bodyinbook

One day Faith Fairchild goes to visit friend and parishioner, Sarah Winslow, a retired librarian who still loves books. She is worried because, as the wife of Reverend Thomas Fairchild, she notices when someone hasn't shown up to church. She takes some goodies with her to cheer up her friend. When she gets to the house she discovers the place ransacked, and her friend's body laying head first in a book case. Days later, her own house is robbed, forcing Faith into action. She finds her napkin rings at another person's house, and they send her to the antique shop they found them. Because of this, she decides to track down more of her own things, thinking that she might be able to find the killer at the end of the trail. She soon finds herself in the world of black market antiques. Faith is also a caterer, and her newest customers, Stephanie, a farrago of a bride to be, and her mother Courtney Cabot Bullock do not make things any easier for her. Daily demanding changes and complaining constantly, it is a wonder Faith finds time at all to solve the mystery. The interactions between these three are actually a little amusing. Anyone who has had a customer service job can sympathize with Faith.

Faith is a different type of character. She is the ultimate preacher's wife, cooking like crazy, entertaining, worrying about the people around her. She does tend to go on a bit too much about the things she lost (I would, too, but this is real life, not story time, where one would like to move on a little quicker.) She is physically unable to relax, and so she hits the antique search trail with a vengeance. The black market antiques setting is very interesting, and the places she explores sound very neat. Unfortunately one almost gets the idea that she's more upset about her house getting robbed than she is about Sarah's murder. Any mention of Sarah's death sounds almost like an afterthought. There are a lot of people mentioned in the story, but they're not really characters per se, as we don't get to know much about them, and they are not very complete. She brings in characters and does not really use them, such as the Averys, who get mentioned in a vignette in the front, then, briefly, in the back. You get the feeling that a lot of these people are from other books, so if you've been a long time reader of the series (this is the twelfth book) then you may have a better idea who these people are.

The mystery aspect of the book is definitely the best part. I enjoyed how Faith unraveled the clues, and who the actual murderer is makes for a very clever twist. I found it a very pleasant read, a lovely way to spend a couple of hours. She also includes some delicious looking recipes in the back, which I'm actually looking forward to trying.

Originally published in:
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/jul_02.htm