Stan, the fairy tale murderer, stalks women who look like women in the fairy tales his mother read to him as a child and kidnaps and murders them. After he watches his controlling father, the owner of Country Haven Mortuary, die in front of him, Stan sloughs off his meek behavior and becomes empowered by his sudden freedom. He soon discovers that in order to get any physical satisfaction he must murder women who resemble the females in the fairytales his mother had once read to him.
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Detective Kate Kingsley's good friend, Kristen, who was grieving the death of her mother who was laid out at the Country Have Mortuary, is his first victim and is suddenly missing. Kingsley, along with her partner, Harper, begins investigating only to find that the trail leads her back to Country Haven Mortuary, even though there is no immediate evidence of any wrongdoing. She cannot seem to figure out Stan who tries too hard to be kind, until he begins to get annoyed by her repeatedly showing up. However, Kingsley finds it odd that the mortuary's phone number keeps coming up on her friend's home phone. She questions Stan who brushes it off, saying that he had questions regarding the mother's funeral. She also questions Ruth, the ditzy, chatty receptionist, but she proved to be no help. However, Kingsley doesn't give up and is sickened to think she'll never see her friend again. Meanwhile, other women end up also missing and the only clue that is left at the scene is a fairy tale book, keeping Kingsley and Harper busy.
Stan, the fairy tale murderer, is as creepy as Hannibal Lecter, if not more so. While he goes about the business of operating a funeral home, where there is a crematorium he finds useful in hiding evidence, he discovers women who look like Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and other fairy tale characters, and then makes them his own. At first he stalks them, and then figures out the best time to overtake them by using chloroform. When they wake up they find themselves strapped to a table in the basement of the funeral home. Stan releases his sexual aggression with each murder. Eventually, because Harper is busy with his pregnant wife and cannot be with Kingsley as she continues her investigation, her misstep causes her to become Stan's victim. She manages to make him believe he succeeded in killing her, but then lies in wait for him when he leasts expects it.
Readers will squirm and stay awake at night to finish reading Fairy Tale Murders in hopes that this diabolical creature meets his end.
Best part of story, including ending:
I didn't like or hate the story, but Stan really did keep me on edge, even after I finished reading the novel.
Best scene in story:
As much as I didn't like Stan, when he was confronted by Kingsley, the detective, I kept waiting for him to make a mistake when she approached him about her friend Kristen missing. I enjoyed watching the back and forth between the two.
Opinion about the main character:
Stan was so heinous and I wanted him to die before he killed anyone else! He had no patience with Ruth, his receptionist, which I actually had to agree with his reaction to her, but he was arrogant and sleazy, which made me dislike him.
