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The Body in the Lighthouse : A Faith Fairchild Mystery

The Body in the Lighthouse : A Faith Fairchild Mystery

List Price: $6.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another enjoyable Faith Fairchild Mystery
Review: Faith and Tom Fairchild, along with their children, return to Sanpere Island off the coast of Maine to move into their summer home for the first time. Faith is chagrined to realize that Tom's idea and her idea as to what constitutes a house ready to move into, are two different things. Tom has been working diligently with a crew of men to finish up their house, but it's not yet ready for human habitation. Faith's best friend's mother, Ursula, kindly invites them to move in with her until their home is finished. Faith welcomes the opportunity to live in comfortable surroundings and to get to know Ursula better. The elderly woman confides in Faith that all is not well on the island. There is a battle between those who want to Keep Sanpere Sanpere (KSS) and those who want to develop it and thus remove the wilderness from the area. Things begin to happen to those who oppose the new developments and soon graffiti begins to appear on the island. One of the island realtors accidentally drinks some turpentine while preparing for a production of "Romeo and Juliet", and one of the major developers is found dead in the island's lighthouse. All signs point to one of the members of KSS, but there is no proof. Along with these disagreements, there is an ongoing struggle between two island families over lobster fishing rights. There are so many suspects that Faith is at a loss as to who might be responsible until the killer confesses to her. This is another good read from Katherine Hall Page which contains interesting information about the origins of lighthouses as well as a good mystery.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another enjoyable Faith Fairchild Mystery
Review: Faith and Tom Fairchild, along with their children, return to Sanpere Island off the coast of Maine to move into their summer home for the first time. Faith is chagrined to realize that Tom's idea and her idea as to what constitutes a house ready to move into, are two different things. Tom has been working diligently with a crew of men to finish up their house, but it's not yet ready for human habitation. Faith's best friend's mother, Ursula, kindly invites them to move in with her until their home is finished. Faith welcomes the opportunity to live in comfortable surroundings and to get to know Ursula better. The elderly woman confides in Faith that all is not well on the island. There is a battle between those who want to Keep Sanpere Sanpere (KSS) and those who want to develop it and thus remove the wilderness from the area. Things begin to happen to those who oppose the new developments and soon graffiti begins to appear on the island. One of the island realtors accidentally drinks some turpentine while preparing for a production of "Romeo and Juliet", and one of the major developers is found dead in the island's lighthouse. All signs point to one of the members of KSS, but there is no proof. Along with these disagreements, there is an ongoing struggle between two island families over lobster fishing rights. There are so many suspects that Faith is at a loss as to who might be responsible until the killer confesses to her. This is another good read from Katherine Hall Page which contains interesting information about the origins of lighthouses as well as a good mystery.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Mostly pleasant slow-moving story
Review: Faith Fairchild arrives in Sampere Island, Maine only to find that the summer house is incomplete, that a Romeo and Juliet scenerio is being carried out in the town even as villagers rehearse the play, and that eco-terrorists are battling developers for the future of this once pristine, but now highly priced town. Faith involves herself with the play and suffers mixed feelings about the eco-terrorists. While she agrees that huge mansions mar the beauty of the island and also cut off beaches from the ordinary citizens, surely fires and destruction are not the way to achieve them. When she stumbles across a body near the abandoned lighthouse, though, things start looking serious. Although the death is certainly accidental--isn't it?

Author Katherine Hall Page immerses the reader in the details of Faith's life--her cooking, caring for her two children, and her joy in discovering paint chips at Home Depot. The story moves forward at an unhurried pace, as Faith uses her connections to the Island's grapevine to discover the secrets so many Islanders hide.

THE BODY IN THE LIGHTHOUSE is a short quick read. It didn't grip me, and I found Faith to be not especially interesting as a character, but Page's writing is solid and her insights into a changing era on an island transitioning from fishing to resort.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Just okay
Review: I am always in a rush to get the latest "Faith Fairchild" mystery and have read them all, however, this one wasn't my favorite. Too many characters and a boring ecoterrorist plot made this book drag on forever for me. Still, I'm hooked on this series and will anxiously await the next book.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Narrow Vision, Boring Book
Review: I guess I don't much care for Faith Fairchild. It got a little tiresome to be reminded 10 times how slender the heroine (usually a stand-in for the author) is. Okay, okay, so you're thin! Congratulations! It got even more tiresome that her reaction to anyone with any kind of social concern was to parody or shun them as "lunatics" or "terrorists" (terrorists?!). Faith's vision and concern never extends beyond her family, except for helping out with the Concord Players (sorry, Sanpere Players). She's as eager as the "ecoterrorists" to pull up the drawbridge and let no one else settle in Sanpere, yet doesn't recognize her own hypocrisy. Her view of life was summed up, for me, in her belief that her family was entitled to first refusal on a plot of land owned by someone else, destined to be sold to someone else, simply because her family enjoyed looking at it. This was my first Faith Fairchild mystery: I don't plan to bother with another.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Just okay
Review: I have read all of the Faith Fairchild mysteries from Katherine Hall Page and this one, while not her best, did not disappoint. Faith and family travel to Maine for work on their vacation home and, of course, Faith finds yet another body! This book had the added appeal of letting us get to know Pix Miller's mother on an intimate level and I fell for Ursula in a big way. I love to read the recipes from her books, although they make me have to get up in the night to get a snack while reading! I hope Faith will be with us for a long time!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I Love Faith!
Review: I have read all of the Faith Fairchild mysteries from Katherine Hall Page and this one, while not her best, did not disappoint. Faith and family travel to Maine for work on their vacation home and, of course, Faith finds yet another body! This book had the added appeal of letting us get to know Pix Miller's mother on an intimate level and I fell for Ursula in a big way. I love to read the recipes from her books, although they make me have to get up in the night to get a snack while reading! I hope Faith will be with us for a long time!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: glacially slow until near the end
Review: There are only two reasons to stick with this slow-moving story to its end: (1)you enjoy reading page after page of household and shopping trivia about upper middle class families who can afford vacation homes, or (2) you're curious to see if any real action ever takes place. There is no tension in the first half of the book; no suspense, no real mystery. The action is concentrated at the end. The author employs a tactic used too often in female-centered mysteries; the murderer behaves like a gentleman the first time the protagonist gets too nosy, bopping her on the head but then delivering her unconscious body to her home. That behavior truly requires suspension of disbelief. Male readers in particular are likely to find the story terminally boring.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well written, engaging mystery
Review: This is the thirteenth novel in the Faith Fairchild series, and Katherine Hall Page continues to provide a fine reading experience. Unlike some other long running series, Page's writing continues to be clear, consistent, and the story lines and characters remain congruent.

The Body in the Lighthouse finds Faith and her family at the summer vacation home in Maine. While waiting for renovations on the home to be completed, the Fairchild family moves in temporarily with the mother of Faith's best friend Pix. This creates the setting for Faith to gain understanding of and empathy with the long-term residents of the town and their slow loss of their property and livelihoods to summer residents and newcomers building "MacMansions."

The unrest in the town is also portrayed through a quarrel between families over lobster traps, a local play that puts a spotlight on the unknown talents of some residents, and a Romeo & Juliet type love story. As in the other stories in the series, Faith's family life runs in parallel to these activities and the crimes in the town.

Well written and contemporary without relying on undue violence or profanity, The Body in the Lighthouse is an enjoyable read. Although the final conclusion will not be a surprise to most readers, it is satisfyingly consistent with the story line and human nature.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well written, engaging mystery
Review: This is the thirteenth novel in the Faith Fairchild series, and Katherine Hall Page continues to provide a fine reading experience. Unlike some other long running series, Page's writing continues to be clear, consistent, and the story lines and characters remain congruent.

The Body in the Lighthouse finds Faith and her family at the summer vacation home in Maine. While waiting for renovations on the home to be completed, the Fairchild family moves in temporarily with the mother of Faith's best friend Pix. This creates the setting for Faith to gain understanding of and empathy with the long-term residents of the town and their slow loss of their property and livelihoods to summer residents and newcomers building "MacMansions."

The unrest in the town is also portrayed through a quarrel between families over lobster traps, a local play that puts a spotlight on the unknown talents of some residents, and a Romeo & Juliet type love story. As in the other stories in the series, Faith's family life runs in parallel to these activities and the crimes in the town.

Well written and contemporary without relying on undue violence or profanity, The Body in the Lighthouse is an enjoyable read. Although the final conclusion will not be a surprise to most readers, it is satisfyingly consistent with the story line and human nature.


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