I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
The Body in the Ivy
by
Katherine Hall Page
It is part of the Faith Fairchild #15 series and is a amateur sleuth, mystery in Hardcover edition that was published by William Morrow on October 31, 2006 and has 256 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include The Body in the Bouillon, The Body in the Vestibule, The Body in the Cast, The Body in the Basement, The Body in the Bookcase, The Body in the Big Apple, The Body in the Moonlight, The Body in the Bonfire, The Body in the Lighthouse, The Body in the Attic, The Body in the Snowdrift, The Body in the Sleigh, The Body in the Bog, The Body in the Gazebo, The Body in the Boudoir, The Body in the Piazza, The Body in the Birches
Fifteenth chronologically and sixteenth in publication in the Faith Fairchild cooking mystery series primarily based just outside Boston in the small town of Aleford, Massachusetts. In this story, events take place on an island in Maine.
My Take
I almost couldn’t continue with this story it was so horrible. Not the writing, Page, as usual, does a lovely job of writing but the character who unfolds…I hate people like this. It’s too bad it didn’t happen so much sooner…
There’s a lovely observation in the Author’s Note about both the benefits of stopping whatever you are doing to sit down and eat and converse with one’s fellows and the fact that “You will mostly be with women all your life, so you need to learn how wonderful and strong they are”.
We so rarely take the time anymore to sit and eat together discussing the events of our day, our hopes and dreams, our frustrations. It’s a missing graciousness in life in which we bond with one another.
One of the things I noted when I was networking full time as an artist, especially as a fiber artist, is how very giving and supportive women are of each other. We’re very lucky that way.
The Story
Faith has had an offer she can’t refuse — cooking for one week for a Pelham College reunion on Barbara Bailey Bishop’s island in Maine. Each woman invited to this reunion was once a member of a small group of friends at the college until individual tragedies tore them apart. Today, each has been invited in to lecture on her particular specialty unaware of what Bishop really has on her mind. For this gathering is intended to discover the truth behind the death of one of their own. A declared suicide of the best, brightest, and most beautiful of them.
And so the story unfolds in the best manner of Agatha Christie and her Ten Little Indians.
The Characters
Faith Fairchild is both caterer with her own business, Have Faith, and an amateur sleuth.
Barbara Bailey Bishop is a world-famous, reclusive author who lives on an island in Maine.
The Cover and Title
It’s a beautiful cover. It makes me think of a Tiffany lampshade with its blues, pinks, and greens. A chained and padlocked, ivy-clad, wrought-iron railing through which we look out over the ocean into a rising sun. The title also plays as a metaphor for college and the final setting for Prin.
