The Body in the Lighthouse: A Faith Fairchild Mystery (Faith Fairchild Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Katherine Hall Page (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2003 | Series: Faith Fairchild Mysteries

In this, the thirteenth captivating appearance by Faith Fairchild, award-winning author Katherine Hall Page brings her incomparable sleuth to an idyllic vacation spot, where death takes no holiday under the late-summer sun.

Something is very wrong on
Sanpere this summer . . .

Escaping the misery of a particularly sweltering August in Aleford, Massachusetts, caterer and minister's wife Faith Fairchild and her family take a long drive to their favorite getaway, peaceful Sanpere Island off the coast of Maine. But things have changed since their last visit. The unique ambience of Sanpere is being threatened by aggressive real estate developer Harold Hapswell, whose plans to fill the island with huge, showy new mansions has infuriated many residents. Tensions are high, with animosity between year-round islanders and "summer people" reaching dangerous new levels. It's no wonder that, in an atmosphere so thick with ill feeling, murder rears its ugly head.

The first outrage occurs when a successful real estate agent nearly dies after drinking a turpentine-laced cup of soda pop. Then, while exploring the grounds of Sanpere's historic, now-abandoned lighthouse, Faith has the misfortune of stumbling across the corpse of Harold Hapswell himself. His death is officially ruled an accident, but Faith's tried-and-true instincts tell her otherwise -- an unsettling inkling that is confirmed by the discovery of a second, more obvious homicide.

With fear running rampant throughout the island and volatile emotions approaching the detonation point, the intrepid amateur investigator knows she must throw caution to the wind and track down a murderer, for the sake of an innocent friend and the island she loves -- even if it means placing her own life in peril.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Developers and environmentalists do battle over a deserted lighthouse in Page's 13th absorbing "body" book (after 2002's The Body in the Bonfire) to feature Faith Fairchild, caterer, sometime sleuth and mother of two small children. Faith and her minister husband, Tom, who live most of the year in Aleford, Mass., are fixing up their cottage on Maine's Sanpere Island, where "mansionization"-the construction of trophy houses by rich summer people-is making the locals resentful. One evening the falling tide reveals the body of developer Harold Hapswell "wedged between two granite ledges at the base of the old lighthouse... as if he'd been filed between the two large rocks." Suspecting Hapswell's death was no accident, Faith has her worst fears confirmed when she herself is attacked on a walk near the lighthouse. Beneath the tranquil and festive summer activities, including the island-wide Fish and Fritter Fry and an amateur production of Romeo and Juliet, lurk arson and murder. Along with thematically related recipes, the author appends a moving afterword about the impact of September 11 on the novel's composition. This is an ideal beach read for cozy fans heading for the shore this summer.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

When caterer Faith Fairchild leaves the Massachusetts parsonage where her husband is pastor for a new summer cottage on Sanpere Island in Maine, she's not prepared for its woefully unfinished state. But that allows her family to stay with her friend Pix's lovely and wise mother, Ursula, who knows everyone on the island. With an environmental group fighting hard--and sometimes nastily--to keep development at bay, the apparent drowning of a developer at the foot of the picturesque lighthouse raises questions. Through a summer full of set pieces--the local theater production of Romeo and Juliet, the ancient family feuds, the natives who eschew even electricity, and the siren lure of Home Depot--another murder and other mysteries unfold. Through it all, Faith cooks, keeps her arms around her children and stalwart spouse, and gets a hefty dose of local color, recipes included. Pleasant cozy fare, although the trend of casting environmentalists as bad guys has become an epidemic. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038097844X
• ISBN-13: 978-0380978441
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,413,127 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

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Narrow Vision, Boring Book, June 7, 2004

By A Customer

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

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, engaging mystery, May 18, 2003

By 

E. Griffin (Wilton, CT, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Body in the Lighthouse: A Faith Fairchild Mystery (Faith Fairchild Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars glacially slow until near the end, July 24, 2003

By 

M. A Michaud "michael_michaud" (Dulles, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Body in the Lighthouse: A Faith Fairchild Mystery (Faith Fairchild Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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.