Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Page's long-running cozy series featuring caterer and amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild begins to show its age in this humdrum entry (after 2019's The Body in the Wake). Thanks to an advance warning from her sister that Covid-19 lockdowns are imminent, Faith is able to stock her business and home in Aleford, Mass., with vital supplies, and carves out a pleasant-enough existence for the rest of 2020, laying low with her children and reverend husband. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when a 2021 virtual State of the Town meeting is flooded with pornographic images of one of Faith's close friends. When the same woman is found dead a few days later, Faith is certain it's murder, and she digs into her late friend's foggy past to determine who might be responsible. Newcomers not already invested in Faith and her family are likely to find the setup, which focuses heavily on the early days of the pandemic and takes up nearly a third of the narrative, a bit dull, and while the investigation itself sufficiently quickens the pace, its resolution hinges on an unsatisfying contrivance. This is run-of-the-mill genre fare. Agent: Faith Hamlin, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (May)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In January 2021, Faith Fairchild's husband, Tom, is one of the earliest recipients of the COVID vaccine, a sign that life might be getting a little better. Since March 2020, Faith's world has narrowed. Her son, Ben, has returned from college and regularly streams Tom's sermons from an empty church. Events were canceled for her catering business, Have Faith, but with family help, she has pivoted to a delivery service, Have Faith Delivered. Zoom has become part of everyone's life. Even the town meeting is on Zoom, until it is Zoom-bombed one evening, showing nude photos of one of Faith's friends. Although the town rallies around her, she resigns from her job. When Faith finds her friend dead, the police call it suicide or accidental death due to depression, but Faith says it's murder, blaming the Zoom bomber. With tech help from a friend, Faith digs into her friend's past to find someone who hated her. VERDICT The 26th Faith Fairchild mystery (after The Body in the Wake) is fresh and remarkable in its ability to bring back memories of the day-to-day aspects of living through COVID. The reader and the victim are both trapped in a web in this skillful combination of mystery and pandemic story.--Lesa Holstine
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