Mysterious Amusements

It's summertime, a season synomyous with theme parks of all shapes and sizes. Theme park and Hollywood tie-ins are certainly nothing new. First there was Disneyland (then Disney World), followed by Universal studios. But the movie connection is being taken up a notch with some new additions: Avatar-land under construction at Disney World; an Ice Age park in Kuala Lumpur; and DreamWorks Animation is working on an entertainment center in Shanghai and launching indoor theme parks in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg (with attractions based on movies like Shrek, Madagascar and How to Train Your Dragon).

Not to be left behind, literature is trying to get in on the act, with such sites as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando (and Hogwarts in Osaka) and Dickens World in Kent (complete with a Great Expectations log flume), while Lionsgate is hoping to create a Hunger Games theme park (yes, I know—these are movies, too!). So, I decided to have a little fun and come up with some ideas for attractions that would be appropriate for a literary theme park with a crime fiction focus. Let's call it, say, Mystery Adventure Park. Or maybe Crimetime Carnival.

Here are some suggestions for attractions for our hypothetical theme park:

PARK SECTIONS:

Stephen King's Joyland
Tony Hillerman's Ghostway
Lew Archer's The Barbarous Coast (Ross Macdonald)
Michael Connelly's Echo Park

RIDES:

Train ride: Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express
Tilt-a-Whirl:  The John Ceepak Tilt-a-Whirl (Chris Grabenstein)
Boat ride: Travis McGee's Busted Flush (John D. MacDonald)
Car racetrack: "Barney" Barnaby's Wild Ride (Janet Evanovich)
Log flume: Kate Shugak's Wild Alaska (Dana Stabenow)
Carousel: The Dick Francis Carousel
Pendulum ride:  Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum
Roller coaster:  Amelia Peabody Egyptian-themed indoor coaster (Elizabeth Peters)
Dark ride:  Sherlock Holmes' The Hound of the Baskervilles
Haunted House: Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Mystery House

EATERIES AND SHOPPES:

Nero Wolf's Bistro and Brewery
Death by Chocolate sweets
The Maltese Falcon gift shop
The Moving Toyship (Edmund Crispin)

Now it's your turn:  What ingenious, creative attractions can you come up with to add to our hypothetical mystery amusement park?