What do you think?
Rate this book
Faith Fairchild
Small Plates
Agatha Award winner Katherine Hall Page presents a book of short stories featuring her famed heroine Faith Fairchild. For years, Katherine Hall Page has delighted readers with her Faith Fairchild series, each book like a delicious, satisfying meal. Now, Page has whipped up a tasty collection of appetizing bites. In “The Body in the Dunes,” Faith’s vacation offers more excitement than she and her husband bargained for when a terrified woman knocks on their hotel room door looking to hide from her husband. A case hits close to home in “The Proof is Always in the Pudding,” when Faith investigates a generations-old superstition that has been passed down in her husband’s family. Faith and her sister, Hope, counsel a bride-to-be suffering a number of alarming “accidents” before the big day in “Across the Pond.” In “Sliced,” Faith switches from contestant to detective when a killer reality television cooking competition turns deadly. Small Plates also includes some irresistible standalone treats, including the Agatha Award–winning “The Would-Be Widower,” about a husband who longs to be rid of his wife, and “Hiding Places” in which a young wife’s new husband may not be all that he appears. These stories and more will entice Faith Fairchild fans and new readers alike. Filled with the charm, wit, and the appeal of her beloved novels, Small Plates is a feast for every lover of traditional mysteries.
222 pages, Hardcover
First published May 27, 2014
112 people are currently reading
342 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Hall Page
54 books465 followersKatherine Hall Page is the author of twenty-five previous Faith Fairchild mysteries, the first of which received the Agatha Award for best first mystery. The Body in the Snowdrift was honored with the Agatha Award for best novel of 2006. Page also won an Agatha for her short story “The Would-Be Widower.” The recipient of the Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement, she has been nominated for the Edgar, the Mary Higgins Clark, the Maine Literary, and the Macavity Awards. She lives in Massachusetts and Maine with her husband.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
July 9, 2018
3.5
This is my first time reading mystery short stories, and I was pleasantly surprised by them. My favorites in the collection were The Would-Be Widower, Across the Pond, and Hiding Places. I was a little worried that they were all going to lean to heavily on the safe and cozy side, but I'm pleased to report that some of them did get a tad dark. People who are already a fan of the Faith Fairchild books will enjoy these, but it's not necessary to be acquainted with them. I wasn't.
This is my first time reading mystery short stories, and I was pleasantly surprised by them. My favorites in the collection were The Would-Be Widower, Across the Pond, and Hiding Places. I was a little worried that they were all going to lean to heavily on the safe and cozy side, but I'm pleased to report that some of them did get a tad dark. People who are already a fan of the Faith Fairchild books will enjoy these, but it's not necessary to be acquainted with them. I wasn't.
October 3, 2015
Collection of 9 short mystery stories, many featuring the author's creation, intrepid female sleuth, Faith Fairchild. Quality of material varies, as do most short story collections, as I've found. Light, frothy, easy reading. Each has an O. Henry twist at the end.
My favorites [not in order as they appear in the contents but in my enjoyment]:
My favorites [not in order as they appear in the contents but in my enjoyment]:
"Would-be widower": A man plans to kill his wife of many years, whom he dislikes, trying several times with different methods. Macabre humor.
"Ghost of Winthrop": Prudence Winthrop, a spinster, trying with Faith's help, to find her deceased aunt's will, before any other relatives. Finder will inherit everything except for certain small bequests. Puzzle mystery.
"Hiding places": a naïve young newlywed discovers her husband's odd penchant for secreting some of his possessions in out-of-the-way places.
"Proof is in the pudding": a poisoning at a Christmas dinner
"Sliced": Faith appears on a television reality cooking show.
"The two Marys": an unusual Christmas story. A spinster named Mary in rural Maine finds a baby wrapped in a beautiful afghan in her barn on Christmas Eve. Faith helps her find the mother--and complications ensue.
July 19, 2015
- My Description -
This is a collection of short stories.
Different situations. All mystery.
The Ghost of Winthrop: Prudence's aunt hides her will before her death.
A letter states whoever finds it will inherit her estate.
A treasure hunt in the truest sense of the word.
Death in the Dunes: A distraught woman wants help from her husband.
Things are not always what they seem...
Would-be Widower: Charles decides to kill his wife.
He wants to make it look like an accident.
He soon finds out accidents are sometimes hard to come by.
Across the pond: When Polly steals her sister's boyfriend, things take a turn for the worst. Keep your hands off other people's property...
Perfect Maine Day: A dead woman is found partly submerged in water.
Perhaps it wasn't such a perfect day after all...
Hiding places: Felicity is happily married to Geoff. She soon finds Geoff's hiding places.
She thinks it's kinda cute, but what she finds are clues to his past. Are things really better hidden?
The Proof is Always in the Pudding: Superstitions arise when there are an uneven number coming for Christmas dinner. Will history repeat itself?
Sliced: Reality TV becomes real for Faith Sibley when she's invited to participate in a cooking competition. Hide the knives, because death has come to dinner.
Two Marys: Christmas came early for Mary when she finds a baby boy in her barn.
A mysterious Christmas eve surprise.
- My Review -
This wasn't as great as I was hoping it would be.
They were all fun. Some were just okay.
My favorite story was Would-be Widower.
It was predictable but I really liked the way it was executed (no pun intended, LOL).
One thing I didn't like about this book: There wasn't much background on certain stories, things were left out. It wasn't really explained well.
Filling but not thrilling.
January 8, 2018
Loved, loved, loved this! Wonderful, solid short stories written by the author of the Faith Fairchild novels.
February 19, 2018
This was a book of short fictions. Several of the stories were worth the read but some weren't long enough even be considered a story. I found with most of the stories there was a lot of description but not much content . My major pet peeve was how abruptly the stories ended.
November 14, 2020
The Ghost of Winthrop - a clever story about an old woman’s will that is hidden in the house and the first family member to find it gets the inheritance. Prudence, the niece, gets to look first but is tormented by what she thinks is the aunt’s ghost, haunting the house. The aunt loved puzzles and Faith not only figures out the the last quilt she was working on holds the key to the hiding place, but she also discovers that the cousin was the one “haunting” the house to scare her away and claim the inheritance for himself. 4 stars
Death in the Dunes - while on vacation in Cape Cod, Faith and her husband are startled one night by a woman banging on their door asking them to hide her. They could hear her husband shouting for her on the bra, but when they went back in their room, she was gone. The next day, they seemed like nothing had happened. In fact, they kept turning up everywhere Faith and her husband went. Turns out it was a different woman, her twin, and they successfully killed the woman that night on the beach. Not a compelling story, using the well worn trope of twins. 2 stars
The Would Be Widower - a man is bored with his wife. He was forced into retirement, while she went willingly, and he resents her for that. He also longs for companionship that she can’t or won’t provide. So he plans to kill her. Meanwhile, she is busy enjoying her gardening and power walks while making his meals daily and doing the other household tasks while he sits and reads. I could tell pretty early on that they were both trying to kill each other, and in the end they both simultaneously succeed. 2.5 stars
Across the Pond - Faith and her sister, Hope, help their friend, Polly, plan her wedding. The only thing is that she is marrying her half-sister’s former fiancé, whom she stole at their engagement party. So, needless to say, there is no love lost between the sisters. Meanwhile, Polly starts to experience mysterious mishaps, casing her injury and embarrassment, leading up to her big day. Faith and Hope swear not to leave her side u til after the wedding. At the reception, when they finally feel that everything is safe, the groom collapses, clutching his throat. Then the story ends. Huh? 1 star
A Perfect Maine Day - our unnamed narrator discovers the body of a local fisherwoman on the beach in Maine. He asks another local woman he sees on the each, Cynthia, to call the police while he waits with the body. He also admirers her paintings. After the funeral, he visits the grieving husband and finds Cynthia there. He accuses them of killing the wife so that they could be together, but it was important that the body be found so that they could collect the insurance money. He weighed the body down and Cynthia swam out to drag her body to shore for our narrator to find. He figured it out by looking at the paintings - one showed his fishing boat in an area that wasn’t his territory. 3 stars
Hiding Places - a pregnant woman is cleaning her home while her husband is on a business trip and finds a fake book hiding a spare set of keys. She finds other hiding places over the weeks, including a fake can of WD-40 containing cash and a hidden drawer in his jewelry box. Eventually, she has the baby while he is on yet another trip. As she is packing for a family vacation, she realizes her camera’s memory stick is full so she goes to take one of her husband’s. On it, she finds pictures of his other family, who not only look the same but the wife has her same engagement ring and they are in front of an eerily similar house. Saw that one coming. 2.5 stars
The Proof is Always in the Pudding - a Fairchild family curse? Back in the 1800’s, matriarch Victoria, trying to prevent her daughter from marrying an Irishman, invites him and her preferred fiancé, Summer Cabot, to Christmas dinner. When dessert is served, 2 men, a Fairchild boy and Mr. Cabot, take Ill. The boy was served cake with ipecac syrup but Mr. Cabot got a piece with arsenic that was meant for the Irishman. Faith finds the death bed letter of Victoria to her daughter in storage in which she admits to the poisoning. Not much of a mystery as it was obvious that Victoria planned the whole thing. 2 stars
Sliced - Um...this is like reading about an episode of Chopped where Faith and her fellow local celebrity chefs have to make dishes from a secret basket of ingredients. We hear about how Faith has known, and pissed off, the other contestants and lo and behold, one of them ends up dead, killed with her missing knife. A sentence later, we learn that the intern, Jennifer, did it because he was a brute and she couldn’t let the next intern be treated that way. Huh? So much for the mystery or suspense or any investigation into finding the killer. And the knife that Faith was missing was her bread knife, not the knife of choice to be found sticking out of a dead man’s back. Weird. 1 star
The Two Marys - this was the longest short story with a play on the birth of Jesus. A baby, named Christopher, is left on the doorstep of a woman, named Mary, who is a spinster without a man in her life. She raises goats and makes cheese and knows that she has to come up with a plausible story about the baby. She calls Faith for help. Together, the figure out that a young woman, named Miriam, must be the one who left the baby. While Faith goes to track her down, Miriam is busy racing to Mary’s to stop her father from stealing the baby. Mary thwarts the grandfather and sends him on his way. He goes to Miriam’s apartment, gets into a fight with the loser father, and kills him - all supposedly witnessed by Miriam. She returns to Mary’s during a snowstorm and was followed there by the loser father’s drug dealers who are after the missing money that Miriam gave to Mary to care for the baby. Everyone escapes, and Miriam mysteriously disappears but says she’ll be back one day. The end. Once again, huh? 2 stars.
Death in the Dunes - while on vacation in Cape Cod, Faith and her husband are startled one night by a woman banging on their door asking them to hide her. They could hear her husband shouting for her on the bra, but when they went back in their room, she was gone. The next day, they seemed like nothing had happened. In fact, they kept turning up everywhere Faith and her husband went. Turns out it was a different woman, her twin, and they successfully killed the woman that night on the beach. Not a compelling story, using the well worn trope of twins. 2 stars
The Would Be Widower - a man is bored with his wife. He was forced into retirement, while she went willingly, and he resents her for that. He also longs for companionship that she can’t or won’t provide. So he plans to kill her. Meanwhile, she is busy enjoying her gardening and power walks while making his meals daily and doing the other household tasks while he sits and reads. I could tell pretty early on that they were both trying to kill each other, and in the end they both simultaneously succeed. 2.5 stars
Across the Pond - Faith and her sister, Hope, help their friend, Polly, plan her wedding. The only thing is that she is marrying her half-sister’s former fiancé, whom she stole at their engagement party. So, needless to say, there is no love lost between the sisters. Meanwhile, Polly starts to experience mysterious mishaps, casing her injury and embarrassment, leading up to her big day. Faith and Hope swear not to leave her side u til after the wedding. At the reception, when they finally feel that everything is safe, the groom collapses, clutching his throat. Then the story ends. Huh? 1 star
A Perfect Maine Day - our unnamed narrator discovers the body of a local fisherwoman on the beach in Maine. He asks another local woman he sees on the each, Cynthia, to call the police while he waits with the body. He also admirers her paintings. After the funeral, he visits the grieving husband and finds Cynthia there. He accuses them of killing the wife so that they could be together, but it was important that the body be found so that they could collect the insurance money. He weighed the body down and Cynthia swam out to drag her body to shore for our narrator to find. He figured it out by looking at the paintings - one showed his fishing boat in an area that wasn’t his territory. 3 stars
Hiding Places - a pregnant woman is cleaning her home while her husband is on a business trip and finds a fake book hiding a spare set of keys. She finds other hiding places over the weeks, including a fake can of WD-40 containing cash and a hidden drawer in his jewelry box. Eventually, she has the baby while he is on yet another trip. As she is packing for a family vacation, she realizes her camera’s memory stick is full so she goes to take one of her husband’s. On it, she finds pictures of his other family, who not only look the same but the wife has her same engagement ring and they are in front of an eerily similar house. Saw that one coming. 2.5 stars
The Proof is Always in the Pudding - a Fairchild family curse? Back in the 1800’s, matriarch Victoria, trying to prevent her daughter from marrying an Irishman, invites him and her preferred fiancé, Summer Cabot, to Christmas dinner. When dessert is served, 2 men, a Fairchild boy and Mr. Cabot, take Ill. The boy was served cake with ipecac syrup but Mr. Cabot got a piece with arsenic that was meant for the Irishman. Faith finds the death bed letter of Victoria to her daughter in storage in which she admits to the poisoning. Not much of a mystery as it was obvious that Victoria planned the whole thing. 2 stars
Sliced - Um...this is like reading about an episode of Chopped where Faith and her fellow local celebrity chefs have to make dishes from a secret basket of ingredients. We hear about how Faith has known, and pissed off, the other contestants and lo and behold, one of them ends up dead, killed with her missing knife. A sentence later, we learn that the intern, Jennifer, did it because he was a brute and she couldn’t let the next intern be treated that way. Huh? So much for the mystery or suspense or any investigation into finding the killer. And the knife that Faith was missing was her bread knife, not the knife of choice to be found sticking out of a dead man’s back. Weird. 1 star
The Two Marys - this was the longest short story with a play on the birth of Jesus. A baby, named Christopher, is left on the doorstep of a woman, named Mary, who is a spinster without a man in her life. She raises goats and makes cheese and knows that she has to come up with a plausible story about the baby. She calls Faith for help. Together, the figure out that a young woman, named Miriam, must be the one who left the baby. While Faith goes to track her down, Miriam is busy racing to Mary’s to stop her father from stealing the baby. Mary thwarts the grandfather and sends him on his way. He goes to Miriam’s apartment, gets into a fight with the loser father, and kills him - all supposedly witnessed by Miriam. She returns to Mary’s during a snowstorm and was followed there by the loser father’s drug dealers who are after the missing money that Miriam gave to Mary to care for the baby. Everyone escapes, and Miriam mysteriously disappears but says she’ll be back one day. The end. Once again, huh? 2 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2014
A collection of murder mystery short stories, most featuring Faith Fairchild from Page's mystery novels. Didn't really care for the character of Faith - she would down right annoy me in a whole novel, but I quite liked "The Would-be Widower" (no Faith, fun dark humor at the end) and "The Two Mary's". I'd give those a four, evening out the collection to a three. Haven't read any short stories in a while - it was fun to indulge in some 'Small Plates.'
August 26, 2014
It hurts to give Katherine Hall Page such a low rating. I don't read many short stories, but certainly can appreciate the craft (explained so well by Chris Crutcher). Except for the last story, these read as ideas for novels which didn't pan out, not as artfully crafted stories in and of themselves.
November 1, 2014
Katherine Hall Page's Faith Fairchild is one of my favorite series. I am not too fond of short stores, since it never seems to give a total finish to the store like a book does. Most of these stories were Faith Fairchild stores and enjoyable.
December 29, 2014
I think Katherine Hall Page is a much better author than what was reflected with Small Plates. Stick with a full story and full helpings of Faith and company.
August 15, 2016
Audio. short stories to try the author but they weren't really mysteries per se (cosy and not hard to figure out) so I still am not sure if I want to try more.
June 7, 2018
What a bunch of body shaming crap!
April 28, 2018
The first story was pretty funny, but the others had content I did not care to read.
August 10, 2020
Short stories. The pleasure is more in hanging out in the New England settings with some colorful characters, less in the actual plots. There are recipes at the end, which tells you what kind of book it is. Also, quilts. A bit of religion (Faith's husband is a pastor) but as always with the Faith Fairchild books, it's more contextual - it's the background for deciding to help people, kind of thing - and not in your face. The stories were mostly fun to read, but the endings were mostly abrupt.
The Ghost of Winthrop - a woman must find the will her aunt hid before the deadline in order to inherit, or her horrible relatives will get the house. Faith Fairchild helps out. This one's an old fashioned puzzle story that reminded me of reading Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine when I was a kid, complete with trying to work out a code. I think this is probably the most satisfying story in the bunch, with an ending that didn't feel abrupt.
Death in the Dunes - Faith and her husband are at a fancy resort for a conference, and on the first night a woman shows up at their unit pleading to be hidden from the man who's chasing her. This one's plot is very similar to an old Agatha Christie story.
The Would-be Widower - I don't think Faith shows up in this story at all. It's a cute story about a man who fantasizes about getting rid of his wife. O. Henry style ending.
Across the Pond - This is the one where I could see the author sitting at her desk and deciding to experiment with something different; she starts off with us seeing the characters from a distance, instead of being up close and personal with Faith as we usually are. The story itself was okay; it's about a woman who asks Faith & her sister Hope to be her bridesmaids because she can't ask her own stepsisters because she stole her stepsister's fiancé. The woman starts having accidents. The settings are fun but the ending was abrupt.
A Perfect Maine Day - Another O. Henry kind of story. A man walking his dog spots a drowned woman across a pond. Not much mystery to it, because of the way the body is described, and we don't learn enough about the suspects for the ending to matter.
Hiding Places - Interesting story about a rapturously happy woman whose perfect husband hides things like his spare keys and a little stash of cash. It seems like just part of his OCD tendencies until ... dum-dum-dummmm.
The Proof is Always in the Pudding - Fun to read about Faith's in-laws' Boston past, when her mother-in-law tells the story of why it's bad luck to have 13 at their particular dinner table. The ending wasn't very satisfying but I enjoyed the story otherwise.
Sliced - Another one that was fun to read but had a less than stellar ending. This one's set at a cooking competition for charity, where all the other chefs are people Faith has a bad history with. I enjoy watching some of those kinds of shows, so it was fun getting a glimpse of the other side of the camera.
The Two Marys - A Christmas story, in which a woman who raises goats, makes cheese, and runs a B&B in the summer on an island finds a baby in her barn on Christmas Eve. Faith and her husband are on the island while he recovers from an ailment. I enjoyed the main character (Mary, the goat woman) and the winter storm setting - always a bonus when I'm reading during an Arizona summer - but the other characters and the story behind the mother who left her baby there seemed like stereotypes without much to them. Not such a fan of the ending, either. But overall I did enjoy reading this story, which I think is the longest one in the book.
The Ghost of Winthrop - a woman must find the will her aunt hid before the deadline in order to inherit, or her horrible relatives will get the house. Faith Fairchild helps out. This one's an old fashioned puzzle story that reminded me of reading Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine when I was a kid, complete with trying to work out a code. I think this is probably the most satisfying story in the bunch, with an ending that didn't feel abrupt.
Death in the Dunes - Faith and her husband are at a fancy resort for a conference, and on the first night a woman shows up at their unit pleading to be hidden from the man who's chasing her. This one's plot is very similar to an old Agatha Christie story.
The Would-be Widower - I don't think Faith shows up in this story at all. It's a cute story about a man who fantasizes about getting rid of his wife. O. Henry style ending.
Across the Pond - This is the one where I could see the author sitting at her desk and deciding to experiment with something different; she starts off with us seeing the characters from a distance, instead of being up close and personal with Faith as we usually are. The story itself was okay; it's about a woman who asks Faith & her sister Hope to be her bridesmaids because she can't ask her own stepsisters because she stole her stepsister's fiancé. The woman starts having accidents. The settings are fun but the ending was abrupt.
A Perfect Maine Day - Another O. Henry kind of story. A man walking his dog spots a drowned woman across a pond. Not much mystery to it, because of the way the body is described, and we don't learn enough about the suspects for the ending to matter.
Hiding Places - Interesting story about a rapturously happy woman whose perfect husband hides things like his spare keys and a little stash of cash. It seems like just part of his OCD tendencies until ... dum-dum-dummmm.
The Proof is Always in the Pudding - Fun to read about Faith's in-laws' Boston past, when her mother-in-law tells the story of why it's bad luck to have 13 at their particular dinner table. The ending wasn't very satisfying but I enjoyed the story otherwise.
Sliced - Another one that was fun to read but had a less than stellar ending. This one's set at a cooking competition for charity, where all the other chefs are people Faith has a bad history with. I enjoy watching some of those kinds of shows, so it was fun getting a glimpse of the other side of the camera.
The Two Marys - A Christmas story, in which a woman who raises goats, makes cheese, and runs a B&B in the summer on an island finds a baby in her barn on Christmas Eve. Faith and her husband are on the island while he recovers from an ailment. I enjoyed the main character (Mary, the goat woman) and the winter storm setting - always a bonus when I'm reading during an Arizona summer - but the other characters and the story behind the mother who left her baby there seemed like stereotypes without much to them. Not such a fan of the ending, either. But overall I did enjoy reading this story, which I think is the longest one in the book.
June 8, 2020
I discovered this 2014 collection of "short fiction" by Katherine Hall Page when I was putting some notes on previously-read books by her on Goodreads. I read this one in the Nook edition. Faith Fairchild, the caterer who is the heroine-mystery-solver of Page's series, was present in several of the stories, and they all took place in her familiar locales of New York City, a small town outside Boston, and islands off the New England coast. Like the regular series, this collection also has recipes.
Page did well in the short forms, setting up characters and scenes, building tension, and then often letting it go almost like a rubber-band shot. My, but human beings can be devious, revengeful, and rotten. The final of the nine pieces is actually more the length of a novella, taking up almost 30% of the book. (In this Nook edition, I had not realized that as page numbers are not given on the Contents page, so I had to keep reading and reading until I was done.) That last, "The Two Marys," is set at Christmastime on a Maine island and is true in its descriptions of clergy family Christmases (though as Tom is sick the Fairchilds have escaped for an actual family-time Christmas before Faith gets embroiled in the mystery), but because of its length, the tension was not as tight and the violence felt more depressing. Still several days of yummy "small plate tastings."
Page did well in the short forms, setting up characters and scenes, building tension, and then often letting it go almost like a rubber-band shot. My, but human beings can be devious, revengeful, and rotten. The final of the nine pieces is actually more the length of a novella, taking up almost 30% of the book. (In this Nook edition, I had not realized that as page numbers are not given on the Contents page, so I had to keep reading and reading until I was done.) That last, "The Two Marys," is set at Christmastime on a Maine island and is true in its descriptions of clergy family Christmases (though as Tom is sick the Fairchilds have escaped for an actual family-time Christmas before Faith gets embroiled in the mystery), but because of its length, the tension was not as tight and the violence felt more depressing. Still several days of yummy "small plate tastings."
February 17, 2023
context: over the last few months ive gotten back in touch with myself as a reader. for years i would read 2 books a year at absolute max, even though as a child and into college i read quite a bit. part of that journey has been picking up books at (almost) random and diving in without much context or research on the author. i feel like that matters when considering the following review.
i would say this collection was, fun enough. some of the plotpoints and their “twists” were painstakingly predictable (‘the ghost of winthrop’), whereas as others kept me guessing and/or had me whiteknuckling, waiting to get to the following page (‘sliced’ and ‘the two marys’). there was also some delightful comedic sensibility in ‘the would-be widower’. a lot of the language is very specific and geared towards what felt like a considerably upperclass audience. examples of this include lots of french terminology - especially when discussing food - and set building that didn’t feel very relatable to someone like myself (average middle class american). i went back and forth from feeling very out of place by trying to connect with the different stories to feeling right at home at other times.
i enjoyed my time in these pages enough, but i believe ill save KHP’s other works for other readers.
i would say this collection was, fun enough. some of the plotpoints and their “twists” were painstakingly predictable (‘the ghost of winthrop’), whereas as others kept me guessing and/or had me whiteknuckling, waiting to get to the following page (‘sliced’ and ‘the two marys’). there was also some delightful comedic sensibility in ‘the would-be widower’. a lot of the language is very specific and geared towards what felt like a considerably upperclass audience. examples of this include lots of french terminology - especially when discussing food - and set building that didn’t feel very relatable to someone like myself (average middle class american). i went back and forth from feeling very out of place by trying to connect with the different stories to feeling right at home at other times.
i enjoyed my time in these pages enough, but i believe ill save KHP’s other works for other readers.
March 27, 2019
This collection of short mysteries include several entries into the Faith Fairchild (Body ) series plus several standalone mysteries.
While all of these stories are not linked, most have similar settings at least. Most involve people in the northeast section of the United States. Characters are usually from small coastal towns and are year rounders in areas that see a huge increase in population during tourist seasons. A lot of the characters are at least well off financially.
I did enjoy some of the stories but I had some problems with the overall series. The stories that I seemed to like best had a good setup but then just ended as soon as the setup was finished. For example, the body is found and the killer says, "yeah, I killed them" immediately. Other times, i just had a hard time making a connection with the characters. I guess I just didn't have enough common ground to be comfortable with them and they weren't different enough to make them seem exotic either.
While all of these stories are not linked, most have similar settings at least. Most involve people in the northeast section of the United States. Characters are usually from small coastal towns and are year rounders in areas that see a huge increase in population during tourist seasons. A lot of the characters are at least well off financially.
I did enjoy some of the stories but I had some problems with the overall series. The stories that I seemed to like best had a good setup but then just ended as soon as the setup was finished. For example, the body is found and the killer says, "yeah, I killed them" immediately. Other times, i just had a hard time making a connection with the characters. I guess I just didn't have enough common ground to be comfortable with them and they weren't different enough to make them seem exotic either.
October 5, 2019
Disappointing. No plot just short stories. And they were not that good.
Either continuity errors or badly done flashback confused me too often.
Stories were mediocre at best. Perhaps at a senior or first year grad student level at best. Lots of description, which was okay; little as to character, less pertaining to plot.
Ms Page has won awards which makes me wonder how if this book is typical.
But apparently they were done an excuse to pad out a short novella (which was c+ at best) to have enough content to print it in a book.
The good news is that it was only a buck at the dollar store and the short stories let me read during breakfast without having to leave like would happen in the middle of a longer tome. I was out of magazines so it got read from the in pile of books.
Either continuity errors or badly done flashback confused me too often.
Stories were mediocre at best. Perhaps at a senior or first year grad student level at best. Lots of description, which was okay; little as to character, less pertaining to plot.
Ms Page has won awards which makes me wonder how if this book is typical.
But apparently they were done an excuse to pad out a short novella (which was c+ at best) to have enough content to print it in a book.
The good news is that it was only a buck at the dollar store and the short stories let me read during breakfast without having to leave like would happen in the middle of a longer tome. I was out of magazines so it got read from the in pile of books.
February 13, 2025
It was my first time to read short stories again and it helped me to still work on my focus because when you read short stories - they are so fast to read that you cannot not focus in all the details as not to miss anything.
The Ghost of Winthrop- predictable, not so much mystery or challenge ⭐
Death in the Dunes- Interesting but lacking ⭐⭐
The Would-be Widower- Humorous, Not too surprising - ⭐⭐
Across the Pond- ⭐⭐ Off to a good start, but ended weak
A Perfect Maine Day- ⭐
Hiding places- ⭐⭐⭐ Thrillery-type
The proof is always in the Pudding- I like the repentance part ⭐⭐
Sliced- ⭐⭐ ⭐ The ending was justified, not very abrupt
The Two Marys - ⭐⭐⭐.5 I like the story, it happens in reality so it was predictable but I really liked the characters
The Ghost of Winthrop- predictable, not so much mystery or challenge ⭐
Death in the Dunes- Interesting but lacking ⭐⭐
The Would-be Widower- Humorous, Not too surprising - ⭐⭐
Across the Pond- ⭐⭐ Off to a good start, but ended weak
A Perfect Maine Day- ⭐
Hiding places- ⭐⭐⭐ Thrillery-type
The proof is always in the Pudding- I like the repentance part ⭐⭐
Sliced- ⭐⭐ ⭐ The ending was justified, not very abrupt
The Two Marys - ⭐⭐⭐.5 I like the story, it happens in reality so it was predictable but I really liked the characters
May 31, 2018
I receive a monthly subscription box and this book came in it. I have heard about this author from my mother many years ago. It was different, interesting for the most part but just not my cup of tea. I did enjoy it, but I found some of the stories just didn’t suck me in. I really did enjoy the last short story “The Two Mary’s” very much.
December 23, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors. Several of them even feature Faith Fairchild, the man character in her Have Faith mysteries. Short story mysteries are very different from novels. The plot moves quickly, and the ending often leaves you wanting more, and these were well done.
July 1, 2020
Forgot how much I can't handle cozy mysteries anymore. Read first story, it was just okay. Flipped pages and caught main character's pastor husband saying, "Yum yum honey!" I stopped reading cozies for this very reason: the tendency to include religious figures and childish conversations. I'm an adult, not a 5-year-old.
April 26, 2021
9 short stories. All with murders. Most with Faith either included or solving the mystery. Well written but why does every mystery have to include a murder?
The one with the cooking contest was just fine with the competition personalities and didn’t need the gruesome ending.
The very last story had my heart racing even after I completed it.
The one with the cooking contest was just fine with the competition personalities and didn’t need the gruesome ending.
The very last story had my heart racing even after I completed it.
December 1, 2017
Collection of short stories from the author of the Faith Fairchild mysteries. My favorites are those starring Faith but I could happily read any of them as full length books! Such creative clever writing!
August 1, 2018
As I often notice from some short story collections I read, I loved many of them but liked others a little less. All in all, I found Page's writing wonderful and suspenseful. I especially love Faith Fairchild.
March 30, 2019
Cute; even characters plotting the death of their spouses are endearing. I'm not sure that a good mystery often fits into the short story format, although Sir Conan Doyle pulled it off. There is also some suspension of belief required to get past the fact that Faith is surrounded by murders.
July 26, 2020
This is an interesting book. Reminds me of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes mysteries--except these are shorter and more succinct. I have a few questions about one of the stories, but the others are quite good.
July 22, 2017
I loved it. I can't believe I missed this book when it came out. What wonderful little side stories and characters added to the areas the live and vacation.
August 8, 2017
Cute sometimes edgy cozy short stories. Especially liked the one where a husband and wife were trying to kill each other. Finally succeeded simultaneously.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2018
Enjoyable shorts. Only a couple with evidence that was too slim for the conclusions it was supposed to support.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews