<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best female amateur sleuth novels of the year
Review: Being married to a minister in a small Massachusetts town means visiting members of the congregation. Transplanted New Yorker Faith Fairchild understands that all too well as she puts her catering business on hold until she completes her current obligation. However, the nuisance of the trips take a back seat when Faith arrives at the home of the elderly librarian, Sarah Winslow. Apparently, someone broke in to Sarah's home, killed her, and stole selected items. When Faith becomes a victim of a break-in, she decides to investigate by making the rounds of the pawn shops and antique stores in search of stolen valuables. Everyone, including loyal friends and workers, are suspect as a paranoid Faith continues her inquiries even though she may be placing her own life on the line. The ninth Fairchild amateur sleuth tale is one of the best entries in a wonderful series. The plot is crisp and the who-done-it is well designed. However, what makes THE BODY IN THE BOOKCASE a superb book is that the story line rings so true because of the reactions of the townsfolk, especially Faith feeling violated, to the robberies. Using her own experience, Katherine Hall has scribed one of the sub-genre's best novels of the year. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing--none of the "cozy" charm I value
Review: Fatith Fairchild from the fictional Aleford, Massachusetts is the kind of woman you'd like to have for a friend. Her habit of falling into mysteries and murders makes for fun, quick reading. This book explores the somewhat shady world of NE antiques, after Faith's house is broken into and a friend is killed when her house is burglarized. As other readers have noted, the ending is somewhat contrived but up till then, I really loved this book. Start with her earlier novels as Faith has grown from a new young wife, to mom, to mom of two. My only problem with these books? Faith's kids are SO good. Never fuss, whine, wet their pants at the wrong moment. Course if they were written as normal kids, Faith would never get anything done, like the rest of us moms!!
Rating: 
Summary: The Body in the Bookcase
Review: I'm about half-way through this book and I am very disappointed. First of all the title is misleading. The body is not in the bookcase, only the head is, sort of. The head is on the bottom shelf with the body on its side tied to a chair. There also is a lot of unnecessary information and people in the book. The characters are two dimensional and I got no feeling of suspense, thrill, or am I even interested in "who-done-it". I don't think it's a "who-done-it" plot. I'm left to wonder if The Body in the Fjord is really in the Fjord or just has a hand trailing in the frigid water. Try, try again, but read some more mysteries, do, Ms. Katherine Hall Page. p.s. the british authors are the best!
Rating:
Summary: Annoying and unrealistic
Review: In the latest Faith Fairchild adventure, her home is robbed along with several others in the area, including one where an old woman died. Faith spends the entire story obsessing over her lost treasures and trying to get them back. Her job and family take a back seat. While having a home robbed is not pleasant, at least no one was hurt. I felt like telling her to get over it already. This book lacks the cozy feeling the others in the series have, and the ending is not satisfying because no motive is presented. This was a disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining.
Review: THE BODY IN THE BOOKCASE is fun. It's very reminiscent of the Diana Mott Davidson culinary mysteries -- and not just because of the recipes. The style is very similar. I'm not sure which number this is in the Faith Fairchild series, but it's copyrighted 1998. And it's my first. It's about the theft of antiques, and one dead body leads to another as our protagonist tries to recover some of her stolen property. The characters are fun and believable. The author creates no sense of place at all, geographically, but does create a sense of community. Not the most satisfying mystery I've ever read, but entertaining. I'm in possesion of two different versions of this book. To help you with your purchasing decision, here's a comparison: One has a green cover with a gold letter opener. This is an Avon Twilight book, first printed in 1999. At the end it has excerpts of about two pages each from five other mystery series. The other is an Avon Book, first printed March 2001. It has a gray cover with red and black letters. It has larger print (but not "large print"), so the book is thicker. It has excerpts of about two pages each from nine other books in this same series.
Rating:
Summary: The Body in the Bookcase
Review: This book has a mixture of strengths and weaknesses. One of the plusses is that it features Faith Fairchild instead of her less interesting neighbor, Pix Miller. However, Pix is totally banished except for one or two brief appearances and this does not seem like a good thing to do to Faith's favorite sidekick. Another plus is the interesting mix of characters, especially Stephanie Bullock, the spoiled young girl whose mother has hired Faith to cater her rehearsal dinner and wedding reception. However, Faith does seem to obsess over the items which are stolen from her house and they seem to hold a more important place in her affections than do her own children who breeze in and out of her life and into the arms of their father, their babysitters and nursery schools. Most young mothers are way too busy with their offspring to spend hours skulking about the countryside investigating murders and robberies. Also the ending is not well conceived and seems too trite. Not the best of the series, but not a bad read for "cozy" fans.
<< 1 >>
| 
