Once Upon a Thriller: 10/16/17

Once Upon a Thriller by Carolyn Keene is the fourth of the Nancy Drew Diaries. Nancy and her friends have a cabin rented in a small mountain town. Almost immediately their trip is interrupted by a series of odd accidents, all of which seem to point to the reclusive mystery author living at the other side of the lake.

Although this is a short and relatively uncomplicated mystery, it was the prefect book for the time that I read it. I read it just before leaving for a week long trip to Pine Cove — and while Pine Cove doesn't have a lake, there are two near by: Fulmor and Hemet.

This town is small enough though to have only one of everything — a single book store, a single B&B, a single market. It's a small enough town that everyone knows everyone or at least knows about everyone. It's small enough that it relies to some degree on tourism for its livelihood.

One of the semi regular events is a signing by the elusive Lacey O'Brien. Except this year the signing has to be canceled because of a fire in the book store. That is the first of many events that resemble plots in Lacey's popular mystery series. The big question is: is Lacey going on a self sabotage rampage, or is someone trying to frame her?

The funny thing about reading, is that plots tend to clump up. Even apparently unrelated books can end up sharing plot elements. In the case of Once Upon a Thriller it was similar enough to both Readaholics and the Gothic Gala by Laura DiSilverio [LINK] and Vampires on the Run by C.M. Surrisi. For me, it meant I knew what was going on pretty early in the book, but it was still fun.

Four stars

Comments (0)