Customer Reviews

The Body in the Kelp (Beeler Large Print Mystery Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was my first Faith Fairchild mystery. I really enjoyed it. Faith seems like the kind of woman who could live next door, someone you'd want for a friend. Her habit of falling into mysteries (alluded to in this book as happening in previous books) makes for fun, fast reading. My only criticism? Her child is TOO good, never around, never fussing. But then if he was a normal kid, Faith would be like the rest of us, never getting ANYTHING done. If you enjoy mysteries, you'll love Faith. I'll be reading the rest of the series for sure!

This second Faith Fairchild book is even better than the first one. Faith and her family are vacationing on an island off the coast of Maine, along with her friend Pix and her family. An elderly woman is found dead and her newly-completed quilt seems to have clues to the woman's stash of gold coins. Faith and Pix have a real challenge in unraveling the clues, while even more people begin to die. The setting and character interactions in this book are delightful and the mystery has just enough twists and turns to be interesting.

I've always found the Faith Fairchild series enjoyable and better than the average cozy. However, in "The Body in the Kelp" too much time is spent on incidental facts instead of working on the major plot points. This causes the solution to be a little disappointing-the motives for the crimes were murky and there were too many underdeveloped story threads.
One other major flaw is the high number of typos, on almost every page it seemed. Shame on publisher Avon Twilight for letting this go through. I wish publishers would realize how unprofessional this is and how it spoils the enjoyment of reading the book.
But, even though this book starts out more promising than it finishes up, there are some clever plot devices, including clues placed in a quilt pattern. That was fun to see solved, and there is enough of a story overall to satisfy the reader.
If you enjoy the cozy mystery genre, this book is worth checking out.

I loved this second Faith Fairchild mystery. Her books are short and light and just the ticket for a lazy Sunday afternoon. I find her prose to be witty and I love the relationship between Faith and her best friend, Pix. Can't wait to read more of this series. Just what cozy mysteries should be.

Katherine Hall Page is a wonderful writer and I love her books but the main character of Faith Fairchild bothers me. She comes off a bit snobbish like she is too good for the people of her town and New England in general. In this book it is even more pronounced. She won't play board games, go swimming and looks down her nose at the food people serve all she thinks about is how life was back in NYC. Even with her son there isn't that much warmth. She is a minister's wife yet acts like she is above all that especially when she said Pix would have made a better minister's wife because of how she dressed. The other characters in this book are well written. I almost wish Faith would wind up a victim so Tom could find a wife who fits in. I am going to finish the series because like I said Katherine Hall Page is a wonderful writer.

Better than the first, since Faith wasn't such a wimp and moping around as much, but I didn't like how she like foisted her child off at every chance she got like she couldn't stand being with him. I also felt the "killer(s)" were kind of twisted--we didn't get much chance at them from clues and such. It just didn't "click" when they were revealed.

Note: I've read this entire series up to The Body in the Attic: A Faith Fairchild Mystery (Faith Fairchild Mysteries), and the best rating I've given any of them is 2 stars, which is sad and says a lot about the series. I kept reading because it really has potential but it never lives up to it, so save yourself the trouble and agony and try a a different series, such as Carolyn Hart's Death on Demand (Death on Demand Mysteries, No. 1) series, most of which are fun and enjoyable, or stop after The Body in the Cast: A Faith Fairchild Mystery, which was probably the best of the series. That's my recommendation, anyway.

In the 2nd book in the Faith Fairchild Mystery series, Faith and husband Tom (along with toddler, Benjamin) are off to Maine for a relaxing vacation on Sanpere Island. They spend time with Faith's dear friend, Pix, and loaf around the slow-paced island. Things have actually turned quite dull for city-dwelling Faith, until the death of lifelong resident, Matilda Prescott rocks the community. Matilda bequeaths her home to famous potters Roger and Eric, amongst a huge outcry from her family. Not leaving her family out entirely, she makes it clear that the contents of her home are to be auctioned, and the monetary proceeds are to be split among her heirs. Faith and Pix eagerly attend the auction while Tom is away at a conference, and Faith purchases a beautiful unfinished quilt made by Matilda. She quickly learns that it is the last quilt Matilda made, and with the help of Pix, they soon begin to suspect that the quilt is some type of map. Could the map be the blueprint pointing directly to the rumored gold that the Prescotts had hidden long ago? Or could something more sinister lay in the lovely design? When one of the members of the close-knit community is found washed ashore, Faith believes there is a murderer on the loose looking for some gold.

I like the character of Faith, even though I do agree with other reviewers that she can sometimes act a bit pretentious, and is definitely not your stereotypical minister's wife. The mysteries are interesting, and the setting for this book was fresh and charming. I have heard a lot about this cozy series and had read a couple in the past. I really want to like this series more than I do...but find it more difficult to warm up to these books than to several others on the market today. However, something keeps drawing me back to keep reading, and I am sure that I will read more in this series.

The first book in the series is called "The Body in the Belfry". Enjoy!

In the 2nd book in the Faith Fairchild Mystery series, Faith and husband Tom (along with toddler, Benjamin) are off to Maine for a relaxing vacation on Sanpere Island. They spend time with Faith's dear friend, Pix, and loaf around the slow-paced island. Things have actually turned quite dull for city-dwelling Faith, until the death of lifelong resident, Matilda Prescott rocks the community. Matilda bequeaths her home to famous potters Roger and Eric, amongst a huge outcry from her family. Not leaving her family out entirely, she makes it clear that the contents of her home are to be auctioned, and the monetary proceeds are to be split among her heirs. Faith and Pix eagerly attend the auction while Tom is away at a conference, and Faith purchases a beautiful unfinished quilt made by Matilda. She quickly learns that it is the last quilt Matilda made, and with the help of Pix, they soon begin to suspect that the quilt is some type of map. Could the map be the blueprint pointing directly to the rumored gold that the Prescotts had hidden long ago? Or could something more sinister lay in the lovely design? When one of the members of the close-knit community is found washed ashore, Faith believes there is a murderer on the loose looking for some gold.

I like the character of Faith, even though I do agree with other reviewers that she can sometimes act a bit pretentious, and is definitely not your stereotypical minister's wife. The mysteries are interesting, and the setting for this book was fresh and charming. I have heard a lot about this cozy series and had read a couple in the past. I really want to like this series more than I do...but find it more difficult to warm up to these books than to several others on the market today. However, something keeps drawing me back to keep reading, and I am sure that I will read more in this series.

The first book in the series is called "The Body in the Belfry". Enjoy!

I don't know why. I'm not Christian and the series revolves around a minister's wife. Page just creates characters that feel like they are alive, and you want to find out what the're up to. Yes, if I knew of her I'd stay far away because everyone winds up dead at places she goes to, but I love to read about them.

I have read several of Katherine Hall Page's "The Body in the xxxx" books and have found them to be enjoyable lightweight cozy mysteries.

As one reviewer did mention, I also was finding typos within the book. Unfortunately, this is something I am finding in every new book published since the beginning of computers and Spell check. It seems that no human eye actually edits books anymore. Publishers need to hire real people to read and fix these errors.

I enjoy cozy mysteries and I don't expect them to be be major works of literature and with that in mind, you will find this a delightful book and learn a bit about Maine. As a quilter though, I had problems with their disection of the the quilt looking for clues. I have many quilt block resources and some of the most common blocks such as Ocean Waves were blocks that Pix and Faith seemed to have the most trouble figuring out and it should have been one of the first. What they decided was a Rail Fence block looks nothing like the Rail Fence block quilt I made last year--perhaps it is the illustration. The quilt actually had some original block ideas and I appreciate the fact that there was an illustration of the quilt to refer to. Other quilters may also have some problems with this bit of the book dealing with the book/quilt.

I still give this book 5 stars as it did what this type of book is supposed to. It gave me a relaxing read and entertained me for an evening for a low price as I picked it up at a library used book sale. If I wanted great literature to read, I would have picked War and Peace or some such thing.