The Body in the Basement: A Faith Fairchild Mystery

This is NOT a Faith Fairchild mystery and should not be billed as such. Pix makes a few phone calls, and the Fairchilds turn up at the end. This, like The Body in the Fjord is about Pix Miller and her family. Pix is overseeing construction of the Fairchild's new summer house on the island, Samantha is working at the famous Main Sail camp, and Ursula is enjoying the summer at her house The Pines. Pix is appalled that the builder has done little work on the house, when her dogs are seen digging furiously at the bottom of the excavation. A quilt, then a human hand are uncovered at the bottom of the hole. The body is of Mitch Pierce, sometime house restorer, full time con man. Other strange things are occuring around the island. Increasingly vicious practical jokes are taking place at the camp, and counterfeit antiques, mostly quilts are turning up in the area. Then, local celebrity, Addie Bainbridge is found dead at her B & B. Pix is determined to get to the bottom of these mysteries.I have always liked the Pix Miller character. She is more realistic than many mystery heroines. She doesn't have any special talents other than being incredibly organized, which seems to me to be more useful in solving murders. I am glad the author has given Pix another mystery of her own to solve. The author also helps us to get to know the people on the island better, hopefully she'll be taking us there again soon.

Faith and Tom Fairchild are building a summer home on Sanpere Island off the coast of Maine. Faith's friend Pix is spending the summer on the island, so Faith asks her to check up on the progress of the house. Pix is chagrined to learn that the builder has not started construction, but she becomes even more upset when she and her daughter discover a body in the hole dug for the basement. The body is wrapped in a quilt which gives Pix a clue to start her investigation. This is a departure from the rest of the series in that the main character is Pix instead of Faith. She is not quite as exciting a character as Faith, but seems to adopt some of her friend's penchant for investigating, sometimes at foolish risk to herself. A second body is found, also wrapped in a quilt and Pix decides that the two murders must be connected. Faith appears at the very end of the novel when Pix has almost solved the case. There are a lot of red herrings in this one and the author takes pains to paint the guilty parties as the "good guys."

I really enjoyed Pix Miller as the central character of Ms. Page Hall's series of mysteries. For a change, the heroine was not under the age of thirty and totally glamorous. As much as I like reading about the exploits of Faith, the sophisticated caterer and minister's wife, Pix Miller operating as head sleuth was a wonderful change of pace.

I've read just about the entire series and have really enjoyed reading them. This story featured Pix as the central character. I lilke Pix fine, but I'm still hungry for Faith's experiences. I'm not sure exactly why I like Faith character more. It's perhaps because of her positive relationship with her husband and childred. This ones worth the read, but not her best product.