The Case of the Fickle Mermaid: A Brothers Grimm Mystery

Brackston’s uneven third Brothers Grimm mystery (after 2015’s Once upon a Crime) takes intrepid investigator Gretel of Bavaria and her loyal but not particularly bright brother, Hans, to sea. Capt. Tobias Ziegler, who runs the cruise ship Arabella, hires doughty Gretel to investigate the case of a mermaid and disappearing sailors. Off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein, Gretel encounters a sea sprite, a genuine mermaid, and a murderous smuggling ring. Cameos by dashing Uber Gen. Ferdinand von Ferdinand, who once saved Gretel from a lion, and Birgit Lange, an avaricious husband seeker who once broke Hans’s heart, add intrigue to a plot that sometimes drags. Brackston does a good job of highlighting the plight of magical, misfit creatures such as the sea sprite and Hans’s mer-hund, a hound bred to hunt mermaids, though human characters are minimally developed. Still, readers seeking a diversion in the Grimms’ fairy tale world should have fun. [em]Agent: Kate Hordern, Kate Hordern Literary Agency. (Jan.) [/em]