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Summary
Summary
Minister's wife Faith Fairchild of Aleford, Massachusetts, has restarted the catering business that she ran successfully in Manhattan, and one of her first customers is a Hollywood film company. After a star is poisoned, Faith must once more play amateur sleuth to uncover the killer. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Author Notes
Katherine Hall Page was born in New Jersey in 1947. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Wellesley College, a master's degree in Secondary Education from Tufts University and a Doctorate in Administration, Public Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard University. Before becoming a full-time writer, she taught in high school for many years. She is the author of the Faith Fairchild Mystery series. She has won numerous awards including the 1991 Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel for The Body in the Belfry, the 2006 Agatha Award for Best Mystery Novel for The Body in the Snowdrift, and the 2001 Agatha Award for Best Short Story for The Would-Be Widower.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Faith Fairchild, caterer and minister's wife in Aleford, Mass., rebounds from her last case, The Body in the Vestibule , as a crew filming a remake of The Scarlet Letter arrives in town while a fierce local election is at stake. Happily, Faith lands the job as caterer for the production company of A , which includes Maxwell Reed, the director known as the ``New Jersey Fellini,'' some stars of considerable magnitude, and even, as a lowly production assistant, Faith's old schoolmate, Cornelia Stuyvesant. But problems seem to plague the production. First, a fire breaks out in a nearby barn; then the company's soup is laced with a laxative. Everyone, including the police, considers these events just pranks, but after a stand-in is poisoned on the set, Faith suspects sabotage and initiates some subtle snooping. When a candidate for Aleford's Board of Selectmen is bludgeoned to death and his opposition (and half-sister) disappears, Faith decides more than movie madness is occuring and begins to investigate in earnest. Pen and ink illustrations and five recipes add little to this lively tale that stands perfectly well on the merits of Page's spirited characterization and energetic plotting. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Continuing in the Rich vein of murder-on-the-menu (five recipes included), Hall again serves up trouble for plucky New England caterer Faith Fairchild (The Body in the Vestibule, etc.), who's been hired to feed the cast and crew now shooting an updated version of The Scarlet Letter in picturesque Aleford. And as if that's not exciting enough for the star-struck townsfolk, Aleford is also in the midst of a heated election for the Board of Selectmen. Moreover, the child star is tantrum-prone; the director is ogling the leading lady's stand-in; and everyone suffers when Faith's fabled bean soup is doctored with laxatives. Then the stand-in is poisoned and one of the candidates has his head bashed in while another runs off to Boston for safety. Despite the warnings of her minister-husband Tom, Faith starts to snoop--which ultimately leads to her being trapped in the star's trailer with an unconscious school chum, a bloodied Oscar, and flames licking at the locked door. Sprightly, with a light dusting of satire and, alas, a heavy dollop of this year's most overused plot complication: child abuse. Faith outscores Goldy (see Diane Mott Davidson's The Cereal Murders, p. 1166) as a detective, but Goldy seems the more creative cook.
Booklist Review
Dorothy Sayers once reflected that there was nothing like combining buttery crumpets with a good, safe dose of horror. Here are the latest installments in two mystery series that take Sayers at her word--crime novels starring food caterers who not only must solve murders, but also worry about what to serve next. In both cases, the proportion of food to horror is just right. Cereal features the return of Aspen, Colorado, caterer Goldy Bear. Goldy's latest adventures revolve around her son's exclusive prep school, Elk Park, where Goldy has the misfortune to discover the body of the school's valedictorian shortly after the annual college advisory dinner for seniors and parents. Any number of complications follow as Goldy learns more than she wants to about some school parents and their single-minded ambitions to get their children into the best colleges. As she's drawn deeper into the truly puzzling murder, Goldy also finds herself drawn deeper into her relationship with county sheriff Tom Schulz. But she's not so involved that she forgets to include recipes for Red 'n' Whites (cookies for the school when the Stanford rep visits), Sorry Cake (dessert for clerics meeting to discuss penitence), Happy Findings Plum Cake, and many others. Body in the Cast brings back Aleford, Massachusetts, caterer Faith Fairchild, who's pleased to get the contract to provide commissary services to the movie cast and crew in town to film a modern version of The Scarlet Letter. At lunch on the first day, the leading lady, after eating the excellent black bean soup, suddenly and dramatically announces that she has been poisoned and then vomits and collapses. As a caterer's worst nightmare, it has quite an effect. Of course, it's not Faith's cooking at fault--someone has laced the soup quite liberally with a laxative. Later, when one of the director's assistants drinks from a prop cup on the set and dies, it's clear that a murderer is on the loose. This is the first time Faith's recipes have been included in the text, but let's hope it's not the last: they seem every bit as tasty as Goldy's.Read both of these on a full stomach or have snacks at hand. You'll need them. ~--Stuart Miller
Library Journal Review
Now that former Manhattan caterer Faith Fairchild ( The Body in the Vestibule , LJ 9/1/92) has reestablished her business in Aleford, Massachusetts (whence cometh minister/husband Tom), she divides her time between food preparation, family, and sometime sleuthing. As location caterer for a famous film director, Faith experiences arson, food poisoning, and murder until the not-too-obvious culprit goofs. Page provides an abundance of aromatically and vividly detailed food, a veritable host of characters, and just a bit of froth--with appended recipes. Well recommended. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.