I am behind on this challenge as this is only my 3rd Just For Fun Read this year. I have loved this series from the start and it was one I had to catch up on especially when I was asked to organize a Great Escapes Book Tour for The Body in the Birches that was released on Tuesday. I will be reviewing that one next week as part of the tour.
The Body in the Piazza:
A Faith Fairchild Mystery
(Book 21 in Series)
Publisher: William Morrow (April 30, 2013)
Hardcover: 256 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0062065506
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0062068569
E-Book ASIN: B009NG24RO
Faith Fairchild and her husband are celebrating a big anniversary with a trip to Italy, filled with exquisite indulgences—the art, the Chianti, the food, the Ferragamos! After a weekend in Rome, they’ll travel to Tuscany, where Faith’s former assistant Francesca has opened a cooking school.
But, along with pecorino, panna cotta, and prosecco, it looks like murder and mayhem are also on the menu! On their fist night in the Eternal City, the Fairchilds stumble upon a dying man in the Piazza Farnese. Mysterious characters from Rome resurface in Tuscany. And somebody is intent on sabotaging Francesca’s new business. It’s up to Faith to put everything right—and still whip up a mean Spaghetti a la Foriana, of course!
The last book in this series, The Body in the Boudoir
I have loved this series since it started but this was not one of my faves. The author went way overboard with the lengthy descriptions of everything Faith saw, did, cooked and ate that is really took away from the mystery. There was more than one time I stopped reading wondering if I wanted to continue. But the mystery was good and I wanted to see how it played out so I kept reading. I enjoyed how the killer could be someone they were traveling with and trying to figure out if that was true then who could it be. Taking the series out of the New England area was a nice change as well if only the focus had been more on solving them crime than the settings.
I truly thought this was the last book in the series so I was pleasantly surprised to learn about The Body in the Birches
About This Author
Katherine Hall Page is the author of twenty-two previous Faith Fairchild mysteries, the first of which received the Agatha Award for best first mystery. The Body in the Snowdrift was honored with the Agatha Award for best novel of 2006. Page also won an Agatha for her short story “The Would-Be Widower.” In addition, she has been nominated for the Edgar Award, the Mary Higgins Clark Award, and the Macavity Award. She lives in Massachusetts and Maine with her husband.
Author Links:
http://www.katherine-hall-page.org/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21167.Katherine_Hall_Page
*This book was from my personal collection.
She definitely went overboard with the descriptions and I too thought it was the last in the series, based on the ending. Personally, I prefer the New England settings but the European vacation ones can be enjoyable too.
I have read all of this series but I agree too I like it when the story is set in New England. I look forward to the next book in this series.
I’m reading The Body in the Birches now and am enjoying it even though I’m incredibly behind on the series itself. This is definitely a series I want to go back and start at the beginning with since there are so many I haven’t read and it’s been so long since I read the ones I HAVE read I remember very little. The over descriptiveness sounds like it could get a bit tedious so I’ll keep my expectations in check for this one.
Sounds good!