Sharing the Latest Prize

An isolated castle . . .

An intricate riddle . . .

A man of her dreams . . .

Sound like something Disney might put out? (I was thinking along the lines of Beauty and the Beast.)

But The Shadow of Reality by Donna Fletcher Crow is no fairy tale. This perfect cozy mystery is actually a puzzle within a puzzle.


Readers are drawn into the plot just like the costumed guests that arrive at a beautiful castle built just above the timberline in the Colorado Rockies.

A week of murderous role-playing lies ahead and co-workers at a local university, Elizabeth and Richard, attend during their spring break. There, Elizabeth meets her hero, a novelist held in high honor and actually interested in her.

The revelry of an engagement party serves as the first glamorous dinner when the  bride-to-be character, a famous starlit of the 1930's, drops dead after choking on her fiance's engagement toast. Not a great way to start a marriage, but an exciting way to start out a game. A hundred or more would-be sleuths break into small teams and begin sifting through clues.

Elizabeth is delighted to engage in her passion and in the attentions of sophisticated Sir Gavin Kendall. Even Richard gets interested, both in the mystery and a very cute group member, Anita Crocker.

But when Elizabeth is surprised by a man hiding in her bathroom, the game becomes frightening and the dream more of a nightmare. Fantasy and reality begin to collide, along with the facade of the story crime and the facts of actual jewel thefts and even an unexplained death.

Donna Fletcher Crow pens a wonderful conundrum. I found it a pleasant repast to insert between some of the heavier reading I've been doing. It reminds me again that there is really nothing I like better than a juicy whodunit!

Not sure what my next book is going to be, although I've downloaded some Dorothy L. Sayers' books. I read at least one years ago. Time to pull them out again. Oh, and I also have Dr. Richard Mabry's book, Code Blue. I've been waiting to read that on for a while!

Updated 9-18-11 My review of this book stands as it is. I liked it, but I was easily able to put it down over a period of several weeks while I read other books and pick it back up again as I had time. It is a quintessential cozy, no real suspense. Little danger and an obvious murderer. But it provided pleasant breaks in the reading of more intense books. I would read another of Donna Fletcher Crow's books, happily.

I've been hearing about the book, The Help. Have you read it? What did you like about it, or not? If you haven't, what have you read most recently and what about it was memorable?