The Body in the Web by Katherine Hall Page
Series Name: Faith Fairchild Mystery Book #26
Genre: Cozy
Release: May 30, 2023
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
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.
Dru’s Short Musing:
This is a nicely executed whodunit with the backdrop of the pandemic.
When Faith finds the body of her friend dead, she is convinced that it was murder. Determined to find the truth, Faith uses all the resources that are available to her. The author did a great job in staging this well-written and evenly paced mystery with a bit of intrigue because the people who could have done the murder, didn’t appear to be likely candidates, but in the end, it all worked out with a few surprises thrown in to keep me engaged in all aspect of this book. I like that Faith was able to achieve what she needed, despite the pandemic atmosphere, to bring the person responsible to justice. Overall, this is a great read.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
OK — I may indeed need to read this one — I am a Faith Fairchild fan but have skipped around. I am, however, by profession, a clergywoman and had an online funeral for a very dear person zoom-bombed during the pandemic and I am still rattled by it, so this setting grips me already.
Dru, I agree Katherine did a great job of using the pandemic well, with a nicely done plot despite the challenging time period.
I feel like we’ve been waiting forever for a new Katherine Page release!