Fethering mysteries

'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. JAMES 'One of the wittiest crime writers around' ANTONIA FRASER 'Murder most enjoyable' COLIN DEXTER Very little disturbs the ordered calm of Fethering, a pleasingly self-contained retirement town on England's southern coast. Which is precisely why Carole Seddon, who has left behind both her husband and her career at the Home Office, has chosen to reside there. So Carole is surprised to encounter...

'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted . . . as Simon Brett' Sunday Times 'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories' JILLY COOPER 'King of the witty village mystery' Telegraph Grant and Kim Roxby had hoped that their first dinner party at Pelling House would make an impression with their new neighbours. And the next day it's certainly the talk of the village in Fethering. For their guests – including the couple's old friend Jude...

The Hopwicke Country House Hotel once boasted a clientele of the rich and famous. But hard times call for hard measures, so owner Suzy Longthorne throws open her doors to welcome the Pillars of Sussex—an elitist group of local businessmen whose social gatherings revolve around drinking and off-color commentary.
 
Short staffed, Suzy recruits Jude as a waitress to help keep the spirits flowing. But the next morning, Jude discovers...

Welcome to Fethering! Sleuthing neighbours Jude and Carole uncover secrets and lies in the horsing community in this quirky, light-hearted British cozy mystery. When healer Jude pays a visit to Long Bamber Stables one evening - to meet her unusually horse-shaped new client and his owner Sonia Dalrymple - she does not expect to stumble across a man lying in the darkness. Walter Fleet, co-owner of the stables, has been viciously stabbed...

A few days after Carole and Jude go shopping at a shop called Gallimaufry, the shop burns and a body is discovered in the ashes.

When a private viewing of works by a controversial artist turns from lively to violent, Fethering residents Carole and Jude believe that the local police are wrong about a suicide ruling and privately investigate suspicions that a murder has taken place.

When Jude agrees to lend her vintage chaise longue for the local Amateur Dramatics Society's production of George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple, little does she realize she'll end up in a starring role. It's an ambitious play, culminating in a dramatic execution scene: a scene that's played for real when one of the leading actors is found hanging from the especially-constructed stage gallows during rehearsals. A tragic accident--or something...

"Polly's Cake Shop has been a feature of the shopping parade for many years, but when its owner announces her retirement, the Fethering residents start to worry about the loss of this popular amenity. Alarmed by rumours that the café might become a Starbucks, a group clubs together to form the Save Polly's Cake Shop Action Committee. The plan is that Polly's should become a community venture, managed and run by volunteers from the village. Roped...

"Although she hadn't known Leonard Mallett very well, nor liked him particularly, Carole Seddon feels duty bound to attend her fellow committee member's funeral. As she suspected, the hymns, readings and sermon are all very predictable - not unlike Leonard himself. What she couldn't have predicted was that the deceased's daughter would use the occasion to publicly accuse her stepmother of murder. Did Heather Mallett really kill her husband, as many...

Jude's decision to redecorate her cottage leads to a meeting with a local decorator and a surprising discovery behind a wall panel in a Victorian building: a woman's handbag! The discovery becomes serious when the police identify the handbag's owner as Anita Garner, a young woman who vanished in suspicious circumstances twenty years earlier.