A Fethering Mystery
5 primary works • 20 total works
Book 1
Very little disturbs the ordered calm of Fethering, a pleasingly self-contained retirement on England's southern coast. Which is precisely why Carole Seddon, who has outlived both her husband and her career at the Home Office, has chosen to reside there.
So the last thing Carole expects to encounter in Fethering is a new neighbour with but one name and an obviously colourful past. 'Jude' was not really Fethering..... but neither was the body Carole found on the beach.
A body, it has to be said, that has disappeared by the time the police arrive. Only Jude is ready to believe what her neighbour says she saw - and from that moment on, the two women are resolved to turn detectives.
'Simon Brett comes up trumps yet again... an excellent thriller.' Irish News
'A new Simon Brett novel is an event for mystery fans.' P. D. James
'Pure pleasure from beginning to end.' Birmingham Post
'I stayed up until three in the morning finishing this delightful, thoroughly English whodunnit.' Daily Mail
Book 14
The genteel game of Real Tennis takes a murderous twist in Simon Brett's witty and entertaining new Fethering mystery
Jude's life has been turned upside-down thanks her new mant, Piers Targett, who's keen to get her involved in his hobby - or obsession - of Real Tennis. But when one of Piers' friends dies on the court in suspicious circumstances, Jude finds herself caught up in the police investigation.
Meanwhile, Jude's neighbour Carole is trying to identify the human remains known locally as the 'Lady in the Lake.'
As the two investigations become intertwined, Carole and Jude's efforts to find the truth look set to lead to more murders.
Book 15
The local dramatic society provides fertile ground for murder in the brand-new Fethering mystery
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 more sinister? Carole and Jude make it their business to find out.
Book 16
Carole and Jude's Turkish holiday takes a murderous turn in the new Fethering mystery
Carole Seddon has never enjoyed holidays much. Nevertheless, she has allowed herself to be persuaded by her friend Jude to accept a fortnight's free accommodation at a luxurious Turkish villa owned by Jude's property developer friend Barney Willingdon. But from the outset the holiday is marred by a series of menacing incidents: threatening messages daubed on the villa walls; and their host being accosted by a knife-wielding man at a local restaurant.
As Carole and Jude launch into what they do best - investigating - it becomes clear that Barney Willingdon has made plenty of enemies, with his ruthless business deals and complicated love life. Matters come to a head when Carole's sightseeing trip to nearby Pinara is curtailed by the discovery of a body in one of the ancient Lycian tombs. And what really did happen to Barney's first wife, Zoe?
Book 17
The wickedly entertaining new Fethering mystery featuring chalk-and-cheese detective duo Carole and Jude
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 in to help, Jude finds the committee meetings fraught with petty power struggles, clashing personalities and monstrous egos. Matters take a turn for the worse when she and Carole come across a badly-decomposed body on Fethering beach - and uncover a link to Polly's. Not only do the two neighbours have to find out whodunit, they are also faced with the thorny question: is it possible to run a business on that most volatile of commodities - goodwill?
It wasn't the rain that upset during Carole Seddon during her walk on the West Sussex Downs. It wasn't the dilapidated barn in which she took shelter. No, what upset her was the human skeleton she discovered there . . .
So begins the second investigation for strait-laced Carole and her laid-back neighbour Jude. This time their enquires take them away from Fethering 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. Detective Sergeant Baylis will confirm nothing. So why is Tamsin's mother, a friend of Jude's, so certain her daughter is still alive? And why is the unstable Brian Helling so keen to announce that there is a serial killer 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 facade.
When Carole goes for a hair trim at `Connie's Clip Joint', she doesn't expect to find herself at the scene of a murder. But sure enough in the backroom, strangled by the lead of a hairdryer, sits Connie's young assistant Kyra.
Whilst Carole and her sleuthing friend Jude enjoy some tactical snooping, Fethering fingers are pointing firmly at Kyra's boyfriend, Nathan, who has disappeared. But Nathan's family are also acting rather oddly - whilst convinced of Nathan's innocence, they don't seem so certain that he is actually missing.
Meanwhile Connie's ex-husband Martin, co-owner of the rival hairdressing chain `Martin & Martina', appears to have been quite the ladies man with his young assistants, including Kyra herself. Could he have silenced her before she divulged his sordid secret and potentially ruined his career?
As our discreet lady detectives decide there are only so many haircuts they can have for the sake of neighbourhood crime solving, so too do they realise this is no cut and dry case, and that some people will stop at nothing to keep their private lives concealed . . .
The Hopwicke Country House Hotel, owned by Jude's glamorous friend Suzy Longthorne, is to host an event for the all-male society, The Pillars of Sussex. On the night, Jude helps Suzy serve dinner, and in the early hours of the morning they watch with relief as the guests drag themselves to their beds.
The next morning, one young solicitor does not come down for breakfast. Jude heads for Nigel Ackford's room, presuming he is feeling the effects of the night before. It soon becomes apparent, however, that Nigel has been spared his hangover. For Jude finds him hanging from the beams of his four-poster bed . . .
Convinced it was not suicide, Carole and Jude must now find out the truth behind an elaborate attempt to cover up a simple, cold-blooded murder . . .
`Simon Brett is one of British crime's most assured craftsmen' GUARDIAN
`Deftly contrived, light-hearted mysteries' THE TIMES
'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. JAMES
When healer Jude pays a visit to Long Bamber Stables one evening - to meet her unusually equine new client and his owner Sonia Dalrymple - she does not expect to stumble across a man laying in the darkness. Co-owner of the stables, Walter Fleet, has been viciously stabbed to death.
Walter leaves behind a cynical wife who shows no desire to mourn his departing. Meanwhile, a horse hand appears to be more of a danger than a help and Sonia Dalrymple seems to be concealing a deeply troubling secret. Unable to resist a mystery, sleuthing friends Jude and Carole begin to make discreet enquiries.
It soon becomes clear that Long Bamber Stables is a hotbed of dangerous passions, murderous rivalries and hidden truths . . . and this horsing community will do anything to protect their reputations.
`Murder most enjoyable . . . An author who never takes himself that seriously, and for whom any fictional murder can frequently form part of the entertainment industry’ COLIN DEXTER, The Oldie
`One of the exceptional detective story writers around’ Telegraph
Bracketts, an Elizabethan house near the town of Fethering, is about to be turned into a museum. Once the home of celebrated poet Esmund Chadleigh, it has now been decided that it should become a shrine to his life and poetry.
But the transition from house to museum is running far from smoothly. For a sudden discovery is made: Buried in the kitchen garden is a human skeleton. And before too long, there is a second body, not yet cold. Murder is no longer just a dreadful possibility, but a certainty.It is a case that will test the sleuthing powers of Board member Carole Seddon and her friend Jude as never before . . .
Praise for Simon Brett and the Fethering Mysteries:
'A good, juicy, very English murder mystery' DAILY MAIL
'A crime novel in the traditional style, with delightful little touches of humour and vignettes of a small town and its bitchy inhabitants' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
The affluent seaside resort of Smalting is unaccustomed to crime. So when human remains are found beneath the floorboards of one of its beach huts, the community is awash with suspicion and fear.
Amateur sleuths Carole Seddon and best friend Jude are drawn into the mystery, and their suspicion quickly falls on attractive Philly Rose, a young Londoner newly arrived in the area, whose boyfriend has recently vanished in mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, Kelvin Southwest, self-appointed `ladies’ man’ and caretaker of Smalting’s beach huts, seems to be hiding a dark secret beneath his smooth exterior, while Reginald Flowers, pompous President of the Smalting Beach Hut Association, becomes increasingly defensive about his own history.
When the bones under the beach hut are identified, the ghosts of the past are painfully reawakened, and long-hidden secrets begin to surface. Bones Under the Beach Hut is an ingenious mystery from one of England’s favourite crime writers, exquisitely plotted, teeming with wonderful characters and packed with unexpected twists.
What's your poison?
Fethering residents, Jude and Carole, get more than they bargained for when a lunchtime meal in their local pub leaves everyone with food poisoning. The landlord is horrified and when a series of disasters start to befall his business it looks like it could be the end of the road for the Crown and Anchor.
Left with a bad taste in their mouths – and not just from the food – the two amateur detectives wonder if it might just be more than a run of bad luck, which is forcing their favourite pub into bankruptcy.
When Ray, a young man with the mental age of a five year old, is found in the kitchen of the pub with a knife through his heart – Carole and Jude swing into action. There’s a killer on the loose in Fethering and our lady sleuths need to uncover who it is before it’s last orders for the pub – and themselves.
The bets are on whodunnit when a body is found at the bookies . . .
Jude has never been averse to a bit of a flutter; her friend Carole, on the other hand, thinks that the local betting shop is a den of iniquity. But when Jude stumbles upon the body of Polish immigrant Tadeusz Jankowski - the race is on to find his killer.
The odds aren't looking good. No one seems to know anything about the mysterious Tadek - even his sister can't shed any light on what he was doing in Fethering.
Who was the anonymous woman in the bookies who seems to have vanished? Why was Tadek interested in the local university? And who is the 'Fifi' Tadek spoke of with his dying breath?
As they question the local residents, Carol finds an unexpected friend in an inveterate gambler and Jude finds herself in potentially more trouble than she can handle with a lecherous and charming drama professor.
In this race there can only be one winner, but with no leads and several suspects in the running will our lady detectives be pipped at the post by a cold and calculating killer?
Carole Seddon hates Christmas – it all seems rather a waste of time. So when her neighbour and best friend, Jude, drags her along to go shopping at a local store called Gallimaufry – she can feel her inner-Scrooge knocking. But the sales are on and even Carole can’t resist a bargain.
Then a few days later – Gallimaufry is burnt down and a body is discovered in the ashes. It seems like a tragic accident but no-one can die of natural causes when a gun is involved. The victim was young, pretty and successful – who could possibly want her dead?
With a host of suspects the lady detectives know they have their work cut out for them. And as they dig deeper they discover a host of half-truths and lies. It seems that someone in Fethering has a deep, dark, deadly secret – and is prepared to kill to keep it.
"Graced by ingeniously drawn characters, deft timing of twists, and a to-die-for climax. A stunner" - Booklist Starred Review
When Jude joins the Fethering community choir, she discovers that at least one of her fellow choristers is hiding a deadly secret.
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 neighbour Jude joins the new community choir - and discovers that amidst the clashing egos and petty resentments lurk some decidedly false notes. At least one chorister would appear to be hiding a deadly secret - and it's up to Carole and Jude to unearth the truth.
When Carole Seddon's car is vandalised, it heralds the start of a disturbing series of events in the witty and entertaining new Fethering mystery.
Carole Seddon's trusty Renault is one of her most treasured possessions. So when it is vandalised, there's only one person she will entrust with its repair: Bill Shefford has 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 the note is shoved under Carole's kitchen door: Watch out. The car window was just the start. It would appear that she has 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. It would appear to be a tragic accident. Carole and her neighbour Jude are not so sure. And the more they start to ask questions, the more evidence they uncover of decidedly foul play .
Neighbours Carole and Jude uncover more than they bargained for when Jude decides to redecorate her cottage in this lighthearted cosy mystery.
"An edgy cozy, filled with dry wit and deft plot twists"- Booklist Starred Review
Having decided to redecorate Woodside Cottage, Jude has engaged the services of local man Pete, who has painted and decorated the homes of Fethering residents for many years. Pete is currently working on Footscrow House, a large Victorian building which 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 in suspicious circumstances twenty years earlier.
Determined to find out what really happened to Anita all those years ago, Jude and her neighbour Carole's investigations plunge them into a maze of deception and murder, as they uncover a number of uncomfortable secrets beneath the serene surface of Fethering life . . .