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Faith Fairchild #12
The Body in the Bonfire
"The noose was on his pillow, the dark rope starkly outlined against the crisp linen case ..."
Massachusetts caterer and minister's wife Faith Fairchild is back in the twelfth delectable mystery by award-winning author Katherine Hall Page. The incomparable ex-New Yorker's investigative prowess is put to its most stringent test when twisted hatred and blind bigotry become ingredients for murder.
THE BODY IN THE BONFIRETaking advantage of the January doldrums in the catering business, Faith goes undercover at Mansfield Academy, a prestigious prep school, after learning about anonymous racist attacks against senior, Daryl Martin. During the school's Project Term, 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 in the smoldering ashes of the traditional Project Term. It's not mischief but murder!
The headmaster's wife, an expert on Russian art... and men; the history teacher with a cultlike following; the loner, junior Zach Cohen, hacker extraordinaire; and Internet obsessed freshman Danny Miller, the son of Faith's best friend and neighbor, 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.
Massachusetts caterer and minister's wife Faith Fairchild is back in the twelfth delectable mystery by award-winning author Katherine Hall Page. The incomparable ex-New Yorker's investigative prowess is put to its most stringent test when twisted hatred and blind bigotry become ingredients for murder.
THE BODY IN THE BONFIRETaking advantage of the January doldrums in the catering business, Faith goes undercover at Mansfield Academy, a prestigious prep school, after learning about anonymous racist attacks against senior, Daryl Martin. During the school's Project Term, 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 in the smoldering ashes of the traditional Project Term. It's not mischief but murder!
The headmaster's wife, an expert on Russian art... and men; the history teacher with a cultlike following; the loner, junior Zach Cohen, hacker extraordinaire; and Internet obsessed freshman Danny Miller, the son of Faith's best friend and neighbor, 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.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published February 19, 2002
51 people are currently reading
379 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Hall Page
54 books462 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
January 17, 2018
#12 Finds Faith being talked into going undercover and teaching Cooking for Idiots for as a Term Project course between semesters at a private boys’ school, Mansfield Academy, In Aleford to discover who is perpetrating such nasty and bigoted attacks upon a fine young, black scholarship student. This is one of the best in the series yet, filled with teaching cooking to adolescent boys, bigotry, neo-Nazi, eccentric professors, the headmaster’s dramatic Russian wife, a tough woman state cop taking over for John Dunne and warns Faith to stop playing Nancy Drew, and to not interfere in her investigation faces off with tough black lawyer Patsy Benson. Faith takes idiotic chances snooping in private rooms at the school, bringing her closer and closer to harm. Cooking sessions are fun.
July 20, 2011
I’ve read other books in this series which were not too bad, but this one is dull and slow, not a happy circumstance for a mystery. Further, the protagonist, a minister’s wife comes off as an insufferable label dropping snob.
September 2, 2025
Faith Fairchild takes a gig teaching teenage boys at Mansfield Academy to whip up simple meals. Alongside cooking lessons, she's on a mission to uncover who's targeting Daryl Martin, a Black student, with racial slurs and harassment.
Things go south when someone tampers with her ingredients, souring her time with the boys. Daryl keeps finding neo-Nazi propaganda and news clippings, and at one point discovers a noose on his pillow.
A subplot involving Faith's neighbor, Pix, and her high school-age son adds some flavor to the mix.
Before you reach the final page, a student Faith suspected of spreading the hateful literature dies in a bonfire, and the headmaster's wife meets a gruesome end in a murder.
The author paints Mansfield Academy as a hotbed of secrets, corruption, and faculty infighting. With all that drama, you'd expect a story that pulls you in relentlessly. But this one drags. I nodded off listening to it more times than I can count. The sluggish plot and a mystery that fails to captivate earn it three stars.
Things go south when someone tampers with her ingredients, souring her time with the boys. Daryl keeps finding neo-Nazi propaganda and news clippings, and at one point discovers a noose on his pillow.
A subplot involving Faith's neighbor, Pix, and her high school-age son adds some flavor to the mix.
Before you reach the final page, a student Faith suspected of spreading the hateful literature dies in a bonfire, and the headmaster's wife meets a gruesome end in a murder.
The author paints Mansfield Academy as a hotbed of secrets, corruption, and faculty infighting. With all that drama, you'd expect a story that pulls you in relentlessly. But this one drags. I nodded off listening to it more times than I can count. The sluggish plot and a mystery that fails to captivate earn it three stars.
August 4, 2025
I really enjoyed this Faith Fairchild book, which follows the one I just finished reading. I liked the premises of the murder mystery.
Faith is asked to teach a cooking class to boys at the rather snobbish Mansfield Academy prep school. One of the main reasons for this is that an intelligent boy named Daryl Martin has been the victim of racial harassing, and Faith determines to discover who is doing it. Evidence is starting to point to one boy, and then, that boy is murdered- yep in the school's annual bonfire. Now Faith has 2 mysteries- who murdered the boy? And that's not the only mystery: someone is sabotaging Faye's kitchen. Faye starts to uncover secrets, but someone doesn't want those secrets uncovered, and once again Faith finds herself in danger.
Faith is asked to teach a cooking class to boys at the rather snobbish Mansfield Academy prep school. One of the main reasons for this is that an intelligent boy named Daryl Martin has been the victim of racial harassing, and Faith determines to discover who is doing it. Evidence is starting to point to one boy, and then, that boy is murdered- yep in the school's annual bonfire. Now Faith has 2 mysteries- who murdered the boy? And that's not the only mystery: someone is sabotaging Faye's kitchen. Faye starts to uncover secrets, but someone doesn't want those secrets uncovered, and once again Faith finds herself in danger.
February 18, 2019
Cooking for idiots - the title of the 2 week course Faith is teaching at Mansfield Academy. Her presence on the campus is 2-fold - teach the course and find out who an anonymous racist bully is. The subject of the problem is Daryl, an black student at the school. He takes the course so as to be able to talk to Faith and not have people wonder why. Pranks in the kitchen (such as finding out too late there was salt in the sugar canister), murder at the school bonfire (body IN the fire), and the usual jeopardy in which Faith gets involved. Pretty good story, not enough recipes at the end.
July 15, 2022
Faith takes on a new challenge at a private academy in Aleford. The challenge may be new but the motives for murder are as old as time. Hate, unrequited love, crime, are all available here. The plot takes a few twists and turns, but Faith figures it out. The only part of this series I do not like is her r willingness to break the law. Breaking entering, taking evidence, just bothers me. Otherwise, a great murder to read.
November 19, 2023
More like 3.5 - I enjoy the ways in which Page sets these mystery novels clearly in the time she wrote them, this one references early 2000s computer culture. The mystery is (as per usual) not necessarily solvable by the reader and there is the final confrontation with the real murderer who reveals all. But a good read for all of that.
November 14, 2020
I really enjoy this series. This one deals with really nasty racial prejudice in a top private school. Faith has agreed to teach the boys cooking on a two week course but she is also trying to find who is causing the racial tension in the school.
Read
December 27, 2024Caterer and minister's wife Faith Fairchild is ask to quietly investigate racist attacks on a student at a local prep school. Under cover teaching a short time class on cooking she searches for answers.
February 17, 2019
Another good read by Katherine Hall Page. Faith teaches a cooking to teenage boys!
May 23, 2019
After what was for me a slow start, this book became completely engrossing! The story of a local private boarding school, the privileged (or those who seem so) and the others.
September 11, 2019
Good book!
July 9, 2020
The mystery wasn't as satisfying as some, but snobby Faith made me laugh this time (sometimes she's just annoying).
August 3, 2020
faith teaches a class at a private boys school to try to find out who the racist attacks on a student are coming from. old nazi teacher who recruits students into his thinking...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2022
I enjoy checking in with the Faith Fairchild series from time to time. Always an enjoyable quick read. Kristi & Abby Tabby
July 29, 2025
Me a parecido un poco como un spinoff cortito, para que tengamos un poco de felizidad antes del desastre y la tristeza. 800 paginas pa el siguiente libro da pa mucho, es sospechoso
January 28, 2016
Eleventh chronologically and twelfth in the publication order in the Faith Fairchild cooking mystery series set in the small town of Aleford, Massachusetts.
In 2002, The Body in the Bonfire was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Novel.
My Take
Daryl was amazing, he is so mature and insightful for his age with a wicked sense of humor; I hope he'll appear in future Faith Fairchild installments.
The whole concept of a cooking class for high school students is a good one. I should think that such a course could be tailored to account for college-bound students who would be cooking in a dorm or a very restricted space. I like that Faith included table manners as part of the course.
Faith learns both about the characters of the individual students as well as gaining some reassurance as to when Ben hits the teen barrier.
My peeve in this story is that I didn't feel she had much in the way of evidence when she leapt to her conclusion of who was behind the racial attacks. Yes, he seemed the most obvious, but there was no evidence for it. In fact, Faith seemed to leap to conclusions quite a bit; it would certainly make me leery of partnering up with her.
Patsy Avery is the driving force in this story. Pix is having her own particular crisis with her son, Danny…oops, I mean Dan, in this issue. To top it off, Lorraine Kennedy is so not a Faith fan!
Still, it is a quick and easy read with a very homey feel to it.
The Story
Patsy Avery has asked Faith to conduct a two-and-a-half week cooking class at the local prep school as a cover to investigate racial attacks on a young black student.
The Characters
Faith Fairchild is a caterer, wife, mother, and much-too-interested amateur sleuth. The Revered Tom Fairchild is her husband. The kids, Ben and Amy, add their small complications. Pix is a neighbor and good friend — as well as a sounding board for all things family. Dan is one of Pix's kids.
Mansfield Academy is…
…a prep school in Massachusetts. Daryl Martin is a young black student there.
Patsy Avery is a lawyer and Daryl's main champion. Her husband, Will, is also a lawyer; he makes a brief appearance.
Lorraine Kennedy is a colleague of John Dunne's.
The Title
The title is of The Body in the Bonfire that underscores the seething cauldron of the school.
In 2002, The Body in the Bonfire was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Novel.
My Take
Daryl was amazing, he is so mature and insightful for his age with a wicked sense of humor; I hope he'll appear in future Faith Fairchild installments.
The whole concept of a cooking class for high school students is a good one. I should think that such a course could be tailored to account for college-bound students who would be cooking in a dorm or a very restricted space. I like that Faith included table manners as part of the course.
Faith learns both about the characters of the individual students as well as gaining some reassurance as to when Ben hits the teen barrier.
My peeve in this story is that I didn't feel she had much in the way of evidence when she leapt to her conclusion of who was behind the racial attacks. Yes, he seemed the most obvious, but there was no evidence for it. In fact, Faith seemed to leap to conclusions quite a bit; it would certainly make me leery of partnering up with her.
Patsy Avery is the driving force in this story. Pix is having her own particular crisis with her son, Danny…oops, I mean Dan, in this issue. To top it off, Lorraine Kennedy is so not a Faith fan!
Still, it is a quick and easy read with a very homey feel to it.
The Story
Patsy Avery has asked Faith to conduct a two-and-a-half week cooking class at the local prep school as a cover to investigate racial attacks on a young black student.
The Characters
Faith Fairchild is a caterer, wife, mother, and much-too-interested amateur sleuth. The Revered Tom Fairchild is her husband. The kids, Ben and Amy, add their small complications. Pix is a neighbor and good friend — as well as a sounding board for all things family. Dan is one of Pix's kids.
Mansfield Academy is…
…a prep school in Massachusetts. Daryl Martin is a young black student there.
Patsy Avery is a lawyer and Daryl's main champion. Her husband, Will, is also a lawyer; he makes a brief appearance.
Lorraine Kennedy is a colleague of John Dunne's.
The Title
The title is of The Body in the Bonfire that underscores the seething cauldron of the school.
September 1, 2012
‘The Body In The Bonfire’ by Katherine Hall Page
Published by Robert Hale & Co. September 2008. ISBN 978-0-7090-8591-1
When Faith Fairchild’s friend Patsy asks her to run a course of ‘Cooking For Idiots’ for the Projects Term at the nearby school, Faith’s question is why? Patsy comes clean: Daryl Martin is the target of anonymous racist attacks that are escalating and looking to turn very nasty.
Faith volunteers, and is accepted with alacrity. Invited to meet the staff at an informal drinks gathering by the headmaster Robert Harcourt, she meets the other members of the faculty and Robert’s wife, the exotic Zoe.
Faith’s cooking lessons sound great – wish she’d taught at my school. However, she is quickly aware of the unpleasant undertones and conducts systematic searches of the students’ quarters in an attempt to identify just who it is that is responsible for the persecution of Darryl. But before she can reach any conclusion things take a sinister turn when there is a murder. As always a good mystery. Recommended.
-------
Lizzie Hayes
Published by Robert Hale & Co. September 2008. ISBN 978-0-7090-8591-1
When Faith Fairchild’s friend Patsy asks her to run a course of ‘Cooking For Idiots’ for the Projects Term at the nearby school, Faith’s question is why? Patsy comes clean: Daryl Martin is the target of anonymous racist attacks that are escalating and looking to turn very nasty.
Faith volunteers, and is accepted with alacrity. Invited to meet the staff at an informal drinks gathering by the headmaster Robert Harcourt, she meets the other members of the faculty and Robert’s wife, the exotic Zoe.
Faith’s cooking lessons sound great – wish she’d taught at my school. However, she is quickly aware of the unpleasant undertones and conducts systematic searches of the students’ quarters in an attempt to identify just who it is that is responsible for the persecution of Darryl. But before she can reach any conclusion things take a sinister turn when there is a murder. As always a good mystery. Recommended.
-------
Lizzie Hayes
August 12, 2011
is it just me or this something insulting about a 30+ year-old pampered white woman trying to solve the mystery of racism at a preppy milton academy-ripoff (mansfield academy!)? i don't know. i could tell hall page was trying to be sensitive but it just didnt work for me.
i feel like this one was the most predictable thus far (which is sayin' something).
also, at one point, faith snoops into the dean's office and reads someone's recommendation letter. according to her, the addition of "please call me if you'd like to discuss this further" is code for "i'll give you the real deal on what an ass this kid this"...is that true? because i always end my letters with "don't hesitate to call if you need any additional info" and now i'm starting to panic.
i feel like this one was the most predictable thus far (which is sayin' something).
also, at one point, faith snoops into the dean's office and reads someone's recommendation letter. according to her, the addition of "please call me if you'd like to discuss this further" is code for "i'll give you the real deal on what an ass this kid this"...is that true? because i always end my letters with "don't hesitate to call if you need any additional info" and now i'm starting to panic.
July 25, 2014
This book was a quick and easy read with most culinary-themed cozies. For the 12th installment in the Faith Fairchild series, The Body in the Belfry dealt with suspense and drama. Faith Fairchild, a caterer and minister's wife, had accepted a position to teach a cooking class at a private school for boys. Racism, death threats and two murders were added to the pot. We watched how Faith figured out the culprit, when she'd gotten closer to the truth behind the prejudices in the academy, someone sabotaged her kitchen. She discovered about the lurking evil presence in the school, when it was centered in Massachusetts with cooking tips for this enjoyable mystery.
October 11, 2012
Good, quick read. I really like Faith! The mystery was good and I'm glad the culprit wasn't a kid - I would not have believed that.
However - no 16-year-old boy would have talked like Daryl - or Zach for that matter.
However - no 16-year-old boy would have talked like Daryl - or Zach for that matter.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2016
I'm always excited to read one of Katherine Hall Page's Faith Fairchild series. This book did not disappoint. All the new characters at the boys school were well developed. This book had one of the best plots of the series.
May 31, 2016
This was an interesting book set at a prep school with Faith teaching a cooking class to male students while secretly investigating racial insults and threats made to a minority student at the school. The book had several deaths and a number of twists and turns to keep it interesting.
January 9, 2011
great book for the first day of vacation!
September 24, 2009
Such a sophisticated book for a cozy mystery! Page tackles race issues with real tact and honesty. A great addition to the Faith Fairchild series.
June 14, 2011
This book wasn't as good as some of the Faith Fairchild books I have read but it was enjoyable and there are a couple good recipes at the end.
March 15, 2013
This book was just another in Katherine Hall Page wonderful mysteries.
I wasn't disappointed and neither will anyone else. She always keeps you guessing.
I wasn't disappointed and neither will anyone else. She always keeps you guessing.
March 31, 2014
Another solid entry in the series.
May 16, 2014
Quick, easy, and satisfying read. The only downside to this series is that all the meal descriptions make me hungry and I end up snacking while reading :-)
June 20, 2019
Not the most exciting installment of the series. A bit boring. Faith is teaching a cooking class to boys at a prep school.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews