Fantasies
Are Murder
A
Kim & Kelly Mystery
TJ
Perkins
GumShoe
Press (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-9777538-0-8 (0977753808)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9777538-0-2 (9780977753802)
Publication Date: January 2006
List Price: $10.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Kim and Kelly are two young girls who are not only best friends, but also love mysteries. When their families decide to go on a weekend excursion to a resort that specializes in staging a murder mystery for the guests, they thought their dream to be like their fictional detective idols and solve a case had at last come true. Given a free run of the resort, they mingled with the actors and actresses who dropped clues and helped vacationers solve the fictitious murder. It was all fun and games until they discover a real murder has actually taken place on the grounds. With their sights set on solving the case, Kim and Kelly place themselves in real danger. The closer they get to revealing the truth, the closer they get to becoming the next victims. And with only three days to solve the murder, the girls play a deadly game of cat and mouse - but who will get the cheese?
Review:
Fantasies
Are Murder is the first book
in the Kim & Kelly mystery series written for young adults.
Originally published in 1994 by Booksurge (the self-publishing company
of Amazon.com), this edition was published by GumShoe Press.
There are numerous production and editing flaws in Fantasies Are Murder
that significantly mar this otherwise reasonable effort by TJ Perkins.
Perkins has recently become her own self-publisher, setting up GumShoe
Press to publish her work. She should be applauded for this effort, but
the lack of quality control on her own work is hard to understand.
Grammar, punctuation, and capitalization errors abound. Numerous words
are misspelled, including, notably, the title of Chapter 6 ("Eves
Dropping" instead of "Eavesdropping"). Incredibly, the review copy was
listed as a second printing; it is difficult to believe that these
problems weren't corrected between printings.
The story is basically a good one, based loosely on the Clue game.
Young readers are likely to be familiar with Clue and therefore will
understand the underlying premise of the story. But putting Kim and
Kelly at risk of being killed in cold blood not once, but several
times, is completely unnecessary. The story could have been told just
as effectively, with just as much suspense, without having a loaded gun
pointed at the girls.
Three additional titles were published simultaneously with this one.
Hopefully, both the quality of the publication, as well as the story,
told will improve in subsequent installments of this series.
Special thanks to GumShoe Press for providing a copy of Fantasies Are Murder for this review.
Review Copyright © 2006 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Fantasies Are Murder? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Fantasies Are Murder
GumShoe Press (Trade Paperback), January 2006
ISBN-10: 0-9777538-0-8 (0977753808)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9777538-0-2 (9780977753802)
The
Secret in Phantom Forest
GumShoe Press (Trade Paperback), January 2006
ISBN-10: 0-9777538-1-6 (0977753816)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9777538-1-9 (9780977753819)
Trade
Secret
GumShoe Press (Trade Paperback), January 2006
ISBN-10: 0-9777538-2-4 (0977753824)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9777538-2-6 (9780977753826)
Image
in the Tapestry
GumShoe Press (Trade Paperback), January 2006
ISBN-10: 0-9777538-3-2 (0977753832)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9777538-3-3 (9780977753833)
Omnimystery
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