Fethering Mystery

Recently retired, Carole Seddon is residing in the Fethering the cottage she purchased with her ex-husband. Theree she maintains a quiet and sensible life with the companionship of Gulliver, her Labrador retriever. But everything changes when she and Gulliver, while taking their daily constitutional, find a corpse on the beach. What's more, there are two wounds on its neck. The body mysteriously disappears and the police dismiss Carole as a befuddled middle-aged woman. She almost starts to believe it herself...until a stranger threatens her to keep quiet or else. Unable to contain her anxiety, Carole confides in her eccentric neighbor, Jude—who suggests that if the police cannot be bothered to catch a killer, maybe they should do it themselves.

It wasn't the rain that upset Carole Seddon during her walk on the West Sussex Downs, nor was it the dilapidated barn in which she sought shelter. What upset her was the human skeleton she discovered there, neatly packed into two blue fertilizer bags. Thus begins the mystery for strait-laced Carole and her more laid-back neighbor Jude, whose investigation takes them to the small hamlet of Weldisham. There gossips quickly identify the corpse as Tamsin Lutteridge, a young woman who disappeared from the village months before. But Detective Sergeant Baylis will confirm nothing, and Tamsin's mother is adamant that her daughter is still alive. Others believe a serial killer is on the loose. As Jude sets out to find Tamsin—either dead or alive—Carole digs deeper into Weldisham's history and the bitter relationships simmering beneath the village's gentle façade.

A stuffy dinner party at an English mansion is not Jude's cup of tea. But when the nearly mummified torso of a woman shows up in the cellar, Jude and her reluctant neighbor, Carole, soon find themselves embroiled in a puzzling whodunit.

When a human skeleton is found buried on the grounds of the famed Bracketts House, the historic home of the author Esmond Chadleigh, Carole Seddon and Jude must determine whether the beloved writer's sword was mightier than his pen and whether the snobbish, squabbling trustees of Bracketts House have something to hide....

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. She hires Jude to help keep the spirits flowing. But when one of the initiates turns up dead, it's up to Jude to uncover a truth no one wants discovered.

The seaside town of Fethering, home to Carole Seddon and her friend Jude, is a place rife with foul play, as evidenced in this sixth mystery in the series. Carole's son is getting married to a wonderful girl with rather odd parents. Talk of publicizing the event seems to frighten them beyond words. When the father of the bride is found brutally murdered, Carole enlists Jude's help in sifting through the guest list, including Gaby's nefarious brother and her uncle, a justice of the peace, before the festivities become completely funereal.

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 Fethering residents believe? Deciding to get to the heart of the matter, Carole's neighbor Jude joins the new community choir-and discovers that amidst the clashing egos and petty resentments lurk some decidedly false notes.

Carole Seddon's trusty Renault is one of her most treasured possessions. So when it's vandalised, there's only one person she will entrust with its repair: Bill Shefford, who's been servicing the vehicles of the good citizens of Fethering for many years. But how could something like this happen in Fethering of all places? Then a note is shoved under Carole's kitchen door: Watch out. The car window was just the start. It appears that she's been deliberately targeted. But by whom, and why? Matters take an even more disturbing turn when a body is discovered at Shefford's Garage, crushed to death by a falling gearbox. People think it's a tragic accident, but Carole and her neighbor Jude are not so sure. And the more they question, the more evidence they uncover of decidedly foul play.

Having decided to redecorate Woodside Cottage, Jude engages the services of local man Pete, who painted and decorated the homes of Fethering residents for many years. Pete is currently working on Footscrow House, a large Victorian building that is being converted into holiday flats by a local developer. Having arranged to meet at Fiasco House, as it is known locally due to the many failed business enterprises over the years, Jude and Pete make a surprising discovery behind a wall panel: a woman's handbag! The casual discovery becomes serious when the police identify the handbag's owner as Anita Garner, a young woman who vanished under suspicious circumstances twenty years earlier. Determined to find out what really happened to Anita all those years ago, Jude and her neighbor, Carole, investigate-and are plunged into a maze of deception and murder.

Neighbors Carole and Jude investigate murder most horrid in the theatre in the latest Fethering village mystery from the original king of British cozy crime, internationally best-selling, award-winning author Simon Brett, OBE. For fans of Richard Osman-but with added bite! Carole Seddon, a very respectable retired woman living in the English seaside village of Fethering, doesn't care for the theatre. But her neighbor Jude counts the job of actress among her many and varied past careers. So when Jude attends the closing night of a new play based on a classic TV sitcom, Carole is interested-but only because she suspects the leading man, Drake Purslow, is one of her scandalous friend's ex-lovers. The night turns out to be more dramatic than either Carole or Jude could have ever predicted. After the performance, Jude makes her way to Drake's dressing room, only to find him dead-in what, to Jude's experienced sleuthing eye, seem very suspicious circumstances. Did one of the play's cast-made up almost entirely of the original sitcom's actors-have a long-held grudge against the show's star? Or are more recent hatreds to blame? Jude is determined to find out-and Carole, who despite protestations is almost pathologically nosy, is right there to investigate alongside her. Not met Carole and Jude yet? Dive right in, and discover why The Guardian called Simon Brett "one of British crime's most assured craftsmen." Fans of Janice Hallett and M.C. Beaton are in for a treat.