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Chargement... The Body in the Casketpar Katherine Hall Page
![]() Aucun Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. ![]() ![]() “The Body in the Casket” is a slow-paced exploration of small-town life in suburban Boston. Marketed as a murder mystery, the primary focus is on women’s fashions, recipes, and relationships. Page establishes the central premise at the outset. Max Dane, a wealthy but disliked recluse, is throwing a birthday party for himself. Now retired for 20 years, he is inviting the most important members of his last theater production. It had a short run and is generally regarded as a failure. He expects someone to attempt to kill him during the party, and he hires Faith Fairchild, a local caterer, and amateur sleuth, to prepare the food for the party and to determine the identity of the person intending to murder him. Page then turns her attention elsewhere and treats the party and potential murder as an unimportant subplot. It turns out that Faith has a lot of friends and they all wear nice clothes. Scene after scene involves a detailed, designer name-dropping description of what the women are wearing. Intriguing recipes also figure prominently, ostensibly to decide what to prepare for the party, but more likely to impress upon readers that Faith (and Page) have broad knowledge, exquisite taste, and sound judgment. Page interrupts her focus on clothing and recipes with brief introductions of each person invited to the party. For some unexplained reason, all of their careers were irreparably damaged by their involvement in the failed theater production ant that is their motive for murder. Sadly, the supposed damage to their careers is too extreme and uniformly crushing to be believed. The premise is so implausible that Page is forced to fall back on, “Jinxed,” as an explanation. Consequently, the suspects are equally (im)plausible. Several other subplots also derail the main story. Samantha, the daughter of Faith’s closest friend (Pix), is fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend. Pix’s mother, Ursala, has a new gentleman friend staying with her and the women become concerned about his intentions. Developers want to buy the old Grayson House bordering the village green and develop a strip mall. Things are abuzz in small-town suburban Boston. As if all this were not enough, the book fails as a murder mystery. I was able to deduce the murderer half-way through the book because all of the principal characters had the same unconvincing motive except one. I kept looking for clues regarding the murderer’s motivation, but Page forgot to include any. I’m not sure of the intended reader, but it must be someone who is fascinated by details of small-town life and not troubled by a slow pace, an implausible premise, a focus on clothing and recipes, and a group of women who are all candidates for sainthood. Apparently, that audience is large though; this is the 24th Faith Fairchild Mystery. ![]() I've read these out of order and really ought to start the series at the beginning. Recommended to cozy fans. ![]() aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Appartient à la série
"The inimitable Faith Fairchild returns in a chilling New England whodunit, inspired by the best Agatha Christie mysteries and with hints of the timeless board game Clue. For most of her adult life, resourceful caterer Faith Fairchild has called the sleepy Massachusetts village of Aleford home. While the native New Yorker has come to know the region well, she isn't familiar with Havencrest, a privileged enclave, until the owner of Rowan House, a secluded sprawling Arts and Crafts mansion, calls her about catering a weekend house party. Producer/director of a string of hit musicals, Max Dane--a Broadway legend--is throwing a lavish party to celebrate his seventieth birthday. At the house as they discuss the event, Faith's client makes a startling confession. "I didn't hire you for your cooking skills, fine as they may be, but for your sleuthing ability. You see, one of the guests wants to kill me." Faith's only clue is an ominous birthday gift the man received the week before--an empty casket sent anonymously containing a twenty-year-old Playbill from Max's last, and only failed, production--Heaven or Hell. Consequently, Max has drawn his guest list for the party from the cast and crew. As the guests begin to arrive one by one, and an ice storm brews overhead, Faith must keep one eye on the menu and the other on her host to prevent his birthday bash from becoming his final curtain call. Full of delectable recipes, brooding atmosphere, and Faith's signature biting wit, The Body in the Casket is a delightful thriller that echoes the beloved mysteries of Agatha Christie and classic films such as Murder by Death and Deathtrap"-- Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Critiques des anciens de LibraryThing en avant-premièreLe livre The Body in the Casket de Katherine Hall Page était disponible sur LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
![]() GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:![]()
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