1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE BODY IN THE WEB
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
The Body in the Web is the 26th in my Faith Fairchild series (they don’t have to be read in order) and finds my amateur sleuth/wife/mother/caterer faced with the difficulty of solving a crime during the pandemic when the death of a friend is declared a suicide by the police, but Faith knows better—it’s murder. The title refers to both a spider web and the worldwide one, both traps! With her college-aged son and high school senior daughter at home studying remotely and her husband tending his flock in much the same manner, Faith finds her days overflowing with ways to keep her “Pod” nourished in body and mind. A subplot involves a young woman who has had to postpone her elaborate June wedding and her plans to have a honeymoon baby. 2022 saw 2.5 million weddings, the most in forty years, due to the pandemic backlog. Another ripple effect I write about is the way older people had to cope with Covid, describing how a character in other books, Millicent Revere McKinley, faces severe food and fuel insecurity in isolation.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Faith Fairchild grew up in Manhattan, but after marrying the Reverend Thomas Fairchild finds herself in “Aleford”, a small town west of Boston. With the second book, I started alternating between the Aleford books—The Body in the Belfry was the first—and the “someplace else” books to keep the series fresh for readers and for me, plus could the body count in Aleford reach such heights two years in a row!
4--Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life?
We do spend a great deal of time together in my imagination and over the years she has become quite real, so yes, I would. I like her. I’d especially want her to cook one of her delicious meals for a fun dinner party!
5--What are three words that describe your sleuth?
Smart, funny, and kind
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That I could concentrate when the world around me was often chaotic and frightening.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I start each day with a kind of “jump start”, rewriting what I had written the previous day. At the end of each chapter, I print it out and edit with a good old-fashioned # 2 pencil. After a few chapters, I do the same thing, so it’s a rolling draft. I also keep a notebook for each book, the French kind with the graph paper to keep my writing legible! I list my characters, make a timeline, jot down a few words by each chapter heading and record the first and last lines in each chapter, so I am not repetitive and especially ensure the last lines will make the reader turn the page. I also write my research notes in these notebooks.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Steamed Maine lobster with drawn butter.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
The first books were written in a corner of my basement, and it was bliss to have a room of my own when we moved to a larger house with more space. My desk faces two windows overlooking a narrow road with many trees and shrubs. The walls are covered with bookcases on three sides while the fourth provides space for a well-worn chintz covered comfy chair. Despite the shelves, there are a couple of stacks of books on the floor (full disclosure). They are neat, however. Couldn’t work in a mess.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Just one! Almost impossible to answer, yet I can truly say it’s Agatha Christie. She set the bar and I never get tired of rereading her, and about her.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Jane Eyre. The older sister of a friend passed her copy on when I was twelve and I read it straight through, completely caught up in the story and the way it was written. I identified with the main character greatly. I knew reading it would always be an important milestone and I have many copies with various illustrations and covers, also Bewick’s Birds (the same one mentioned in the book in the red leather cover, which I purchased at an auction).
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)
I was in New Jersey with my husband and young son visiting my parents. We were headed out to a family gathering. The phone rang as we were opening the front door and my mother went back to answer, immediately calling me back. She was just as excited at the news from my agent as I was, if not more so!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I read all and anything, have been known to reach for the back of a cereal box if nothing else in print is to hand. Fiction—mysteries of course in all forms, literary, women’s, romcoms, humor, classic, YA and children’s—nonfiction, biographies and autobiographies, collections of letters, history. Also, poetry and plays. I like to reread fiction.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
North by Northwest
15--What is your favorite season?
Fall
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Dinner out with my family
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Shetland series (very different, but close second-Somebody Feed Phil)
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Southern (Lowcountry) Again, hard to pick one as I will happily eat dishes from any of them.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Get together with friends now that’s it’s safe!!
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m working on a short story. I find them more difficult to write than the novels. A challenge. Henry David Thoreau observed, “Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.” The Lodger (working title) story is not a Faith Fairchild, more O. Henry.
Faith Fairchild #26
In the 26th book in the award-winning Faith Fairchild Mysteries series, Katherine Hall Page’s beloved amateur detective is hunkered down with her family during the pandemic when a Zoom-bombing scandal sends the community into a tailspin … and a dead body is discovered.
Faith Fairchild joins the rest of the world in lockdown mode when reality flips in March 2020. As the pandemic spreads, Faith and her family readjust to life together in Aleford, Massachusetts. Her husband, Tom, continues his sermons from Zoom; their children, Ben, who's in college, and Amy, a high school senior, are doing remote learning at home .
Faith is happy to have her family under the same roof and grateful for her resilient community, friends, and neighbors in Aleford. Town halls remain lively and well-attended, despite residents joining from their living rooms. It is at one of these town halls that scandal breaks out. In the midst of a Zoom meeting, damaging images suddenly flash upon everyone’s screens. Claudia, local art teacher and Faith’s dear friend, is immediately recognized as the woman who has been targeted.
When Claudia is later discovered dead, Faith, with the help of her friends, journeys deep into the dark web to unravel the threads of Claudia’s mysterious history and shocking passing.
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Amateur Sleuth [William Morrow, On Sale: May 30, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063252530 / ]
It was during her husband's sabbatical year in France after the birth of their son that Ms. Page wrote her first mystery, The Body in the Belfry, 1991 Agatha Award winner for Best First Mystery Novel. The fifteenth in the series, The Body in the Snowdrift , won the 2006 Agatha Award for Best Mystery Novel. Ms. Page was also awarded the 2001 Agatha for Best Short Story for "The Would-Be Widower" in the Malice Domestic X collection (Avon Books). She was an Edgar nominee for her juvenile mystery, Christie & Company Down East. The Body in the Bonfire was an Agatha nominee in 2003. Page's short story, "The Two Mary's" was an Agatha nominee in 2004. The Body in the Lighthouse (2003) was one of three nominees for The Mary Higgins Clark Award. The Body in the Boudoir was a finalist in the 2013 Maine Literary Awards. Her series cookbook, Have Faith in Your Kitchen, was nominated for an Agatha in the non-fiction category, making her the only author to be nominated or win in all four Agatha categories. Katherine Hall Page received the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from Malice Domestic, as well as one—Crime Master—from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. The Body in the Web is out now from William Morrow in hardcover, paperback, large print, E-book, and audio editions.
Descended from Norwegian-Americans on her mother's side and New Englanders on her father's, Ms. Page grew up listening to all sorts of stories. She remains an unabashed eavesdropper and will even watch your slides or home movies to hear your narration. Her books are the product of all the strands of her life and she plans to keep weaving.
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