MYSTERY

The Body in the Web

Morrow. (Faith Fairchild, Bk. 26). May 2023. 272p. ISBN 9780063252530. $30. M
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In January 2021, Faith Fairchild’s husband, Tom, is one of the earliest recipients of the COVID vaccine, a sign that life might be getting a little better. Since March 2020, Faith’s world has narrowed. Her son, Ben, has returned from college and regularly streams Tom’s sermons from an empty church. Events were canceled for her catering business, Have Faith, but with family help, she has pivoted to a delivery service, Have Faith Delivered. Zoom has become part of everyone’s life. Even the town meeting is on Zoom, until it is Zoom-bombed one evening, showing nude photos of one of Faith’s friends. Although the town rallies around her, she resigns from her job. When Faith finds her friend dead, the police call it suicide or accidental death due to depression, but Faith says it’s murder, blaming the Zoom bomber. With tech help from a friend, Faith digs into her friend’s past to find someone who hated her.

CORRECTION: This review originally mispelled the author’s first name. LJ regrets the error.

VERDICT The 26th Faith Fairchild mystery (after The Body in the Wake) is fresh and remarkable in its ability to bring back memories of the day-to-day aspects of living through COVID. The reader and the victim are both trapped in a web in this skillful combination of mystery and pandemic story.
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