Puss Reboots: Blog: May 2021: Foul Play at the Fair

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The Air-Conditioned Nightmare by Henry Miller
The Ballad of Ami Miles by Kristy Dallas Alley
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Bloodroot by Susan Wittig Albert
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Crow by Candace Robinson and Amber R Duell
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat by Sofie Kelly
Death Gone A-Rye by Winnie Archer
Death of an English Muffin by Victoria Hamilton
Farm to Trouble by Amanda Flower
Foul Play at the Fair by Shelley Freydont
Hearts by Hilma Wolitzer
House of Cards by Michael Dobbs
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess
Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn and Christa Lewis (Narrator)
Montauk by Nicola Harrison
Nightschool: The Weirn Books Collector's Edition, Volume 2 by Svetlana Chmakova
On Borrowed Crime by Kate Young and Dina Pearlman (Narrator)
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker
A Playdate With Death by Ayelet Waldman
The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay
Sabrina: Something Wicked by Kelly Thompson and Veronica Fish (illustrator)
A Side of Murder by Amy Pershing
To Know You're Alive by Dakota McFadzean
This is Munich by Miroslav Sasek
Those People by Louise Candlish
Unplugged by Gordon Korman
A Witch's Printing Office, Volume 2 by Mochinchi and Yasuhiro Miyama
Wondercat Kyuu-Chan Volume 1 by Sasami Nitori

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April 2021 Summary

Previous month

Foul Play at the Fair: 05/19/21

Foul Play at the Fair by Shelley Freydont is the start of the Celebration Day mystery series. Event planner Liv Montgomery has gotten her dream job allowing her to move from New York City. Liv's first event is an autumn fair but on her second day she finds the body of a man in a cider press.

First books in a mystery series have to do a lot of work in about three hundred pages. They have to introduce the main character and their specific skills that will aid in solving this and future mysteries. The secondary characters will also need introducing. If the setting is a small town, then it an its cultural dynamics will need establishing.

Although Liv is introduced with a specific job— event planner— almost no time is spent showing her doing her job. Instead, she jumps right into her sleuthing. Without the time spent establishing the town and Liv's new life, I found the mystery extremely tedious.

The second book in the series is Silent Knife (2013).

Two stars