Friday, December 11, 2009

The Body in the Sleigh

The Body in the Sleigh
By Katherine Hall Page
William Morrow, 2009. 256 pgs. Mystery

It's Christmas time on Sanpere Island, just off the blustery Maine coast. Folks are decorating their fishing boats and lobster traps and all seems merry and bright. Faith Fairchild and her family are spending their yuletide basking in the serenity and enjoying the bliss of seafood risotto and chocolate bread pudding. That is, until she and her children find the body in the sleigh. Then the overlaying calm is shattered by murder, drug trafficking and a mysterious baby boy found in Mary Bethany's goat barn on a snowy Christmas Eve.

What begins as a charming cozy later mingles with the darker elements of drug and child abuse. Not too explicit, it's still enough to raise some righteous anger. Readers will fall for the star character of Mary Bethany--a reclusive spinster with only her goats to love until the gift child arrives. She even upstages the sleuth in the latest Faith Fairchild mystery by the award winning author (as any Mary and child should on this night of all nights). Recipes included--make enough to share!

DAP

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