I was worried it was going to be a mystery that took place entirely over a weekend in a manor house. I was happy this wasn't the case--only the last section took place in said manor house. With Page's mysteries, I like that they always include a plot related to her family, and to daily life in general, and this mystery had that. As in quite a few of her later books, Page does have minor plots carried by secondary characters, in this case, Pix's daughter Samantha. Rarely are these secondary characters as well-drawn as Faith Fairchild; such was the case this time as well. I still enjoyed the book, including the wonderful descriptions, of food, but also of clothing and furniture. ( )

“The Body in the Casket” is a slow-paced exploration of small-town life in suburban Boston. Marketed as a murder mystery, the primary focus is on women’s fashions, recipes, and relationships.

Page establishes the central premise at the outset. Max Dane, a wealthy but disliked recluse, is throwing a birthday party for himself. Now retired for 20 years, he is inviting the most important members of his last theater production. It had a short run and is generally regarded as a failure. He expects someone to attempt to kill him during the party, and he hires Faith Fairchild, a local caterer, and amateur sleuth, to prepare the food for the party and to determine the identity of the person intending to murder him.

Page then turns her attention elsewhere and treats the party and potential murder as an unimportant subplot.

It turns out that Faith has a lot of friends and they all wear nice clothes. Scene after scene involves a detailed, designer name-dropping description of what the women are wearing. Intriguing recipes also figure prominently, ostensibly to decide what to prepare for the party, but more likely to impress upon readers that Faith (and Page) have broad knowledge, exquisite taste, and sound judgment.

Page interrupts her focus on clothing and recipes with brief introductions of each person invited to the party. For some unexplained reason, all of their careers were irreparably damaged by their involvement in the failed theater production ant that is their motive for murder. Sadly, the supposed damage to their careers is too extreme and uniformly crushing to be believed. The premise is so implausible that Page is forced to fall back on, “Jinxed,” as an explanation. Consequently, the suspects are equally (im)plausible.

Several other subplots also derail the main story. Samantha, the daughter of Faith’s closest friend (Pix), is fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend. Pix’s mother, Ursala, has a new gentleman friend staying with her and the women become concerned about his intentions. Developers want to buy the old Grayson House bordering the village green and develop a strip mall. Things are abuzz in small-town suburban Boston.

As if all this were not enough, the book fails as a murder mystery. I was able to deduce the murderer half-way through the book because all of the principal characters had the same unconvincing motive except one. I kept looking for clues regarding the murderer’s motivation, but Page forgot to include any.

I’m not sure of the intended reader, but it must be someone who is fascinated by details of small-town life and not troubled by a slow pace, an implausible premise, a focus on clothing and recipes, and a group of women who are all candidates for sainthood. Apparently, that audience is large though; this is the 24th Faith Fairchild Mystery. ( )

Yet another solid entry in the long-running Faith Fairchild cozy mystery series.

I've read these out of order and really ought to start the series at the beginning. Recommended to cozy fans. ( )

What I liked about this mystery is its like Agatha Christie mysteries and it’s got great elements of the board game, Clue. And of course, having a chef as the detective is always fun because there will be great descriptions of food. ( )

Faith Fairchild returns cooking, catering and sleuthing. This time Faith has been hired by producer/director of hit Broadway musicals, Max Dane—to “produced” a party to celebrate his 70th birthday. The food is to be inspired by his last and only failed production based on Heaven and Hell. While planning the party Faith learns that Max has hired her not "for your cooking skills, fine as they may be, but for your sleuthing ability. You see, one of the guests wants to kill me." The people that he has invited were those involved in his one failure—which affected each one of the participants in a negative way. Faith’s only clue is that Max received a frightening birthday gift the week before—an empty casket containing a 21 year old Playbill from the failed production. I enjoyed this latest of the Faith Fairchild series more than the last one-- Body in the Pines (the last one had so little of Faith that I really found that I missed her and it effected my enjoyment of the book). Some of the subplots of this newest one I could have done without (they seemed a little forced), but I enjoyed fun recipes, the “Agatha Christie” atmosphere (all the suspects in a grand mansion), and fun plot. 3 ½ out of 5 stars. ( )