Most helpful customer reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A 3.4 on a scale of 1 to 5, Good not Great, Aug 7 2003
"The Body in the Bonfire" once again features the indomitable sleuth, Faith Fairchild, minister's wife and suburban Boston caterer by day, Nancy Drew by night.
In this installment, Faith teaches a cooking class at a second or third tier boarding school in her New England town. She has a secret assignment, which is to find out who is sending racial slur messages to the one black student. The school is filled with a cast of colorful characters: a way too preppy good boy/bad boy student, the Russian wife of the headmaster, an intense guru like professor and so on. The plot thickens when someone shows up dead in the school's annual bonfire.
I always enjoy these books. However, I have found-particularly in this one-Hall throws out a lot of cliches. She does not offer much depth in her characters or in her story. For example, most private schools in New England today (even second and third tier ones) have more than one black student (many whose parents pay) as well as a number of Asian, Hispanic and other ethnic and religious minorities. Her depiction of Aleford,the boarding school, does not ring true in the early 00's. In addition, she loves to poke fun at the down-to-earth, Yankee frugality and sensibilities of her neighbors. Yes, her observations were true about 25 years ago. However, most New England towns are filled with a more diverse and sophisticated population in the early 00's than in her books. Finally, while she seems ever so concerned about political correctness throughout the novel vis a vis ethnic and religious minorities, she is beyond condescending to the blue collar female police officer. At the end of the book, Faith offers to help her with her makeup. Please, talk about noblesse oblige.
Still, this book is an enjoyable read. Plus, you get some very good recipes at the end.
I'd recommend this book to those who enjoy cozy mysteries and previous Page books. I wouldn't recommend this book to those who require too much depth in their mysteries (a la Elizabeth George) or books.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
GOOD, BUT NOT PAGE'S BEST., Jan 15 2003
I've read every book in the Faith Fairchild series and have been generally pleased that the author has kept up the quality of the plotting and writing over the years.While I enjoyed this book fairly well, it just seemed a little off the mark. The references to popular teen culture (music, PC games etc) seemed a bit forced. The plot involving hate crimes at a upper-crust boarding school seemed to peter out and appeared to be used just for effect. The character of Daryl may be black but there is nothing in Page's characterization of him that is genuine and rings true. The same is true of the hate crimes plot.Page can do much, much better than this.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
The Body in the Bonfire, Aug 22 2002
By A Customer
The 12th in the author's chronicles of New England caterer/sleuth Faith Fairchild removes her from the side of her minister husband Tom and their children Amy and Ben for some undercover work in Mansfield Academy, a nearby private boys' high school, where Patsy Avery, Faith's longtime lawyer friend, occasionally teaches. One of her students, junior Daryl Martin, has been the target of racist e-mails, newspaper clippings, and now a noose placed on a pillow. Patsy urges Faith to teach a cooking class at the school and use her detective skills to uncover Daryl's tormenter. Taking the job in the kitchen of Mansfield's Charleton House, Faith holds up a magnifying glass to students and staff ranging from headmaster Robert Harcourt and his flamboyant wife Zoe to games mistress Connie Reed, some oddball professors, and a few rather strange students like slick, handsome Sloane Buxton. As Faith sneakily searches rooms, tries to find out who's tampering with her kitchen ingredients and who has stolen Zoe's precious jewels, Sloane turns up missing, only to be found dead on the school's annual Bonfire Night. It takes another death, a lot more snooping, and the discovery of computer records and a host of uncovered secrets before Faith has all the answers. Clarity and suspense are often lost to slow-moving gossip, but Faith's fans are sure to be pleased with another of the author's always readable stories.
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