The Body in the Snowdrift: A Faith Fairchild Mystery (Faith Fairchild Mysteries)

Award-winning author Katherine Hall Pageis one of the reigning queens of the traditional mystery. Now, in this fifteenth mystery in her much-beloved Faith Fairchild series, she takes us to the blustery slopes of a Vermont ski resort, where murder makes an unwelcome appearance at the Fairchild family reunion.

When caterer Faith Fairchild learns of her father-in-law’s plan to celebrate his seventieth birthday by treating his children, their spouses, and his grandchildren to a weeklong stay at the Pine Slopes resort, her reaction is mixed. Yes, she likes to ski and yes, she loves the kin of her husband, the Reverend Thomas Fairchild, but both in smaller and shorter doses.

The Fairchilds have been coming to the ski area since Tom and his siblings were toddlers and are old friends of the owners, the Staffords. All starts well as the family settles into neighboring condos, until Faith discovers a body on one of the cross-country trails — the apparent victim of a heart attack. Then Pine Slopes' star chef vanishes without a trace. One catastrophe follows another: a malicious prank at the sports center, a break-in at the Fairchild condo, and one of the chairlifts is sabotaged. Who is the mysterious woman living in the "gingerbread cottage" deep in the woods? And what are adolescents Ophelia Stafford and Faith's nephew Scott — filled with angst and anger — up to? Family secrets abound and family dynamics explode.

Then one morning skiers arrive and are horror-stricken to find the slopes covered with patches of red snow, the result of a body falling, or being pushed, into the water supply for the snow-making guns. Faith must get to the bottom of the crime spree if she wants to salvage the reunion, prevent the closing of Pine Slopes — and save her own life.

"Agatha-winner Page's 15th Faith Fairchild mystery (after 2004's The Body in the Attic) offers the usual tantalizing mix — an attractive setting, great characters, good food and murder most foul. Faith, an upscale caterer, and Tom, her minister husband, join the extended Fairchild clan to celebrate the birthday of Tom's father, Dick, at the struggling Vermont ski resort of Pine Slopes. The death of an old friend of Dick's, local lawyer Boyd Harrison, from an apparent heart attack while skiing throws a pall over the reunion. The plot thickens as the family gathers. Craig, Dick's athletic youngest son, has a new wife, gorgeous gold digger Glenda; Betsey, Dick's sister, is a micromanaging dictator; Betsey's three children long for a little space to grow and her husband just longs to bow out. Throw in a missing chef, whom Faith is talked into replacing until another can be found, and the granddaughter of the resort's owners, who's going through a goth stage. Heat things up with a body discovered in the water supply of the snow-making machine, and there you have it: a perfect Faith concoction, with recipes. Agent, Faith Hamlin. (May 1)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Caterer Faith Fairchild and family are off for a week-long stay at the Pine Slopes resort in Vermont to celebrate her father-in-law's birthday. All seems to going well until Faith stubmles upon the body of a local lawyer. And soon the resort's star chef vanishes without a trace. But even the hardiest skiers flee when they discover the slopes covered with red-tinted snow, the result of a body falling - or was it pushed? - into the water supply for the snow-making machine. To save the resort and her family's reunion, Faith must dig through an avalance of clues that just may bury her too.

Katherine Hall Page was born and grew up in New Jersey, graduating from Livingston High School. Her father was the Executive Director of The Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and her mother is an artist. She has a brother and sister. Early on the family developed a love of the Maine coast, spending summer vacations on Deer Isle. She received her BA from Wellesley College, majoring in English and went on to a Masters in Secondary Education from Tufts and a Doctorate in Administration, Public Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard. College had brought her to Massachusetts and she continues to reside there. Before her career as a full-time writer, Ms. Page taught at the high school level for many years. She developed a program for adolescents with special emotional needs, a school within a school model, that dealt with issues of truancy, substance abuse, and family relationships. Those five years in particular were rich ones for her. This interest in individuals and human behavior later informed her writing.

Married for twenty-seven years to Professor Alan Hein, an experimental psychologist at MIT, the couple have one nineteen-year-old son. It was during her husband's sabbatical year in France after the birth of their son that Ms. Page wrote her first mystery, The Body in theBelfry, 1991 Agatha Award winner for Best First Mystery Novel. The thirteenth in the series, The Body in the Lighthouse, will be published by William Morrow in the spring. Ms. Page was also awarded the 2001 Agatha for Best Short Story for "The Would-Be Widower" in the Malice Domestic Xcollection (Avon Books). She was an Edgar nominee for her juvenile mystery, Christie&Company Down East.

Descended from Norwegian-Americans on her mother's side and New Englanders on her father's, Ms. Page grew up listening to all sorts of stories. She remains an unabashed eavesdropper and will even watch your slides or home movies to hear your narration. Her books are the product of all the strands of her life and she plans to keep weaving.