Best Selling Books by Katherine Hall Page

Minster’s wife, caterer, and part-time sleuth Faith Fairchild pairs up with Sophie Maxwell, last seen in Body in the Birches and now a newlywed living in historic Savannah, Georgia, where Sophie crosses paths with murder. Another delightful entry in the beloved mystery series, complete with delectable recipes. Attorney Sophie Maxwell has come to Savannah to be with her new husband, Will. But nothing throws cold water on a hot relationship faster than a dead body. Worse for Sophie, no one believes the body she knows she saw is real. Will is spending an awful lot of time in Atlanta on a case he claims is urgent, and she’s been tasked with house hunting for them with his former sweetheart, who Sophie can’t help but suspect wishes Sophie would return to her Yankee roots! Fortunately, Sophie has a good friend in Faith Fairchild. With teenage Amy being bullied by mean girls and husband Tom contemplating a major life change that will affect all the Fairchilds, Faith is eager for distraction in the form of some sleuthing. In between discussions of newlywed agita, surprising Savannah customs and, of course, fabulous low country food, Faith and Sophie will pair up to unmask a killer!

Transplanted New York caterer Faith Fairchild returns as a movie crew and murder come to her adopted Massachusetts home.

During her years spent in New York City. Faith Fairchild was convinced she had seen pretty much everything, but the transplanted caterer/minister''s wife was unprepared for the surprises awaiting her in the sleepy Massachusetts village of Aleford. She is especially taken aback by the dead body of a pretty young thing she discovers stashed in the church''s belfry. The victim, Cindy Shepherd. was well-known locally for her acid tongue and her jilted beaux, which created a lot of bad blood and more than a few possible perpetrators, including her luckless fiance, who had neither an alibi nor a better way to break off the engagement. Faith thinks it''s terribly unfair that the police have zeroed in on the hapless boyfriend, and so she sets out to uncover the truth, but digging too deeply into the sordid secrets of a small New England village tends to make the natives nervous. And an overly curious big city lady can become just another small town death statistic in very short order.

Yankee recipes, elderly quilters, Down East antiques--and a dead body--combine to make a cozy summer on a Maine island for young mother/minister''s wife/sleuth Faith Fairchild.

"A Faith Fairchild mystery".

Amateur sleuth Faith Sibley Fairchild is summering on Sanpere Island off the coast of Maine when she stumbles on a body while walking on the beach.

Caterer Faith Fairchild and family are living in one of historic Cambridge, Massachusetts'', venerable Brattle Street houses while the Reverend Tom teaches a course at the Harvard Divinity School and does some soul searching -- is his Aleford parish his true calling? One night in downtown Boston, Faith is startled by a face from her past. It''s Richard Morgan, a former boyfriend from her life as a single woman in Manhattan. Their heady, whirlwind affair in the waning days of the self-indulgent 1980s ended abruptly. Now he''s back, as exciting as ever. Then something occurs that turns a pleasant sabbatical into a nightmare -- Faith discovers a diary, written in 1946 and hidden in the attic, that reveals an unspeakable horror. Suddenly dark secrets seem to permeate every room. And with Richard guarding strange secrets of his own, Faith is soon caught up in solving more than one troubling mystery ... with a murderer lurking a little too close to home.

The Agatha Award-winning author serves up a “prequel to the successful series featuring caterer Faith Fairchild . . . An excellent beginning” (Library Journal). Before she met and married the Reverend Thomas Fairchild and moved to sleepy little Aleford, Massachusetts, Faith Sibley Fairchild had a catering business in the most colorful, frenetic, and exciting city in the world . . . Young, ambitious and single in New York City in the late ’80s, Faith Sibley is energized by the early success of her Have Faith catering enterprise. But she’s cast into an unexpected new role when she runs into old high school friend Emma Stanstead at a swanky uptown party: sleuth! An anonymous blackmailer is threatening to expose certain secrets of socialite Emma’s less than glamorous past—thereby destroying her reputation and her conservative husband’s fast-rising political career—and Faith fearlessly leaps into the fray. Though she lacks experience, Faith’s keen instinct, insight, and determination to unmask an extortionist quickly carry her deep into the high and low life of the bustling Big Apple. And when a murder raises the stakes, Faith realizes that it’s not just her old friend’s good name that’s in peril . . . it’s Emma’s life itself. “[Page’s] young sleuth is a charmer.” —The New York Times Book Review “Fun . . . a little mystery with a big-hearted love of NYC . . . [Readers] will enjoy Big Apple.” —Denver Rocky Mountain News “New Yorkers and suburbanites alike should enjoy this fast-paced mystery; and gastronomes will relish the aptly apple-flavored recipes that complete this work.” —Publishers Weekly “Intimate and engaging.” —Mystery News

Agatha Award winner Katherine Hall Page presents a book of short stories featuring her famed heroine Faith Fairchild. For years, Katherine Hall Page has delighted readers with her Faith Fairchild series, each book like a delicious, satisfying meal. Now, Page has whipped up a tasty collection of appetizing bites. In “The Body in the Dunes,” Faith’s vacation offers more excitement than she and her husband bargained for when a terrified woman knocks on their hotel room door looking to hide from her husband. A case hits close to home in “The Proof is Always in the Pudding,” when Faith investigates a generations-old superstition that has been passed down in her husband’s family. Faith and her sister, Hope, counsel a bride-to-be suffering a number of alarming “accidents” before the big day in “Across the Pond.” In “Sliced,” Faith switches from contestant to detective when a killer reality television cooking competition turns deadly. Small Plates also includes some irresistible standalone treats, including the Agatha Award–winning “The Would-Be Widower,” about a husband who longs to be rid of his wife, and “Hiding Places” in which a young wife’s new husband may not be all that he appears. These stories and more will entice Faith Fairchild fans and new readers alike. Filled with the charm, wit, and the appeal of her beloved novels, Small Plates is a feast for every lover of traditional mysteries.

The Agatha Award–winning author of The Body in the Big Apple dishes up “scrumptious suspense” as a toxic tragedy rattles a New England village (Boston Herald). Minister’s wife Faith Fairchild is excited about catering her church’s restoration campaign kickoff at historic Ballou House. But when a beautiful young woman dies moments after finishing dessert, Faith is suddenly in serious trouble. Not only is her business in jeopardy—but Aleford’s wagging tongues are suggesting that Faith herself laced the goodie with cyanide, having discovered her husband Tom’s perhaps overly pastoral interest in the victim. Faith’s world feels steeped in poison and never before have her amateur sleuthing skills been more crucial—especially when another body is found in the moonlight carrying an unmistakable warning: you’re next! “Intriguing . . . clever and unexpected.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “Enchanting . . . well-written . . . Page’s style is entertaining and unpretentiously cultured.” —Portland Herald

A crime-solving caterer delves into the dark side of the New England antiques trade in the Agatha Award-winning, “highly entertaining series” (Booklist). Stretched almost to the limit by the capricious demands of a Boston Brahmin bride-to-be, caterer and minister’s wife Faith Fairchild faces real tragedy when she discovers the body of an elderly friend. Sarah Winslow had apparently surprised burglars ransacking her Aleford, Massachusetts, house. No sooner has Sarah been laid to rest than the Fairchilds find themselves the next target—the parsonage is stripped of all their most precious possessions. Devastated and furious, Faith takes action, scouring pawnshops, antique marts, and auctions. As she turns up some of their stolen property, she is drawn onto a dangerous path of larceny and corruption in New England’s venerable antique business—a path that soon leads Faith straight to a killer . . . “Peopled with entertaining and resourceful characters and sprinkled with mouth-watering recipes.” —Dallas Morning News “Satisfying and surprisingly delicious.” —Los Angeles Times

Something was very wrong on Sanpere this summer . . . To escape the misery of a sweltering August in Aleford, Massachusetts, caterer and minister''s wife Faith Fairchild and her family head for their cottage on Maine''s peaceful Sanpere Island in Penobscot Bay. But things have changed since their last visit. An aggressive developer is moving forward on plans that will destroy the unique ambience of the island, infuriating residents. Tensions are running dangerously high, and soon murder rears its hideous head. Faith discovers a corpse while exploring the grounds of Sanpere''s historic lighthouse. With fear running rampant and volatile emotions approaching the detonation point, the intrepid sleuth must track down a killer for the sake of a friend and the island she loves.

“This whodunit provides fully satisfying fare for a cold winter’s night around the fire”—from the Agatha Award-winning author of The Body in the Moonlight (Publishers Weekly). Caterer and small-town minister’s wife Faith Fairchild might never have accepted the job teaching a course on Cooking for Idiots at Mansfield Academy had it not been for Daryl Martin. An African-American student at the prestigious prep school, Daryl has lately become the target of a series of vicious and anonymous racial attacks—and Faith is determined to put an end to the injustice. But Mansfield, she finds, is a seething cauldron of secrets, academic in-fighting, and unspoken rules that complicate her task. When someone tampers with her classroom cooking ingredients—and then the remains of her prime suspect are discovered smoldering in a campus bonfire—she realizes that a monstrous evil is stalking both Daryl and the school. And suddenly Faith’s own life is in serious jeopardy as well! “Skillful sleuthing . . . bon appetit.” —The Tampa Tribune “Faith’s fans are sure to be pleased with another of the author’s always readable stories.” —Kirkus Reviews “A deservedly popular series.” —Library Journal

Award-winning author Katherine Hall Page is one of the reigning queens of the traditional mystery. Now, in this fifteenth mystery in her much-beloved Faith Fairchild series, she takes us to the blustery slopes of a Vermont ski resort, where murder makes an unwelcome appearance at the Fairchild family reunion. When caterer Faith Fairchild learns of her father-in-law’s plan to celebrate his seventieth birthday by treating his children, their spouses, and his grandchildren to a weeklong stay at the Pine Slopes resort, her reaction is mixed. Yes, she likes to ski and yes, she loves the kin of her husband, the Reverend Thomas Fairchild, but both in smaller and shorter doses. The Fairchilds have been coming to the ski area since Tom and his siblings were toddlers and are old friends of the owners, the Staffords. All starts well as the family settles into neighboring condos, until Faith discovers a body on one of the cross-country trails -- the apparent victim of a heart attack. Then Pine Slopes'' star chef vanishes without a trace. One catastrophe follows another: a malicious prank at the sports center, a break-in at the Fairchild condo, and one of the chairlifts is sabotaged. Who is the mysterious woman living in the "gingerbread cottage" deep in the woods? And what are adolescents Ophelia Stafford and Faith''s nephew Scott -- filled with angst and anger -- up to? Family secrets abound and family dynamics explode. Then one morning skiers arrive and are horror-stricken to find the slopes covered with patches of red snow, the result of a body falling, or being pushed, into the water supply for the snow-making guns. Faith must get to the bottom of the crime spree if she wants to salvage the reunion, prevent the closing of Pine Slopes -- and save her own life.

"A Faith Fairchild mystery".

Enjoy the first three volumes of Katherine Hall Page''s long-running New England cozy mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild. In The Body in the Belfry, Faith discovers a dead body in the church. After the victim''s recent engagement ended poorly, the police have zeroed in on her ex-fiance. Faith is determined to find the truth, but the small town has too many sordid secrets. In The Body in the Kelp, Faith and her family are spending their summer on Sanpere Island. Faith decides to participate in a harmless treasure hunt. When she stumbles across a dead body on the beach, her investigation is forced into something much more dangerous. In The Body in the Bouillon, Faith works to uncover the mysterious doings of the local retirement home after a resident falls face-first into their bouillon. And when a drug dealer turns up dead, Faith must work fast to reveal the murderer.

In this homage to Agatha Christie''s And Then There Were None, Faith Fairchild is asked to cater a very small, very private college reunion on an isolated New England island—an event that could be her dream job. But when she discovers the true reason for the get-together, not even the spectacular ocean views can keep it from turning into a nightmare. Thirty years ago, bestselling suspense writer Barbara Bailey Bishop lost her twin sister in a tower fall deemed a suicide. But Barbara is convinced that Hélène did not die by her own hand, and she''s trapped Hélène''s former classmates—her prime suspects—at her home with no phone lines, no cell reception, and no means of escape. One by one, the alumnae fall prey to a madwoman. A disturbed sister''s revenge . . . or a former coed''s coverup? Faith must quickly unlock the secrets of Hélène''s last night if she wants to leave the island alive.

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.

Enjoy the fourth through sixth volumes of Katherine Hall Page''s long-running New England cozy mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild. In The Body in the Vestibule, Faith throws a dinner party only to discover a dead body lying in her house. But as soon as the police arrive, the body vanishes. If Faith doesn''t act quickly, she could be next. In The Body in the Cast, Faith is tasked with feeding the new movie crew in town. But when someone accuses her soup of being responsible for an off-camera murder, Faith must clear her reputation. In The Body in the Basement, Faith''s neighbor discovers a dead body wrapped in the basement of Faith''s new cottage. But digging too deeply into the case might just put her own life at risk.

“Katherine Hall Page is my favorite writer of the traditional mystery. Not only is The Body in the Sleigh a gripping whodunit, but it’s a classic tale of hope.” —Harlan Coben Caterer and minister’s wife Faith Fairchild is back to solve her eighteenth deadly mystery in The Body in the Sleigh—the latest perfect puzzler in author Katherine Hall Page’s multiple Agatha Award-winning series. Set on Sanpere Island in Maine’s Penobscot Bay, this atmospheric holiday whodunit is chock-full of suspense, surprises, real heart, and small miracles. And, as always, the mystery comes with recipes for delectable holiday treats from Faith Fairchild’s kitchen.

Murder is combined with a timeless Christmas story in this enchanting installment of the popular mystery series by award-winning author Katherine Hall Page The Body in the Sleigh It''s Christmastime, and the Fairchild family is spending the holidays on idyllic Sanpere Island in Maine while the Reverend Thomas Fairchild recuperates from surgery. His caterer wife, Faith, is rejoicing in the rare, holiday family-time together—watching ice boaters, snowshoeing, and doing plenty of reading in front of the fire. But Faith''s high spirits are dampened when she discovers the body of a young woman in an antique sleigh in front of the Sanpere Historical Society. The victim, Norah, was a teenage drug addict who apparently died by her own hand. Beloved by many, her untimely death rocks the isolated, tight-knit island community. Meanwhile, Mary Bethany, a local spinster who raises goats, happens upon a newborn baby boy lying in the manger of her barn on Christmas Eve. The only clues to his identity are a note in the basket asking her to take care of him, as well as an alarming amount of cash. As Faith helps Mary locate the baby''s mother, she soon finds that the truth behind the abandonment is connected to Norah''s last days—and that, just as death and life are intertwined on Sanpere, so are evil and redemptive goodness.

The 26th book in the award-winning Faith Fairchild Mysteries series. Katherine Hall Page’s beloved amateur detective gets wrapped up in a Zoom-bombing scandal that sends her community into a tailspin … just as a dead body is discovered. Faith Fairchild joins the rest of the world in lockdown mode when reality flips in March 2020. As the pandemic spreads, Faith and her family readjust to life together in Aleford, Massachusetts. Her husband, Tom, continues his sermons from Zoom; their children, Ben, who''s in college, and Amy, a high school senior, are doing remote learning at home . Faith is happy to have her family under the same roof and grateful for her resilient community, friends, and neighbors in Aleford. Town halls remain lively and well-attended, despite residents joining from their living rooms. It is at one of these town halls that scandal breaks out. In the midst of a Zoom meeting, damaging images suddenly flash upon everyone’s screens. Claudia, local art teacher and Faith’s dear friend, is immediately recognized as the woman who has been targeted. When Claudia is later discovered dead, Faith, with the help of her friends, journeys deep into the dark web to unravel the threads of Claudia’s mysterious history and shocking passing.

“Eighth in a charming series, complete with food talk, stolen antiques, murder—and recipes” from the Agatha Award-winning author of The Body in the Bog (Library Journal). This time out, small-town caterer and minister’s wife Faith Fairchild’s neighbor, Pix Miller, takes center stage, heading off to Norway to investigate the sudden disappearance of a family friend. Determined to discover the truth, Pix is drawn into a suspenseful world of intrigue, stolen antiques, secret histories, and deadly echoes from Norway’s past and the Nazi occupation. Surrounded by the country’s breathtaking beauty, the ever-resourceful New Englander perseveres—until at last she finds herself face-to-face with a remorseless killer . . . with no way out. “An expert at the puzzle mystery . . . Page smoothly keeps her plot on course . . . The Body in the Fjord is a solid example of her skill.” —Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel “Light and lively . . . a puzzling case of death and disappearance . . . leavened with humor and warmth.” —Boston Herald “Page at her lighthearted best.” —The Dallas Morning News

Faith''s catering business has been slow with the downturn of the economy, so when her friend Patsy Avery proposes that she take over the café at Aleford''s Ganley Art Museum, it seems like a not-to-be-missed opportunity. And Patsy has an ulterior motive—she discovers that the Romare Bearden piece she lent the museum has been switched with a fake and wants Faith to snoop around to find the culprit. Life at the museum doesn''t stay calm for long and Faith is soon enmeshed in the Ganley''s murky past and present as she struggles to make connections among apparently disparate items: the fake Bearden, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers, and a Jane Doe corpse that turns up as an unintended part of an art installation. At home, son Ben, now in the hell known as middle school, becomes involved in a cyberbullying escapade and husband Tom wants his wife to morph into June Cleaver. Her investigation takes Faith into Boston''s art scene and historic Beacon Hill, as well as into the lives behind the façade of the Ganley''s very proper board of trustees. She is at her wit''s—and almost dead—end, as the killer strikes again, and again.

“Katherine Hall Page is my favorite writer of the traditional mystery.” —Harlan Coben “Hungry readers, enjoy!” —Diana Mott Davidson Minister’s wife, caterer, and amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild must solve a deadly mystery more than seventy years in the making in The Body in the Gazebo, the nineteenth ingenious whodunit in the delectable, Agatha Award-winning series by Katherine Hall Page. Faith has a lot on her plate as she attempts to solve a Depression Era murder while trying to clear her husband’s name after he is accused of a heartless theft. Poignant, suspenseful, puzzling, and all-around marvelous, The Body in the Gazebo is cozy culinary mystery at its very best—complete with scrumptious recipes from Faith Fairchild’s kitchen and a resolution that would make Dame Agatha Christie proud.

The twenty-first Faith Fairchild mystery takes Faith and her husband, the Reverend Tom Fairchild, to Italy, where murder and mayhem mix with pecorino, panna cotta, and prosecco. To celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary, amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild and her husband, the Reverend Tom Fairchild, leave placid New England behind for a week of romance and fine food in Italy. The bruschetta, the biscotti, the Chianti—Faith can’t wait! She’s also looking forward to seeing her former assistant Francesca, and take a class at her new cooking school in Florence. But on their very first night, a travel writer Faith meets in their Roman hotel turns up dead. Then, in their cooking class in Florence, they find themselves surrounded by a number of suspiciously familiar faces they recognize from Rome. Someone is cooking up some unsavory business, including sabotaging Francesca’s school. To save her anniversary vacation and protect her friend, Faith must follow a twisting trail of clues to unmask a killer—while learning to master a mean Spaghetti a la Foriana, too!

Agatha Award–Winning Author: A caterer gets mixed up in murder in “another delightful installment in a charming series . . . complete with appealing recipes” (Booklist). Faith Fairchild is momentarily shocked to find her husband, the Reverend Thomas Fairchild, embracing Lora Deane—and relieved to discover the distraught nursery school teacher is merely seeking solace and advice. Lora has been receiving threatening phone calls. And she’s not the only resident of tiny Aleford, Massachusetts, who is being terrorized. Ever since local environmentalists began protesting the proposed housing development that will destroy Beecher’s Bog, the more vocal opponents have become targets of a vicious campaign of intimidation—which is more than enough reason for Faith to launch into some clandestine sleuthing. But when a body turns up in the charred ruins of a very suspicious house fire, Faith is suddenly investigating a murder—and in serious danger of getting bogged down in a very lethal mess indeed . . . “An expert at the puzzle mystery.” —Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

“Fans of the Faith Fairchild series will probably be over the moon for this prequel that lovingly details how Faith met her husband” (The Charlotte Observer). Massachusetts minister’s wife, caterer, and sometime amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild returns in The Body in the Boudoir, the twentieth installment in the Agatha Award-winning mystery series by Katherine Hall Page that provides mystery, heart, wit, suspense, and mouthwatering recipes aplenty. Page turns back the clock this time to 1990, as a young Faith Sibley prepares to wed the love of her life, Thomas Fairchild . . . if she can survive a malefactor who’s trying to disrupt the ceremony by doing away with the bride. Fans of cozy culinary mysteries, like the bestselling Goldy Schultz novels of Diane Mott Davidson, will adore the tasty mayhem Katherine Hall Page cooks up in her Boudoir. “Readers who might have drifted away from Katherine Hall Page’s pleasing mysteries starring Faith Fairchild, the congenitally curious wife of a New England minister and the proprietor of a catering company wittily named ‘Have Faith,’ should accept the homecoming invitation extended in The Body in the Boudoir.” —The New York Times Book Review “A rollicking adventure of intrigue and suspense, plus . . . it’s a lot of fun catching up with the past fun and shenanigans that Faith always manages to find herself embroiled in, and this is a very fitting way to celebrate such a huge milestone for this mystery series.” —Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Texas) “Cozy fans will be enthralled.” —Publishers Weekly “[A] fun yet intelligent and layered look at the story behind a favorite series.” —Booklist

At home on Sanpere Island, Maine, caterer and amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild discovers that real estate can be murder, especially when it’s all in the family, in this twenty-second book in the popular mystery series. The Fourth of July is one of the hottest on record and even the breeze off Penobscot Bay can’t seem to cool things down for Faith Fairchild and the rest of the folks on Sanpere Island. But the fireworks are just beginning. After the celebrations are over, Faith discovers a body in the woods near The Birches, an early twentieth-century “cottage.” The body is identified as The Birches’ housekeeper, who seems to have succumbed to a heart attack. The death is only one of the dramatic events upending the historic house. A family gathering has been called to decide who will inherit the much loved, and very valuable, estate that has been in the Proctor family for generations. With this much money involved, it’s just a matter of time before trouble arises. Faith is juggling her own family problems. Her teenage son, Ben, has started a new job as a dishwasher at The Laughing Gull Lodge—learning things that could land him in very hot water. And her daughter Amy is worried about her new friend, Daisy Proctor. Daisy is terrified—convinced that someone is trying to eliminate her mother from getting a share of The Birches. To protect her children, Faith has to find a possible murderer—before he strikes too close to her own home.

Friends and mystery lovers Christie, Maggie, and Victoria try to discover who is sabotaging the inn run by Maggie''s parents.

Can Christie & Company keep their class trip from becoming a first class nightmare? Follow Christie, Maggie and Vicky through adventures that include discovering a dishonest classmate to suspecting the owners of their bed & breakfast of illegal activities.

An unexpected visitor is about to arrive with an unexpected gift ... Will it be something wonderful or woeful, rueful or romantic... or a little bit of everything? In the expert hands of four unsurpassed storytellers, "the season of giving" takes on an air of mystery. Get ready for a stockingful of shocking -- a potent holiday punch spiked with surprises, a hearty dash of romance and a twist of murder! The incomparable Christie Ridgway sends a shy, lonely teacher on a mundane pre-Yuletide errand that becomes the most daring, dangerous, and titillating adventure of her life. Award-winning mystery master Katherine Hall Page''s plucky sleuth Faith Fairchild discovers a Christmas miracle that comes wrapped in deception. Judi McCoy''s spirited career girl Claire St. Germaine receives a truly magical gift with very mysterious origins. And Rebecca Mayfield, the delightful creation of Joanne Pence, discovers the hard way that Santa isn''t always a saint.

Christie & Company, a trio of sleuths at a Massachusetts boarding school, have a new friend from China. When their friend abruptly drops out of school, and then vanishes, the mystery leads the girls from the bright lights of a gala New Year''s celebration in Boston''s Chinatown through back alleys and down dark streets.

For the first time in years, Faith Fairchild has time for herself. Her husband Tom is spending days on the other side of the island using a friend''s enhanced WiFi for a project; their son, Ben, after his first year in college, is studying abroad for the summer; and their daughter Amy is working at the old Laughing Gulls Lodge, now a revamped conference center. Faith is looking forward to some projects of her own. Her friend Sophie Maxwell is also spending the summer on Sanpere Island, hoping for distractions from her worries that she isn''t yet pregnant. And the daughter of Faith''s good friend Pix Miller is getting married to a wonderful guy . . . with a less-than-wonderful mother. Between keeping Sophie''s spirits up and Pix''s blood pressure down, Faith has her hands full. And that''s before a body with a mysterious tattoo and connections far away from small Sanpere Island appears in the Lily Pond.