[Chanceand#8217;s] lively debut, the first in a new cozy seriesand#8230;will whet the readerand#8217;s appetite for Ophelia and Prueand#8217;s next misadventure.and#8221;and#8212;Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
This Cinderella goes from ashes to ashes in the new Victorian-era Fairy Tale Fatal Mystery by the author of Snow White Red-Handed . . .
Variety hall actress Ophelia Flaxand#8217;s plan to reunite her friend Prue with her estrangedand#151;and allegedly wealthyand#151;mother, Henrietta, is met with a grim surprise. Not only is the marquiseand#8217;s Paris mansion a mouse-infested ruin, but Henrietta has inexplicably vanished, leaving behind an evasive husband, two sinister stepsisters, and a bullet-riddled corpse in the pumpkin patch decked out in a ball gown and one glass slipperand#151;a corpse that also happens to be a dead ringer for Prue.and#160;
Strangely, no one at 15 rue Garenne seems concerned about who plugged this luckless Cinderella or why, so the investigation is left to Ophelia and Prue. It takes them through the labyrinthine maze of the Paris Opera, down the trail of a legendary fairy tale relic, into the confidence of a wily prince charmless, and makes them vulnerable to the secrets of a mysterious couturiand#232;re with designs of her own on Prueand#8217;s ever-twisting family history.
About the Author
The author of the Fairy Tale Fatal Mysteries, including Snow White Red-Handed, and finalist for the 2004 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award,and#160;Maia Chanceand#160;is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington. She is writing her dissertation on nineteenth-century American literature.