The Body in the Piazza: A Faith Fairchild Mystery

Page’s delightful 21st Faith Fairchild mystery (after 2012’s The Body in the Boudoir) takes the Aleford, Mass., caterer and her husband, the Rev. Thomas Fairchild, to Italy to celebrate a special anniversary—and to attend the cooking school of Francesca Rossi, a Tuscan friend whom they last saw on their honeymoon in Northern Italy years before. While in Rome, the couple meets the charming Freddy Ives, a British travel writer. Soon after, while enjoying a romantic stroll in the Piazza Farnese, they have the misfortune to witness Freddy suffer a mortal knife wound in a scuffle with a man who flees. The wonderful food at Francesca’s cooking school in Tuscany can’t distract Faith and Tom from trying to solve Freddy’s murder. Hungry readers will rush to the kitchen if not to their travel agent to book tickets to Italy. Agent: Faith Hamlin, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (May)