Ross M. (Parrothead) reviewed on 7/31/2006 + 533 more book reviews

Faith packs up the kids and her catering business for a semester's stint in Cambridge, where her minister husband, Tom, will teach at Harvard and serve the homeless. In the rambling old house the family inhabits in Cambridge, Faith's children find an old wardrobe that contains . . . not Narnia but a diary from 1946. Using a lost diary as a plot device has become something of a cliche in crime fiction, but here Page uses it quite expertly to explore what's going on in Faith's life. The diary belongs to a young woman who was held prisoner in the house by a rapacious husband. Did she live and escape? Faith caters luncheons, shops with friends, rejoices in her powerhouse sister's marriage, all the while puzzling out what it is she might want and who the woman of the diary might be--using one investigation to fuel the other. While the plot comes to a sudden and very wobbly end, Faith becomes an ever more interesting character, and the recipes included are yummy.
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