Small Plates: Short Fiction

Small Plates: Short Fiction

Agatha Award winner Katherine Hall Page presents a book of short stories featuring her famed heroine Faith Fairchild. For years, Katherine Hall Page has delighted readers with her Faith Fairchild series, each book like a delicious, satisfying meal. Now, Page has whipped up a tasty collection of appetizing bites. In “The Body in the Dunes,” Faith’s vacation offers more excitement than she and her husband bargained for when a terrified woman knocks on their hotel room door looking to hide from her husband. A case hits close to home in “The Proof is Always in the Pudding,” when Faith investigates a generations-old superstition that has been passed down in her husband’s family. Faith and her sister, Hope, counsel a bride-to-be suffering a number of alarming “accidents” before the big day in “Across the Pond.” In “Sliced,” Faith switches from contestant to detective when a killer reality television cooking competition turns deadly. Small Plates also includes some irresistible standalone treats, including the Agatha Award–winning “The Would-Be Widower,” about a husband who longs to be rid of his wife, and “Hiding Places” in which a young wife’s new husband may not be all that he appears. These stories and more will entice Faith Fairchild fans and new readers alike. Filled with the charm, wit, and the appeal of her beloved novels, Small Plates is a feast for every lover of traditional mysteries. “A variety of tasty short morsels that will whet [Page’s] fans’ appetites...Well paced and will leave the reader satisfied, as a good short story should... [A] delectable treat.” - Library Journal “A tasty introduction to Agatha Award–winner Page’s popular mystery series.” - Publishers Weekly “One of the delights of short stories is that the reader can graze. If you start one and it doesn’t grab you, just move to the next. In [SMALL PLATES], however, I finished all I started and wanted more, precisely what great “Small Plates” should do.” - Newark Star Ledger “The perfect accompaniment to the summer vacation or a simple afternoon on the porch swing...delicious.” - Daily News “Serves up, in miniature, the kinds of old-fashioned puzzle mysteries that fans of writers like Agatha Christie crave.” - Boston Globe Katherine Hall Page, author of the beloved Faith Fairchild series, invites you to enjoy her first-ever collection of short fiction. Readers will delight in the broad range of these mysteries—tales to suit every taste and mood. Page's tales will take readers from the skyscrapers of Manhattan to the dunes of Cape Cod and even "Across the Pond." Her characters include a man who longs for widowerhood, dreaming of the attention from the casserole brigade—good women lining up at his door offering food and perhaps themselves as well. A newlywed discovers her husband's ingenious hiding places for objects like spare keys. One spinster turns to friends for help with the supernatural. Another unmarried woman finds a baby named Christopher in her barn on Christmas Eve in Maine. A British bride calls on Faith and her sister for help after a series of alarming "accidents." And Faith herself is almost "Sliced" in a reality cooking show when the competition turns deadly. The title, Small Plates , refers to the length of these servings but also to the occasional pleasure of ordering tapas or appetizers rather than an entrée—providing tastes that the author hopes will linger long on the palate. Katherine Hall Page is the author of twenty-five previous Faith Fairchild mysteries, the first of which received the Agatha Award for best first mystery.  The Body in the Snowdrift  was honored with the Agatha Award for best novel of 2006. Page also won an Agatha for her short story “The Would-Be Widower.” The recipient of the Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement, she has been nominated for the Edgar, the Mary Higgins Clark, the Maine Literary, and the Macavity awards. She lives in Massachusetts and Maine with her husband.