The story was good. The author is a good story teller. The character who is the murderer did not make sense to me. ( )

Synopsis: Faith is happily running her catering business in New York when she is swept off her feet by a handsome stranger at a wedding. For both Tom and Faith, it's love at first sight. Their romance, engagement and wedding plans are progressing smoothly except that someone is trying to murder Faith. Along the way Faith must help a friend find a man from her family's past; help her sister, Hope, find out who is trying to sabotage her career; and help another friend start a restaurant.
Review: This is a flash-back brought on by an anniversary trip. It also opens the door for another prequel about Faith's life in New York. This was fun to read with a few twists, although the two side mysteries were easily predicted. ( )

“Fresh Meat” by Laura K. Curtis for Criminal Element

What do you want when you pick up a traditional mystery? I am sure the answers vary some from person to person, but for me some of the big selling points of this kind of story are a solid sense of place, a few offbeat characters, and—sorry, culinary cozy haters!—delectable treats. I’d never read Katherine Hall Page’s Faith Fairchild series, but it took only a few pages into The Body in the Boudoir, the latest in the series, for me to realize it would have all three.

This entire book is a flashback, and in it we get to see the meeting and (brief!) courtship between Faith and her husband, the Reverend Thomas Fairchild. While the other books in the series take place after their marriage in Thomas’s parish in Massachusetts, this one takes place mainly in New York.

Read the rest at: http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/05/fresh-meat-body-in-the-boudoir-by-k...

This series has become a favorite over the past few years, although I've read it in a rather piece-meal fashion. This prequel to the series was published in 2012, making this the 20th in the series!

As Faith Fairchild, the preacher's wife with her own catering business, settles down for a long overseas flight to Europe where she and hubby Tom will celebrate their 10th anniversary, she daydreams about how they met, about their courtship, and about (of course) the mysterious murder, i.e., the Body in the Boudoir discovered just before the wedding.  It's a well-written tale, and fills in a lot of gaps in the background of this relationship we've enjoyed throughout the series.  For fans of the series, it will be a welcome addition.  For newcomers, it's an excellent introduction to an amateur sleuth who provides us with not just good mystery solving, but excellent and yummy ideas and recipes she serves up in her catering business "Have Faith."

There were a few plot elements that seemed a bit contrived, and it seemed to take forever for the body (and mystery) to appear, but all in all, it's a good read and has me hungry to find some more in the series (there are now 20 of them!).  After all, the holidays are coming, and who couldn't use some good party ideas?

Why did I read this book now? It's been sitting on the bedside table too long. ( )

Not the best entry in the Faith Fairchild series, but a good, solid mystery. This one takes us back in time when Faith and her husband are planning their wedding. New characters and more information about familiar characters are featured. ( )