The Body in the Cast [Hardcover]

Katherine Hall Page (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1993

When minister's wife Faith Fairchild restarts her catering business, trouble begins when one client, a Hollywood studio, experiences a rash of suspicious food poisonings on the set. By the author of Mostly Murder. 10,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Faith Fairchild, caterer and minister's wife in Aleford, Mass., rebounds from her last case, The Body in the Vestibule , as a crew filming a remake of The Scarlet Letter arrives in town while a fierce local election is at stake. Happily, Faith lands the job as caterer for the production company of A , which includes Maxwell Reed, the director known as the "New Jersey Fellini," some stars of considerable magnitude, and even, as a lowly production assistant, Faith's old schoolmate, Cornelia Stuyvesant. But problems seem to plague the production. First, a fire breaks out in a nearby barn; then the company's soup is laced with a laxative. Everyone, including the police, considers these events just pranks, but after a stand-in is poisoned on the set, Faith suspects sabotage and initiates some subtle snooping. When a candidate for Aleford's Board of Selectmen is bludgeoned to death and his opposition (and half-sister) disappears, Faith decides more than movie madness is occuring and begins to investigate in earnest. Pen and ink illustrations and five recipes add little to this lively tale that stands perfectly well on the merits of Page's spirited characterization and energetic plotting.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Now that former Manhattan caterer Faith Fairchild ( The Body in the Vestibule , LJ 9/1/92) has reestablished her business in Aleford, Massachusetts (whence cometh minister/husband Tom), she divides her time between food preparation, family, and sometime sleuthing. As location caterer for a famous film director, Faith experiences arson, food poisoning, and murder until the not-too-obvious culprit goofs. Page provides an abundance of aromatically and vividly detailed food, a veritable host of characters, and just a bit of froth--with appended recipes. Well recommended.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (November 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312097557
• ISBN-13: 978-0312097554
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,159,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Katherine Hall Page is the author of seventeen previous Faith Fairchild mysteries, the first of which received the Agatha Award for best first mystery, and recently The Body in the Snowdrift was honored with the Agatha Award for best novel of 2006. Page also won an Agatha for her short story "The Would-Be Widower." She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and son.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "and all the world's a stage....", December 12, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Body in the Cast: A Faith Fairchild Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

The fine upstanding folk of Alesford, Massachusetts suddenly find themselves very busy. Their intense but usually very polite town politics turns nasty with the entry of one Alden Spaulding into the race. Concerned townsfolk convince Alden's half-sister to run in opposition and now it appears that dirty tricks will sully Aleford's most interesting spectator sport.

While these goings on might be enough for most people, not for Alesford. Directing legend, Max Reed has picked the village for a re-make of Nathanial Hawthorne's "The Scarlett Letter" as adapted by himself, and Faith Fairchild; minister's wife, mother of two, gourmet cook, and owner/operator of the catering service Have Faith finds herself feeding cast and crew. Intrigue, both internal and external, make life interesting until someone decides to toss in a bit of bad food... and then... poison.

Faith has to contend with a double dose of death, as first a member of the movie crew is poisoned from a cup she prepared, and then when she trips over Aleford's obnoxious candidate, face-down on the floor with bashed-in head. Certainly a string of bad luck -- two murders in one week, and Faith up close and personal with both!

Two deaths, two killers -- or one? Faith and the police have work to do. Political innuendos, missing suspects, freaked out movie stars, jealous former classmates, all swirl together to make it obvious that life and the silver screen are not so different as we might wish.

5.0 out of 5 stars Body in the Cast, September 22, 2010

By 

Judy J. Burkhardt (Penna) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Body in the Cast: A Faith Fairchild Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Have read all the Faith Fairchild mysteries..love them. Went to Amazon to get the ones I missed. Very fast read and just fun for the mind

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Best book in this weak series, May 17, 2009

By 

Peabody823 (IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Body in the Cast: A Faith Fairchild Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Faith actually liked her children this time, which was good, and I just found it more interesting and to the point this time.

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.