The Curious Case of Prince Charming - by Charlen Mattson - Book Review

Book Review:                                   The Curious Case of Prince Charming

Author:                                              Charlene Mattson

Personal Quality Rating:                   3           

Reviewer:                                          Yvette van Niekerk (South Africa)

Summary:

The story is about the abduction of a beautiful Princess in Altria a fairy-tale country.  Because the abductor is seen as a villain the palace decides on recruiting the services of a detective in the City – William Tenys. 

It’s clear that William has been doing investigative work for some time and he really gets involved.  A couple of murders take place and there is a twist in the story.  Some evil villain is influenced by an even worse entity.

The story does lean more towards an investigation and not so much about a fantasy world but nevertheless it is quite interesting to see what happens.

Social / Historical Context:

As fiction I would say that the book is really lovely.  The most striking of the story is the fact that the author was set on reminding each of us that good always prevails.  There are many plots and I found that the characters depicted in her book were well thought out.  The story was going in the direction of murders and abductions.  One of the characters in this book looked so good and was so proper but in actual fact was rotten to the core, ‘a beautiful person with an ugly heart’ if I may use this phrase.

Writing Style:

The writing style to my mind is a mixture of evocation and common place.  It was an easy read and I enjoyed the story flow.  The writer definitely enjoyed her own story and I could feel her getting carried away.  I believe the story was well written in the third person and there is a lot of telling before the characters actually do some speaking.  The description of the places was interesting and I could actually see some of the characters in my mind’s eye. 

I think the purpose of the story is to show in essence that good always prevails over evil, that even in difficult times things do get better.

Thinking about how the book has been written I believe it leans more toward being a narrative.

My Thoughts:

I fell in love with the main character Mister William Tenys, this detective was sharp and I enjoyed reading how he went about his business.  The other characters in the book were interesting and they fitted into the story.  I was sorry about one of the ladies in the story that had to die; I think they may have hit it off at some stage in the story.  When drawing to a close I actually felt a little sad to see the story had come to an end.