Prah, Constantine and Baryeh Reviews: Snow White Red-Handed by Maia Chance

We're still loving on historicals, so we selected Snow White Red-Handed (A Fairy Tale Fatal Mystery Book 1) by Maia Chance.


Here's the blurb:

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, she’ll need more than a bit of charm…
1867: After being fired from her latest variety hall engagement, Ophelia acts her way into a lady’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 White’s cottage, along with a disturbing dwarf skeleton. And when her millionaire boss turns up dead—poisoned by an apple—the fantastic setting turns into a once upon a crime scene.

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, she’ll have to break a cunning killer’s spell before her own time runs out…

My Review

I haven't commented on covers in a little while, but look at that cover! But let's not judge a book by its cover alone. The author immerses us into the story at an attention grabbing point where our protagonist, Miss Ophelia Flax, acts her way (so to speak) into a job as a lady's maid in a scene that captures the societal disparities of 19th century Europe.

Ophelia is a strong character. Her profession as an actress comes in very handy to enable her charm her way in and out of trouble. The lengths to which she's willing to go to save her colleague show how loyal she is. These endeared me to her. I must confess, I took a peek at the blurbs of books 2 and 3 in the course of my read and discovered that Ophelia Flax is also the main character in those, which told me there probably wouldn't be as much romance as I would have hoped for. However, the mystery and the twists more than make up for it.

I enjoyed the array of characters and places, and the premise that fairytales could have stemmed from true events. Much to my frustration, I couldn't guess who the killer was until the moment where anyone else would have guessed it.

Ms Chance's writing is crisp with bits of humour thrown in here and there to make the book a delightful journey from beginning to end. I definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a new angle to a classic story.

Don't forget to hop over to see what Prah and Constantine thought of the story!

Disclaimer: I bought my copy of Snow White Red-Handed from Amazon.