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

Katherine Hall Page (Author)

Book Description

Series: Faith Fairchild Mysteries | Publication Date: April 26, 2005

Caterer Faith Fairchild has a bad feeling about her father-in-law's decision to celebrate his seventieth birthday with a family reunion ski week at the Pine Slopes resort in Vermont -- the Fairchilds' favorite getaway since Faith's husband, the Reverend Thomas Fairchild, was a toddler. At first her unease seems unfounded -- until Faith comes across a corpse on one of the cross-country trails, the apparent victim of a heart attack.

Then one catastrophe follows another: the mysterious disappearance of the Pine Slopes' master chef, a malicious prank at the sports center, a break-in at the Fairchild condo, the sabotage of a chairlift. And when a fatal "accident" with the snow-making machines stains the slopes blood red, Faith realizes she'll have to work fast to solve a murderous puzzle -- because suddenly not only are the reunion and the beloved resort's future in jeopardy . . . but Faith's life is as well.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Agatha-winner Page's 15th Faith Fairchild mystery (after 2004's The Body in the Attic) offers the usual tantalizing mix—an attractive setting, great characters, good food and murder most foul. Faith, an upscale caterer, and Tom, her minister husband, join the extended Fairchild clan to celebrate the birthday of Tom's father, Dick, at the struggling Vermont ski resort of Pine Slopes. The death of an old friend of Dick's, local lawyer Boyd Harrison, from an apparent heart attack while skiing throws a pall over the reunion. The plot thickens as the family gathers. Craig, Dick's athletic youngest son, has a new wife, gorgeous gold digger Glenda; Betsey, Dick's sister, is a micromanaging dictator; Betsey's three children long for a little space to grow and her husband just longs to bow out. Throw in a missing chef, whom Faith is talked into replacing until another can be found, and the granddaughter of the resort's owners, who's going through a goth stage. Heat things up with a body discovered in the water supply of the snow-making machine, and there you have it: a perfect Faith concoction, with recipes.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Caterer Faith Fairchild gears up for her father-in-law's seventieth birthday celebration at a ski resort in Vermont that the Fairchilds have been visiting for years. Before she can even get her mind around the family pressures, however, she finds a local lawyer's body on the slopes. Then the cook disappears, and she finds her catering skills needed to keep the lodge running. Like Faith's recipes, which range from realistic to flights of Cool Whip fantasy, the tale whipsaws between some fairly straightforward exploration of the kind of fissures any large family might endure and some fairly artificial capering by a crew of straw villains (and villainesses). In between, two marriages break up, one closeted family member comes out, a few teens come to terms with their parents, and a great deal of cooking serves as prop, mainstay, distraction, and solace. A little preachy this time but still worth the trip, especially for series fans. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (April 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060525304
• ISBN-13: 978-0060525309
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,989,340 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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Body in the Snowdrift, November 27, 2005

By 

MysteryLover (Sanpere Island, ME) - See all my reviews

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

I have never written a review to Amazon before, but after reading the two previous reviews, I had to say something. Katherine Hall Page's books just keep getting better and better. I especially enjoyed the family dynamics in this one and no, I did not guess whodunit. I'm looking forward to whatever she cooks up next.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag, May 14, 2005

By 

Karen Potts (Lake Jackson, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

Faith Fairchild is not looking forward to the family reunion which her father-in-law has planned at a ski resort in order to celebrate his birthday. As she tells her friends, she likes the Fairchilds but in "small doses". When she and her family arrive, things go downhill fast, as Faith discovers a dead body on the ski slopes. Tensions rise as Faith's sister-in-law has much different ideas about child-rearing than Faith does, and their families are sharing a cabin. When the resort's chef disappears, caterer Faith takes over and her vacation is essentially over. Another dead body shows up and no one knows who to trust. Author Page does a good job of portraying the difficult relationships which can occur when an extended family gets together for an long period of time. Her choice of a Vermont ski lodge as the setting of the book is also a good one. Her portrayals of the teenagers and the strange woman who lives in a "gingerbread house" in the middle of the woods are less believable. Also, the motive for murder is not hard to unravel and the ending is a muddle of information which is thrown at the reader in order to tie up all of the loose ends.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the best in the series., April 26, 2005

By 

Detra Fitch (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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

This is the fifteenth mystery in the Faith Fairchild series. This time the entire clan goes to the Pine Slopes Ski Resort in Vermont. The trip is to celebrate Faith's father-in-law's birthday.

Faith stumbles upon Boyd Harrison's body early on and the resort's chef disappears shortly afterward. Since Faith is a caterer, she happily steps in as the resort's chef until a replacement can be found. Things get worse as the week goes on. Someone falls (or is pushed) into the water supply for the snow-making machine. The body is all over the slopes. Pranks and
vandalism are happening every time Faith turns around.

All is not quiet within the Fairchild family either. Faith is amazed at the things she is learning about her family members. Things she really did NOT want to know.

** This novel is not nearly as good as all the previous books in this mystery series. I found this case very easy to solve. The first half of the novel is extremely slow. The only good parts during the first half is the recipes that the author goes into details on how to make. Of course for those who are interested, the recipes can be found either in the back of this novel or in the back of previous novels. There are too many flash backs as well. Often as I read, Faith would find something or have something happen in the first paragraph of a new chapter and then flashes back to the day before. I must read almost the entire chapter before even knowing what is going on. I felt as if I was left suspended somewhere. In my opinion, the story would have been much better had it just been written in the order things happened. As a fan, I can only hope the next mystery in this series is better. **

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.