Concord, Massachusetts
Two weeks of talks, readings, and discussions celebrating the written and the spoken word.
Nathaniel Philbrick
Gish Jen
Andrew Bacevich
Pauline Maier
How You Can Participate
- Attend: Most events are free. All events are open to the public. Events that require a ticket are so indicated and include information about how and where to obtain tickets.
- Donate: The festival is produced by a non-profit foundation and depends greatly on individual support. Tax deductible donations in any amount are encouraged and can be made online.
- Sponsor: Corporate sponsorship is welcomed and is available. For information please .
Katherine Hall Page
Events: Mystery Night
Book: The Body in the Sleigh
Katherine Hall Page is the author of the Faith Fairchild mysteries, the first of which received the Agatha Award for best first mystery. She has also won the Agatha Award for best novel with The Body in the Snowdrift and an Agatha Award for her short story “The Would-Be Widower.”
In her new novel, The Body in the Sleigh, the Fairchild family is spending Christmas on Sanpere Island in Maine’s Penobscot Bay. While the Reverend Thomas Fairchild recuperates from surgery, his wife Faith is rejoicing in the rare holiday family time together, watching ice boaters snowshoeing, and doing plenty of reading in front of the fire. But her high spirits are dampened when she discovers the body of a young woman in an antique sleigh. The teenage victim, Norah, was a drug addict who apparently died by her own hand.
Meanwhile, Mary Bethany, a local spinster who raises goats, happens upon a newborn baby boy lying in the manger of her barn on Christmas Eve. The only clue to his identity is a note in the basket asking her to take care of him. Mary enlists Faith’s help in finding the mother; and, as Faith seeks answers, she soon finds that the truth behind Norah’s troubled existence is connected to what appears to be a timeless Christmas story—and that just as death and life are intertwined on Sanpere, so are evil and redemptive goodness.