Scan barcode
kathydavie's review against another edition
3.0
Fifth in the Faith Fairchild cooking mystery as this amateur sleuth investigates between catering jobs, family, and her minister husband.
My Take
Well, duh, it took forever for me to figure out the relevance on the so-very obvious title! My first thoughts were broken arms, etc.
It's interesting but those shallow dips into the behind-the-scenes action of both the film and the campaign were ho-hum. Then the acceptance and rejection by John Dunne of Faith's detective abilities.
It's an enjoyable read, but not one of my favorites in the Faith Fairchild series.
The Story
Have Faith up and running shortly after Amy's birth with a job catering to a movie crew shooting a new interpretation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. With luck, Have Faith will survive those claims of poison!
A whole new can of worms opens up for the citizens of Aleford when an unexpected election is required.
The Characters
Faith Fairchild has started up Have Faith now that Amy is born. Ben is her brother. The Reverend Tom Fairchild is Faith's husband.
John Dunne is a detective lieutenant with the state police force.
The Title
The title is about the film crew when The Body in the Cast shows up.
My Take
Well, duh, it took forever for me to figure out the relevance on the so-very obvious title! My first thoughts were broken arms, etc.
It's interesting but those shallow dips into the behind-the-scenes action of both the film and the campaign were ho-hum. Then the acceptance and rejection by John Dunne of Faith's detective abilities.
It's an enjoyable read, but not one of my favorites in the Faith Fairchild series.
The Story
Have Faith up and running shortly after Amy's birth with a job catering to a movie crew shooting a new interpretation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. With luck, Have Faith will survive those claims of poison!
A whole new can of worms opens up for the citizens of Aleford when an unexpected election is required.
The Characters
Faith Fairchild has started up Have Faith now that Amy is born. Ben is her brother. The Reverend Tom Fairchild is Faith's husband.
John Dunne is a detective lieutenant with the state police force.
The Title
The title is about the film crew when The Body in the Cast shows up.
amlibera's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyable, predictable, cozy mystery series set in a small New England town. I find myself fascinated with the time traveling aspect of these - written in 1993 and the little cultural details of the time (Barney) but especially how the lead who is a professional caterer (and food snob) cooks the sorts of foods that I recall from my early fascination with cookbooks and food magazines at the time.
git_r_read's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoy the heck out of reading cozies, especially well written ones like the ones I've read in this series. I have chosen to continue reading them out of order and it hasn't diminished my enjoyment.
Faith Fairchild is the wife of a minister, mother to two adorable younguns, owner and head chef of a catering firm, Have Faith. And she still finds time to stumble over dead bodies and mysteries galore in the small town of Aleford, Massachusetts.
This episode has Faith hired to cater the film crew of a possible blockbuster movie, A, based on THE SCARLET LETTER - Nathaniel Hawthorne. The town of Aleford is abuzz with the excitment of movie stars, a big named director and the local election heating things up.
Faith also has to contend with the possibility of having her catering business closed down due to some of the cast members suffering from food poisoning after having some of Faith's Black Bean Soup (recipe included in back of the book).
This is a nicely tight book with interesting characters that I liked and some I loathed just like I was supposed to.
Faith Fairchild is the wife of a minister, mother to two adorable younguns, owner and head chef of a catering firm, Have Faith. And she still finds time to stumble over dead bodies and mysteries galore in the small town of Aleford, Massachusetts.
This episode has Faith hired to cater the film crew of a possible blockbuster movie, A, based on THE SCARLET LETTER - Nathaniel Hawthorne. The town of Aleford is abuzz with the excitment of movie stars, a big named director and the local election heating things up.
Faith also has to contend with the possibility of having her catering business closed down due to some of the cast members suffering from food poisoning after having some of Faith's Black Bean Soup (recipe included in back of the book).
This is a nicely tight book with interesting characters that I liked and some I loathed just like I was supposed to.
debjazzergal's review against another edition
4.0
Another fun read in this series which some very nice twists. A great summer beach book.
ncrabb's review
4.0
Ah, the joys of election time in a small New England town. All that energy and excitement can be overshadowed by only one thing—the making of a movie. This is a fun book where a New England town, an election, and the making of a movie come together in some, well, delectably murderous ways. Perhaps I should explain:
Faith Fairchild has been asked to cater for a movie company that has come to her small community to remake Hawthorne’s classic The Scarlet Letter. Among those working for the company is a female high-school bully who had made Faith’s life rather miserable during those years. Of course, many of the people in town are asked to play extra parts, and there’s an election in the offing, too, which promises to be controversial indeed.
Early on, cast members suffer from food poisoning, very nearly ruining forever Faith’s reputation and that of her fledgling catering company. But the food poisoning is nothing compared to the shocking murder of a 20-something-year-old girl who was hired initially to be a gopher but who proved she had just enough of an erotic look to be more than a little appealing on camera.
Surprisingly enough, the author drops the F-bomb in here a couple of times, and when one character engages in excessive use of profanity, it’s rather amateurishly done. That may have been the author’s intent to demonstrate the instability of the character, but it made me feel as if I were eavesdropping on a playground in the ‘70s and the loud-mouthed bossy girl was heaving forth profanity by the mouthful. It just seemed a bit jarring and out of place for this series.
The series is rather formulaic; yet again, Faith’s life is endangered, and she’s forced to promise poor Tom, her husband, that she won’t do that kind of thing again—but the next book in the series is buried on my hard drive somewhere, so we know how that promise turns out.
Still, it’s a fun, albeit predictable, mystery. The magic of this series for me isn’t so much the mystery as the characterization of Faith herself. The author skillfully writes the character such that your heart instinctively goes out to her. She is immensely likable and so realistically portrayed that you’re pretty sure you could hear her voice and be captivated by her charm and propensity to both common sense and frilly things simultaneously.
Faith Fairchild has been asked to cater for a movie company that has come to her small community to remake Hawthorne’s classic The Scarlet Letter. Among those working for the company is a female high-school bully who had made Faith’s life rather miserable during those years. Of course, many of the people in town are asked to play extra parts, and there’s an election in the offing, too, which promises to be controversial indeed.
Early on, cast members suffer from food poisoning, very nearly ruining forever Faith’s reputation and that of her fledgling catering company. But the food poisoning is nothing compared to the shocking murder of a 20-something-year-old girl who was hired initially to be a gopher but who proved she had just enough of an erotic look to be more than a little appealing on camera.
Surprisingly enough, the author drops the F-bomb in here a couple of times, and when one character engages in excessive use of profanity, it’s rather amateurishly done. That may have been the author’s intent to demonstrate the instability of the character, but it made me feel as if I were eavesdropping on a playground in the ‘70s and the loud-mouthed bossy girl was heaving forth profanity by the mouthful. It just seemed a bit jarring and out of place for this series.
The series is rather formulaic; yet again, Faith’s life is endangered, and she’s forced to promise poor Tom, her husband, that she won’t do that kind of thing again—but the next book in the series is buried on my hard drive somewhere, so we know how that promise turns out.
Still, it’s a fun, albeit predictable, mystery. The magic of this series for me isn’t so much the mystery as the characterization of Faith herself. The author skillfully writes the character such that your heart instinctively goes out to her. She is immensely likable and so realistically portrayed that you’re pretty sure you could hear her voice and be captivated by her charm and propensity to both common sense and frilly things simultaneously.
julieputty's review
3.0
I liked this one more than the previous installment, though the mystery was weak. Still, they are pleasant diversions when you are on a train for six hours!
audreyintheheadphones's review
3.0
Decently written, but I guessed whodunnit seventy pages in -- which is before the murdering begins. On the plus side, that's the first time I've ever read a description of a meal in a book and stopped reading to go whip it up in my own kitchen.
read_by_hev's review
1.0
1.5 stars. Such a shame as I loved the Body in the Ivy which was my first dive into the Faith Fairchild series but this one was tedious and I found it a slog to get through. I could not engage with the story, and the solution(s) are fairly obvious throughout. I also hated one of the reveals about one of the victims, as it seemed to come from left field and was not, I felt, dealt with in an appropriate manner. I thought it was put in for shock value and then brushed under the carpet when it could have been used so much better in this plot. The reasoning behind the why was also a disappointment.
However, I will say that it was nice to read about Faith and Tom again, I love their relationship and characters. I also liked the addition of the recipes at the end. I shall be trying more in this series and hope that the books go back to the Body in the Ivy level.
However, I will say that it was nice to read about Faith and Tom again, I love their relationship and characters. I also liked the addition of the recipes at the end. I shall be trying more in this series and hope that the books go back to the Body in the Ivy level.
More...