Faith Fairchild Mystery
27 primary works • 30 total works
Book 1
There was no question that the body in the church belfry was Cindy Shepherd and that she was dead. The kitchen knife sticking out of her curvaceous young body left no doubt. As Faith Sibley Fairchild, the minister's wife who made the grisly find soon realises, there is no shortage of suspects who might have wanted Cindy dead: childhood enemies, jilted lovers and angry victims of her vicious tongue. But ex-New Yorker Faith has a lot to learn about murder in Massachusetts. Digging up seedy little secrets in a quiet New England village can make the natives a bit nervous...and turn the lady from the big city into just another small town statistic.
Book 2
At an estate auction, caterer-turned-minister's-wife Faith Sibley Fairchild buys a beautiful handmade quilt that promises to liven up her deathly dull vacation on Maine's Sanpere Island. Lovingly constructed by wealthy, deceased and detested Matilda Prescott, Faith's purchase turns out to be a bargain indeed - especially when it turns out to be a map to the old woman's hidden treasure. But instead of pointing Faith toward the fabled Prescott gold, Matilda's clues lead her to a kelp-covered corpse floating in a nearby tidal pool. Now the endangered amateur sleuth is ensnared in the twisted, lethal threads of familial greed and cold-blooded murder.
Book 4
Satisfying her hunger for epicurean adventure in the French provinces, small town caterer and minister's wife Faith Fairchild decides to throw the perfect dinner party. But during the cleanup after the last guest has departed her gastronomical triumph, she encounters something neither expected nor welcome: a dead body lying in her vestibule. Unfortunately it doesn't help her credibility when the corpse vanishes before the local gendarmes arrive. But Faith realizes that, though the police refuse to take her seriously, a killer just might. And if she doesn't get to the bottom of this fiendish French conundrum, Faith's recent successful feast could end up being her last.
Book 5
Hired to cater meals for the movie crew that is filming a modern-day version of "The Scarlet Letter" in the tiny New England village of Aleford, Faith Fairchild is eager to treat the talented tantrum-throwers to the best of her culinary delights. But an accusation that her famous Black Bean Soup is poisonous has left a bad taste in Faith's mouth. Her exploration into the source of the nasty slander leads the amateur investigator behind the scenes of a shocking off-camera murder. And suddenly more than Faith's reputation is at stake - her life itself could end up on the cutting room floor!
Book 6
With the Fairchilds building a summer cottage on Maine's Sanpere Island, their next-door neighbor, Pix Miller, heads off to check on the building's progress. But on visiting the cottage, our heroine finds far more than just the building site and to her horror, discovers the dead body of a local handyman, wrapped in a very valuable antique quilt! Sharing her friend Faith's inquisitive nature, Pix resolves to unravel the mystery and restore Sanpere's shattered peace. But will the determined Ms. Miller ever discover the truth? Or by digging too deeply, will she soon be arranging another burial - her own!
Book 7
Book 8
Caterer, minister's wife and mother of two, Faith Fairchild is a woman of many talents. And her uncanny ability to solve even the most perplexing of mysteries inevitably leads her into trouble - often in the company of her best friend, Pix Miller. Impetuous, inquisitive Pix didn't travel to Norway to revel in the breathtaking beauty of the fjords - but rather to uncover the truth about the unexplained disappearance of an old family friend. With a feigned membership in the Norwegian tour group 'Scandie Sights' as her cover, Pix's search for answers draws her to a world of natural northern wonders - and to the revelations of secret histories and sinister promises that lead to cold, calculating murder. Nothing will dissuade the resourceful and determined Pix from accomplishing her personal mission in this forbidding, faraway place - not even the strange, unsettling turns her investigation seems to be taking...or the fact that her persistence has made her the object of a remorseless killer's attention.
Book 9
Caterer-detective Faith Fairchild takes on a case involving a ring of antiques dealers behind a string of burglaries in her quaint Massachusetts town.Stretched almost to the limit by the capricious demands of a Boston Brahmin bride-to-be, caterer and minister's wife, Faith Fairchild, faces real tragedy when she discovers the body of an elderly friend. Sarah Winslow had apparently surprised burglars ransacking her Aleford, Massachusetts house. No sooner has Sarah been laid to rest than the Fairchild's find themselves the next target - the parsonage is stripped of all their most precious possessions. Devastated and furious, Faith takes action, scouring pawnshops, antique marts, and auctions.As she finds some of their stolen property, Faith is drawn onto a dangerous path of larceny and corruption in New England's venerable antique business - a path that soon leads Faith straight to a killer!
Book 9
Book 10
Before she met and married the Reverend Thomas Fairchild and moved to sleepy little Aleford, Massachusetts, Faith Sibley Fairchild had a catering business in the most colourful, frenetic, and exciting city in the world...Young, ambitious and single in New York City in the late 1980's, Faith Sibley is energised by the early success of her Have Faith catering enterprise. But she's cast into an unexpected new role when she runs into old high school friend Emma Stanstead at a swanky uptown party: sleuth! An anonymous blackmailer is threatening to expose certain secrets of socialite Emma's less than glamorous past - thereby destroying her reputation and her conservative husband's fast-rising political career - and Faith fearlessly leaps into the fray.Though she lacks experience, Faith's keen instincts, insight and determination to unmask an extortionist quickly carry her deep into the high and low life of the bustling Big Apple. And when a murder raises the stakes, Faith realises that it's not just her friend's good name that is in peril...it is Emma's life itself!
Book 11
Halloween has come creeping into tiny Aleford, Massachusetts and Faith Fairchild has her plate full when a Murder Mystery benefit dinner is marred by real murder. Minister's wife Faith Fairchild is excited about catering her church's restoration campaign kickoff at historic Ballou House. But when a beautiful young woman dies moments after finishing dessert, Faith is suddenly in serious trouble. Not only is her business in jeopardy- but Aleford's wagging tongues are suggesting that Faith herself laced the goodie with cyanide, having discovered her husband Tom's perhaps overly pastoral interest in the victim. Faith's world feels steeped in poison and never before have her amateur sleuthing skills been more crucial - especially when another body is found in the moonlight carrying an unmistakeable warning: you're next.
Book 12
Taking advantage of the January doldrums in the catering business, Faith goes undercover at Mansfield Academy, after learning about anonymous racist attacks against senior Daryl Martin. She volunteers to teach Cooking for Idiots and soon learns more about the darker side of adolescence and the academic in-fighting at Mansfield than she wants to know. Someone, determined to undermine her inquiries, tampers with the ingredients for her cooking demonstrations. Then the incinerated remains of Faith's prime suspect are discovered. It's not mischief but murder!The headmaster's wife, an expert on Russian art...and men; the history teacher with a cult-like following; the loner, junior Zach Cohen, hacker extraordinaire; and Internet-obsessed freshman Danny miller, the son of Faith's best friend and neighbour, are all connected, but how? Faith frantically struggles to make sense of it, all too aware of the killer's deadly presence tracking her every move. It's a race to save Mansfield and her own life.
Book 13
Escaping a particularly sweltering August in Aleford, Massachusetts, minister's wife Faith Fairchild and her family drive to their favourite getaway, Sanpere Island. But aggressive real estate developer Harold Hapswell is threatening the peace on Sanpere. Tensions are high as the animosity between year-round islanders and holidaymakers reaches dangerous new levels. In an atmosphere thick with ill feeling, murder rears its ugly head. Then, while exploring the historic, abandoned lighthouse, Faith stumbles across the corpse of Harold Hapswell himself. His death is officially ruled an accident, but Faith's tried-and-tested instincts which tell her otherwise are confirmed soon enough by a string of murders. With fear running rampant throughout the island, faith knows she must track down the murderer - even if it means placing her own life in peril.
Book 14
As the holiday season approaches, Faith Fairchild's minister husband, Tom, is not in a festive mood. His job has become routine and his parish seem to care more about church gossip than worship or service, leaving him doubting his own effectiveness. So, when the opportunity to teach for a semester at Harvard's Divinity School comes up, he leaps at the chance. Within months the family has settled happily into a large, old home in historic Cambridge just across the river from Boston. Faith is shocked when she runs into an old boyfriend. Thirteen years before, Richard Morgan had swept her off her feet - and then disappeared. While Richard has secrets of his own, Faith discovers a diary hidden in the attic of her new home. Written by a woman living there in 1946, it reveals unspeakable horrors. Now, Faith is caught up in solving the mysteries...with a murderer lurking a little too close to home.
Book 15
Faith Fairchild's father-in-law plans to celebrate his seventieth birthday by treating the entire family - his children, their spouses, and his grandchildren - to a weeklong stay at the Pine Slopes ski resort. All starts well until Faith discovers a body on one of the cross-country trails. Then Pine Slopes' star chef vanishes without a trace and one catastrophe follows another: a malicious prank, a break-in at the Fairchilds' condo and the sabotage of one of the chairlifts. Who is the mysterious woman living deep in the woods and what are Faith's nephew, Scott, and Ophelia Stafford up to? Family secrets abound as Faith struggles to salvage the reunion, and save her own life.
Book 17
Book 18
Book 19
When an audit finds money missing from the minister's discretionary fund at Aleford's First Parish Church, suspicion falls on Faith's husband, the Rev. Thomas Fairchild, the only person with access to the account. To complicate matters, Ursula Rowe, Faith's friend Pix Miller's elderly and ailing mother, asks Faith's help in dealing with the disquieting letters she's recently received. Secrets, the kind that fester and can make even strong people ill, reach back to the 1920s.
Book 20
Book 21
While celebrating their anniversary in Italy, amateur sleuth/caterer Faith Fairchild and her husband, the Reverend Tom Fairchild, find murder on the itinerary when a new acquaintance is killed in the Eternal City and someone tries to sabotage her former assistant's new cooking school in Florence.