The Body in the Cast

What a bounty Katherine Hall Page gives her readers here. The Body in the Cast is as full of treasures as a Christmas stocking. First, of course, there's Page's lovely sleuth, the transplanted New York caterer Faith Fairchild, a minister's wife, gourmet cook, mother, and all-around charmer. There's the excitement that grips her little town of Aleford, Massachusetts, when a movie company arrives to shoot an arty, updated version of The Scarlet Letter. There are recipes straight from Faith's Kitchen. There's a local election as hotly disputed as only a small-town contest can be. And there is murder. After relaunching her catering company, Have Faith, Faith tackles the feeding of the cast and crew. There's quite a fright when the company falls ill from food poisoning. Faith can't believe that it was her cooking that did it, but the only other explanation is that someone deliberately poisoned the food. And when there's another poisoning in the company, this one fatal, Faith has to break her promise to her husband Tom and do some detective work herself.

From Publishers Weekly

Faith Fairchild, caterer and minister's wife in Aleford, Mass., rebounds from her last case, The Body in the Vestibule , as a crew filming a remake of The Scarlet Letter arrives in town while a fierce local election is at stake. Happily, Faith lands the job as caterer for the production company of A , which includes Maxwell Reed, the director known as the "New Jersey Fellini," some stars of considerable magnitude, and even, as a lowly production assistant, Faith's old schoolmate, Cornelia Stuyvesant. But problems seem to plague the production. First, a fire breaks out in a nearby barn; then the company's soup is laced with a laxative. Everyone, including the police, considers these events just pranks, but after a stand-in is poisoned on the set, Faith suspects sabotage and initiates some subtle snooping. When a candidate for Aleford's Board of Selectmen is bludgeoned to death and his opposition (and half-sister) disappears, Faith decides more than movie madness is occuring and begins to investigate in earnest. Pen and ink illustrations and five recipes add little to this lively tale that stands perfectly well on the merits of Page's spirited characterization and energetic plotting.