The Body in the Web: A Faith Fairchild Mystery

Page’s long-running cozy series featuring caterer and amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild begins to show its age in this humdrum entry (after 2019’s The Body in the Wake). Thanks to an advance warning from her sister that Covid-19 lockdowns are imminent, Faith is able to stock her business and home in Aleford, Mass., with vital supplies, and carves out a pleasant-enough existence for the rest of 2020, laying low with her children and reverend husband. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when a 2021 virtual State of the Town meeting is flooded with pornographic images of one of Faith’s close friends. When the same woman is found dead a few days later, Faith is certain it’s murder, and she digs into her late friend’s foggy past to determine who might be responsible. Newcomers not already invested in Faith and her family are likely to find the setup, which focuses heavily on the early days of the pandemic and takes up nearly a third of the narrative, a bit dull, and while the investigation itself sufficiently quickens the pace, its resolution hinges on an unsatisfying contrivance. This is run-of-the-mill genre fare. Agent: Faith Hamlin, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (May)