The Body in the Wake: a Faith Fairchild Mystery

March 4, 2019
In Agatha winner Page’s tantalizing 25th Faith Fairchild mystery (after 2017’s The Body in the Casket), plans for a relaxing summer on Maine’s Sanpere Island quickly go awry when caterer Faith and friend Sophie Maxwell find the body of an unknown man with an unusual tattoo floating in a pond. The death is only the beginning of trouble for the usually peaceful community. Also disrupting the peace are Pix and Sam Miller’s new neighbors from hell, the Cranes, who are unlawfully cutting down trees on their property with loud chainsaws. Meanwhile, Pix and Sam have an uninvited guest, Alexandra Kohn, a high society snob and their daughter’s future mother-in-law. Sophie’s mother, Babs Harrington, one of society’s grande dames, deals with the imperious Alexandra, while the Millers battle it out with the Cranes. The discovery of another body raises the stakes, and Faith once again turns amateur sleuth. This long-running traditional mystery series is still as fresh as a cool pitcher of Faith’s strawberry shrub. Agent: Faith Hamlin, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc.

December 1, 2018

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2019
Veteran sleuth Faith Fairchild (The Body in the Casket, 2017, etc.) finds other fish to fry when she vacations on Sanpere Island, Maine. Despite the summer's record-breaking heat, Penobscot Bay holds pleasures aplenty for Faith. There are porches to loll on, like the one at The Birches, her younger friend Sophie Maxwell's family home; Bar Harbor rockers to admire; and lots and lots of family history to absorb, starting with learning Sophie's much-married mother Babs' five last names. Now that Faith's best friend Pix Miller's daughter, Samantha, is getting ready to marry Zach Cohen, there's a wedding to plan, with all the attendant food and festivities. So when Faith finds a dead body in Lily Pond, she really doesn't have time to think much about it except to notice an odd-looking tattoo on the young victim's arm. The corpse gets pushed even further from the spotlight when Zach's mother, Alexandra, comes to town and does her best to upend Pix's carefully laid wedding plans. Pix, Faith, and Alexandra all enroll in a course on writing memoirs; Faith's daughter, Amy, has an increasingly demanding job at the Shores, a local resort run by Dr. and Mrs. Childs; and the summer wears on and on. The dead body is barely mentioned for the next hundred pages, until a second, similarly tattooed corpse is found. Even then, Faith keeps her promise to husband Tom not to investigate, and the case solves itself when the killers push their greed a step too far. When the heroine can't summon much interest in the murder, it's hard to imagine readers will either. This one's strictly for fans of Down East local color.

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April 15, 2019
Vacationing in Maine has been a Fairchild family tradition through Faith and Tom's entire married life, but this year offers a special treat: with Tom on sabbatical from the church to work on a novel, the family will be able to spend an entire summer on Sanpere Island?until a mix of murder and wedding bells disrupt the normally serene calm of Penobscot Bay. Trouble arrives when Faith finds a dead body at the bottom of the local swimming pond, and then another body turns up, seemingly caught in a lobster trap. Meanwhile, Faith has her hands full helping her friend Pix Miller plan her upcoming nuptials while dealing with her in-law issues. Will Faith, the amateur sleuth, solve the murders while keeping the wedding on track? Fans of the long-running series will enjoy this twenty-fifth installment, which is filled, as usual, with tasty recipes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)