Monday, December 2, 2013

Foul Play at the Fair

Foul Play at the Fair is the first installment in the Celebration Bay Mystery series by Shelley Freydont.  I like the premise and the idea of the main characters, but they were not well defined and there was too much mystery about them even at the end of the book.  As an example, Chaz (who may end up being the boyfriend) is a complete mystery.  He used to work for a major newspaper as an investigative reporter, but now he's back in Celebration Bay running the family newspaper and fishing.

The mystery was solid and kept me guessing until the end.  Set in a small town in upstate New York, Celebration Bay is known for the festivals that keep the tourists coming back year in and year out.  Liv has just accepted the job of event planner for the festivals, and is still very much an outsider.  She wants to prove to the natives that she is up to the job.  

Just days before the Fall/Halloween festival is set to begin a dead body turns up in the cider press at one of the farms.  Liv sets out to solve the murder so the festival will not suffer and then the town will keep her in the position of event planner.