Foul Play at the Fair by Shelley Freydont

Foul Play at the Fair by Shelley Freydont ISBN-13: 9780425251553 Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: September 4, 2012

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
As more and more tourists flock to Celebration Bay, New York, to enjoy their seasonal festivals, the town is in need of a professional coordinator. Enter Manhattan event planner Liv Montgomery, tired of big-city stress and looking for an idyllic spot where she and her Westie terrier, Whiskey, can put down roots. The Harvest by the Bay Festival is Liv’s first chance to prove herself, and everything from apple bobbing to pumpkin painting goes perfectly—until the body of an itinerant juggler is discovered stuffed into an antique apple press.

With a murderer on the loose, town leaders threaten to shut down the upcoming Halloween and Christmas festivals. But the town’s livelihood is at stake, and there is no way Liv is going to let that happen, even if she has to solve the murder herself. No matter how many balls she needs to keep in the air, Liv is determined to find a killer who’s rotten to the core . . .


My Review:
Foul Play at the Fair is a cozy mystery. The author was good at giving clues in a way that pulled the readers' focus away from them. I had a sense of whodunit and why, but I didn't have it all figured out by the big reveal. I appreciated that the author took the time to learn basic police and crime scene procedures.

A nice level of detail about Liv's job and the setting was woven into the story without slowing the pacing. The suspense came from Liv's worry about losing her job and from some scenes involving potential physical danger. The characters were interesting, and their motives were always clear. While they came across as realistic, we didn't get to know the characters (beyond the heroine) very well. Only the bumbling and super-arrogant out-of-town detectives came across as cliche.

There was no sex. However, there was a fair amount of explicit bad language (averaging about 1 bad word every 4 pages). Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable mystery as long as the amount of bad language doesn't bother you.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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