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Fethering #2
Death on the Downs
'It wasn't the rain that upset Carole Seddon during her walk on the West Sussex Downs. It wasn't the dilapidated barn in which she was forced to seek shelter. No, what upset her was the human skeleton she discovered there, neatly packed into two blue fertiliser bags ...'
So begins the second investigation for strait-laced Carole and her more laid-back neighbour Jude. This time their enquiries take them away from their seaside village of Fethering to the small downland hamlet of Weldisham.
There gossips quickly identify the corpse as Tamsin Lutteridge, a young woman who disappeared from the village months before. Detective Sergeant Bayliss will confirm nothing. So why is Tamsin's mother, a friend of Jude's, so certain her daughter is still alive? Why is village elder statesman Graham Forbes suddenly taking an interest in Carole? And why is the decidedly 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.
So begins the second investigation for strait-laced Carole and her more laid-back neighbour Jude. This time their enquiries take them away from their seaside village of Fethering to the small downland hamlet of Weldisham.
There gossips quickly identify the corpse as Tamsin Lutteridge, a young woman who disappeared from the village months before. Detective Sergeant Bayliss will confirm nothing. So why is Tamsin's mother, a friend of Jude's, so certain her daughter is still alive? Why is village elder statesman Graham Forbes suddenly taking an interest in Carole? And why is the decidedly 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.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2001
350 people are currently reading
531 people want to read
About the author
Simon Brett
329 books532 followersSimon Brett is a prolific British writer of whodunnits.
He is the son of a Chartered Surveyor and was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a first class honours degree in English.
He then joined the BBC as a trainee and worked for BBC Radio and London Weekend Television, where his work included 'Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and 'Frank Muir Goes Into ...'.
After his spells with the media he began devoting most of his time to writing from the late 1970s and is well known for his various series of crime novels.
He is married with three children and lives in Burpham, near Arundel, West Sussex, England. He is the current president of the Detection Club.
He is the son of a Chartered Surveyor and was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a first class honours degree in English.
He then joined the BBC as a trainee and worked for BBC Radio and London Weekend Television, where his work included 'Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and 'Frank Muir Goes Into ...'.
After his spells with the media he began devoting most of his time to writing from the late 1970s and is well known for his various series of crime novels.
He is married with three children and lives in Burpham, near Arundel, West Sussex, England. He is the current president of the Detection Club.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 224 reviews
February 7, 2021
They always say it is impossible to keep anything secret in an English village.
But some well-kept secrets tend to stay buried for years.
Until someone uncovers them by accident or in this case finds a bag full of human bones inside an old barn.
October 20, 2013
I read (well, listened to) this with my mouth hanging open. An amateur sleuth gets her information by simply asking complete strangers personal and intrusive questions ... and they all reply without so much as a raised eyebrow! And, when a potential murderer (and total stranger) stops her and asks her a load of similar questions, she just responds to his questions without so much as a by your leave. Am I living in a different world?! If a total stranger asked me where I was on the night of whenever and who I'd been married to before and whatnot, I'd tell them to mind their own business! I am now going to have to find another one in this series and see if she has learned some better sleuthing skills.
April 7, 2022
This second outing in the Fethering series was just as enjoyable as the first. I must admit I thought I'd worked out the solution of the human bones discovery, but nope. A lot of twists and turns, so well done. The two next door neighbors, Carole and Jude, are the mis-matched snoop sisters and white wine imbibers, who manage to amusingly outwit the local constabulary. We are not given very much background on Jude, much to Carole's dismay, which I hope will be forthcoming in the next books.
May 30, 2022
Another cozy visit to Fethering
I had so enjoyed Brett’s first Fethering mystery I decided to read another one in quick succession—before I forgot who the characters were. Brett’s descriptions of English village life from the point of view of a 50ish widow are entertaining. Slightly acerbic, but with enough characters whom I would love to be friends with, and with a dog.
This mystery is a bit far-fetched; I certainly don’t read the books for the quality of the mystery. But if you like feeling as if you are in a corner of an English pub, watching strange events unfold, knowing that all will turn out well for the intrepid heroine, this series is the ticket.
I had so enjoyed Brett’s first Fethering mystery I decided to read another one in quick succession—before I forgot who the characters were. Brett’s descriptions of English village life from the point of view of a 50ish widow are entertaining. Slightly acerbic, but with enough characters whom I would love to be friends with, and with a dog.
This mystery is a bit far-fetched; I certainly don’t read the books for the quality of the mystery. But if you like feeling as if you are in a corner of an English pub, watching strange events unfold, knowing that all will turn out well for the intrepid heroine, this series is the ticket.
February 28, 2025
Who dunnit? Seems like everyone dunnit. Everyone seems to be guilty of something in this story. You just need to fit the crime to the suspicious character.
I am continually surprised how amateur sleuths can just ring someone up and ask if they can come over and talk about the murder ... and it works! Carole's early attempt at dating ("How interesting!") was amusing. Gawd, have I been there. I once laughed at every single thing some guy said, as if he were some deadpan comic. Anyway, enough of my dysfunctional past love life ...
Brett actually includes the obligatory Two Bad Guys Discussing Their Crimes In Front Of the Sleuth so that they have to say, "Oh, now we've said all this in front of her - what do we do with her?" And, in true cozy fashion (although I've seen the same murderer-as-doofus scheme in Stalin's Ghost), the sleuth is left in a position she can either escape from or be rescued from, so the would-be killers don't have to trouble themselves with actually and personally killing a person. Oh! Oh! And let's not forget the old Policeman And Bad Guy Battle It Out On the Cliff While the Others Watch Helplessly From a Distance!
So, why do I read these books if I find these conventions so annoying? Oh, because I love to complain! I love to regale my poor husband (who wouldn't read one of these with a gun pointed at his head) with these lunatic stories and make tea come out his nose when he can't take it any longer and finally starts laughing. Watching him laugh is the greatest delight in my life.
Of course, books like these also make me look at him warily. I was close to telling him that if he ever wanted a divorce that I would happily grant him one just so he wouldn't strangle me with his bare hands, but when I say things like that he just looks so hurt - as if I'd actually think anything like that about him.
Would I read another one? Oh, sure - let me at 'em! Let's see what bone-headed thing comes up in Blood At the Bookies, which seems to be in at the mo'.
Re-read - I must have read this before. I have a review of it! I tried not to look at all of the review so as not to spoil it for me and that certainly worked. I had absotunalutely no recall of any of this. Well, it's been 16 years.
A very quick read - with interesting characters. The villains explaining everything to each other was still a bit annoying, but otherwise it was well put together. I might add another star. Must be mellowing in my old age.
I am continually surprised how amateur sleuths can just ring someone up and ask if they can come over and talk about the murder ... and it works! Carole's early attempt at dating ("How interesting!") was amusing. Gawd, have I been there. I once laughed at every single thing some guy said, as if he were some deadpan comic. Anyway, enough of my dysfunctional past love life ...
Brett actually includes the obligatory Two Bad Guys Discussing Their Crimes In Front Of the Sleuth so that they have to say, "Oh, now we've said all this in front of her - what do we do with her?" And, in true cozy fashion (although I've seen the same murderer-as-doofus scheme in Stalin's Ghost), the sleuth is left in a position she can either escape from or be rescued from, so the would-be killers don't have to trouble themselves with actually and personally killing a person. Oh! Oh! And let's not forget the old Policeman And Bad Guy Battle It Out On the Cliff While the Others Watch Helplessly From a Distance!
So, why do I read these books if I find these conventions so annoying? Oh, because I love to complain! I love to regale my poor husband (who wouldn't read one of these with a gun pointed at his head) with these lunatic stories and make tea come out his nose when he can't take it any longer and finally starts laughing. Watching him laugh is the greatest delight in my life.
Of course, books like these also make me look at him warily. I was close to telling him that if he ever wanted a divorce that I would happily grant him one just so he wouldn't strangle me with his bare hands, but when I say things like that he just looks so hurt - as if I'd actually think anything like that about him.
Would I read another one? Oh, sure - let me at 'em! Let's see what bone-headed thing comes up in Blood At the Bookies, which seems to be in at the mo'.
Re-read - I must have read this before. I have a review of it! I tried not to look at all of the review so as not to spoil it for me and that certainly worked. I had absotunalutely no recall of any of this. Well, it's been 16 years.
A very quick read - with interesting characters. The villains explaining everything to each other was still a bit annoying, but otherwise it was well put together. I might add another star. Must be mellowing in my old age.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2025
There’s quite often a considerable difference in the quality of a follow-up compared to the original. That’s certainly the case here.
This is a long way from the first in the series both in terms of story and believability. Poor.
So it goes.
This is a long way from the first in the series both in terms of story and believability. Poor.
So it goes.
April 21, 2013
I knew there was something hinky about that terribly friendly and concerned cop, even if he wasn't actually the killer.
This comes of having read far too many mysteries and thrillers in which the gratuitously helpful person with no apparent connection to the central crime turns out to be in it up to their eyeballs.
This comes of having read far too many mysteries and thrillers in which the gratuitously helpful person with no apparent connection to the central crime turns out to be in it up to their eyeballs.
May 16, 2020
This second Fethering mystery is no blood and guts thriller, more an intriguing cerebral mystery, with plenty of twists and turns, set in the west Sussex countryside where Carole Seddon and her arch-investigator Jude live in the seaside village of Fethering. But in this outing they get drawn to the nearby hamlet of Weldisham where, seemingly dark deeds aplenty take place.
It all begins when Carole, sheltering from the rain in a disused barn, discovers two fertiliser bags full of bones that appear to be from a human. As an amateur sleuth she decides that she will investigate and thus she starts off a train of events that take her, and her friend Jude, into all sorts of danger.
The difficulty is that all the inhabitants of the Weldisham area have their own views on who the bones belong to and who the perpetrator of the crime is as well as each of them having their own agenda. This does not help Carole and leads her down a variety of blind alleys. Even the local policeman Lennie Bayliss is unhelpful but Jude has her own ideas and she does some investigating on her own, uncovering some surprising facts. Then she and Carole get together and discuss where that leads them. And the answer for quite some time is … nowhere.
When the pair eventually seem to get closer to what has happened, more dark deeds emerge, another death occurs, and at one point Carole comes out worse as one of the locals wants to finish her off. But fortunately that does not materialise and in the end enough clues emerge for Carole, without much help from Bayliss, works out what has happened and who is responsible.
It is an edge of seat mystery that keeps the reader on tenterhooks until the very end.
It all begins when Carole, sheltering from the rain in a disused barn, discovers two fertiliser bags full of bones that appear to be from a human. As an amateur sleuth she decides that she will investigate and thus she starts off a train of events that take her, and her friend Jude, into all sorts of danger.
The difficulty is that all the inhabitants of the Weldisham area have their own views on who the bones belong to and who the perpetrator of the crime is as well as each of them having their own agenda. This does not help Carole and leads her down a variety of blind alleys. Even the local policeman Lennie Bayliss is unhelpful but Jude has her own ideas and she does some investigating on her own, uncovering some surprising facts. Then she and Carole get together and discuss where that leads them. And the answer for quite some time is … nowhere.
When the pair eventually seem to get closer to what has happened, more dark deeds emerge, another death occurs, and at one point Carole comes out worse as one of the locals wants to finish her off. But fortunately that does not materialise and in the end enough clues emerge for Carole, without much help from Bayliss, works out what has happened and who is responsible.
It is an edge of seat mystery that keeps the reader on tenterhooks until the very end.
April 15, 2016
Death on the Downs by Simon Brett.
This was one of the earliest Fethering mysteries and in my opinion one of the best.
Carole has stumbled into an old decrepit barn when she uncovers bones that appear to be human. The local constable takes the bones in to be analyzed to find exactly who they belonged to by possibly using DNA after finding the age of the bones and who went missing at that time. Soon Carole and her next door neighbor Jude are in another whodunit together gathering clues.
The clues keep on coming and the suspects keep on mounting but none of them lead to the real culprit.
I loved this story and found the characters to be believable and interesting with complex lives. I've truly enjoyed the Carole & Jude Fethering mysteries and plan on continuing to follow as long as Simon Brett keeps on writing another sensational story.
This was one of the earliest Fethering mysteries and in my opinion one of the best.
Carole has stumbled into an old decrepit barn when she uncovers bones that appear to be human. The local constable takes the bones in to be analyzed to find exactly who they belonged to by possibly using DNA after finding the age of the bones and who went missing at that time. Soon Carole and her next door neighbor Jude are in another whodunit together gathering clues.
The clues keep on coming and the suspects keep on mounting but none of them lead to the real culprit.
I loved this story and found the characters to be believable and interesting with complex lives. I've truly enjoyed the Carole & Jude Fethering mysteries and plan on continuing to follow as long as Simon Brett keeps on writing another sensational story.
September 13, 2023
Mystery solved: Geoffrey Howard IS Ralph Cosham. That has nothing to do with the book but I was very confused by this pseudonym.
Now, for the book. Really enjoyed this second installment in the series. The nice thing is that the murder doesn’t occur in the little village that Carol and Jude live in. It’s close by, but it keeps Feathering from becoming Murdertown.
My hope for next book is that Jude will be more open with Carol. Like, how about coughing up your last name? How about answering some questions? How about letting her in, for goodness sake?
Now, for the book. Really enjoyed this second installment in the series. The nice thing is that the murder doesn’t occur in the little village that Carol and Jude live in. It’s close by, but it keeps Feathering from becoming Murdertown.
My hope for next book is that Jude will be more open with Carol. Like, how about coughing up your last name? How about answering some questions? How about letting her in, for goodness sake?
October 3, 2024
I have really enjoyed this series. There is humor but also social commentary on small towns and villages, much like Agatha Christie, but reflecting contemporary times. Oh, and not a bad mystery either.
May 23, 2016
An enjoyable little mystery for some easy leisure reading.
December 8, 2017
You know you are doing something wrong if the reader is not even interested to find out how the mystery is solved, isn't it?
May 7, 2018
It had more momentum than the previous book in the series. Delightful, though with the same abrupt sort of ending.
December 8, 2025
Second Fethering is already showing a little bit of repetitiveness with the crimes (body substitution/body moving) and a weird tendency that everything bad ends up being due to the drug dealers of Brighton. The seedy underbelly of villages are certainly propped up though Carole definitely drink drives too much, and I (like Carole) disapprove of Jude's alternative healing.
November 6, 2023
Just what I needed, a cozy mystery. After two one star pieces of trash this was a breath of fresh air. No profanities or sex!!
This was Book #2 in the series, so I’ll have to get #1 read and then move forward. Carole is a fun character and the English countryside is always a good spot for a murder.
Still curious as to who Brian’s father was???
This was Book #2 in the series, so I’ll have to get #1 read and then move forward. Carole is a fun character and the English countryside is always a good spot for a murder.
Still curious as to who Brian’s father was???
June 22, 2022
This is literally just a fun romp through semi rural England. I do like Brett's writing.
The more and more I know of Carole the more I like her. There are some slightly problematic things that make themselves known overall. Like classicism and mild racial stereotyping but such fun if you can peer past that.
Side note: I love the Carole was right from the very beginning!
The more and more I know of Carole the more I like her. There are some slightly problematic things that make themselves known overall. Like classicism and mild racial stereotyping but such fun if you can peer past that.
Side note: I love the Carole was right from the very beginning!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 1, 2018
I like Brett's Charles Paris series. Those books are a bit edgier than this one, which is the first of the Fethring's I have read. I will read the others based upon this mystery. If the crime itself slips neatly into the cozy detective story genre (think the Rosemary and Thyme television pairing), Brett is a competent writer who lets you know early on in the description of the village setting that he is aware of the usual tropes. He even upends some of them , although in the end the mystery itself seems fairly obvious. However, he cheerfully follows Agatha Christie's footsteps in casting a gimlet eye upon English village life. In the end, the plot twists do revolve around the fact that while the traditional village may appear picturesque, the cost of living and tarted up renovations have irrevocably changed it. And not for the better. But Brett is honest enough to allow Carole Seddon, one of his two heroines, to see the hypocrisy. When she visits the home of a person without the standard gentrifying taste, even as she judges the woman's style she recognizes that what has replaced it everywhere else --- gleaming country surfaces, studiously chosen antiques, standardization of a pub to meet pretty expectations --- is not genuine. Moments in the book like that made the read better. Will try the rest in the series. I want to see how Carole and Jude's friendship develops.
August 12, 2016
**edited 01/27/14
There are some mystery stories that you treat like a puzzle: you guess and deduct and try to figure out who the criminal and motive and method are. And when you get to the end, you either feel incredibly smug or quite foolish, because it all seems obvious in retrospect. And then there are others where it just doesn't matter, because the mystery is just the framing for the story.
Simon Brett's books fall into the latter case. All of the Fethering books that I have read follow precisely the same pattern: the two main characters poke around, they don't end up figuring out who the villain is, one stupidly steps into the villain's hands and is captured and subjected to monologuing, and the other comes to the rescue. But you know what? I don't care, because the books are just too much fun.
...
Due to my disapproval of GR's new and highly subjective review deletion policy, I am no longer posting full reviews here.
The rest of this review can be found on Booklikes.
There are some mystery stories that you treat like a puzzle: you guess and deduct and try to figure out who the criminal and motive and method are. And when you get to the end, you either feel incredibly smug or quite foolish, because it all seems obvious in retrospect. And then there are others where it just doesn't matter, because the mystery is just the framing for the story.
Simon Brett's books fall into the latter case. All of the Fethering books that I have read follow precisely the same pattern: the two main characters poke around, they don't end up figuring out who the villain is, one stupidly steps into the villain's hands and is captured and subjected to monologuing, and the other comes to the rescue. But you know what? I don't care, because the books are just too much fun.
...
Due to my disapproval of GR's new and highly subjective review deletion policy, I am no longer posting full reviews here.
The rest of this review can be found on Booklikes.
December 20, 2017
Death On the Downs is the 2nd book in the Fethering Series. Am enjoying this series very much. Carole and Jude are recent neighbors and have opposite personalities. Carole is rather uptight and quite proper. Jude whose background we know little about at this point is a free spirit. Carole stumbles upon a skeleton when seeking shelter during a rainstorm in a old barn. She was walking along the downs of Weldisham.
That starts the adventure of solving the mystery. Enjoyed the humor of Carole's date which she goes on to find information about the murder. We can read Carol's thoughts during this date. I thought Simon Brett did a good job of interpreting a woman's mind when she was in a situation that was less than desirable for her.
There were various suspects so it held one's interest. Was not a mystery where I had everything figured out early in the book. It read fast because I enjoyed it and wanted to find out who the murderer was. There were layers of crime involved in Weldisham. Looking forward to reading the next in the series "The Torso in the Town."
That starts the adventure of solving the mystery. Enjoyed the humor of Carole's date which she goes on to find information about the murder. We can read Carol's thoughts during this date. I thought Simon Brett did a good job of interpreting a woman's mind when she was in a situation that was less than desirable for her.
There were various suspects so it held one's interest. Was not a mystery where I had everything figured out early in the book. It read fast because I enjoyed it and wanted to find out who the murderer was. There were layers of crime involved in Weldisham. Looking forward to reading the next in the series "The Torso in the Town."
July 15, 2025
I checked out this second of the series called "Fethering" and one further down the road of the 20 existing books featuring Carole, a lady in her early 50's and retired from Home Office. She likes crossword puzzles and working out whodunits. This one has her taking a country walk with her dog in a close-by town when she is forced into a barn to shelter from rain. There she discovers fertilizer bags packed with human bones. It seems good fun for the most part, but I will see how the telling matures as I move on to a later book.
July 2025 Note: I read this book again and enjoyed it more than my first time through. Kindle Unlimited
July 2025 Note: I read this book again and enjoyed it more than my first time through. Kindle Unlimited
November 4, 2016
I was initially dismayed to find this audio version of Death on the Downs wasn't narrated by Simon Brett as I enjoy his narration so much and I thought another reader might not convey the story as well or capture the characters in the same way an author can.
But I found once I'd got used to it, a different narrator didn't spoil my enjoyment at all and I was soon engrossed in the story as usual.
But I found once I'd got used to it, a different narrator didn't spoil my enjoyment at all and I was soon engrossed in the story as usual.
December 27, 2015
Good enough, a little too wordy.
Read
April 17, 2019 No rating, couldn’t stand the narrator. Sounds like he is reading a bus timetable.
April 12, 2023
Carole is coming out of her shell and solving mysteries with Jude's help. Love this series.
February 24, 2025
Very enjoyable.
I like the characters in this book and their relationship with each other. The plot is quite convoluted as there are minor deviations. A good read.
I like the characters in this book and their relationship with each other. The plot is quite convoluted as there are minor deviations. A good read.
September 18, 2019
Carol stumbled upon a cache of old bones. Well, she sits on them actually. But this innocent shelter from the rain starts her on a path of investigation in a small English country village. If the gossip doesn't get you, the killer will.
June 18, 2019
This was an incredibly easy read and I tore through it in a small number of hours. I was fairly glad for this after a period reading much heavier books which had taken their toll on my brain. That being said, I was never totally gripped by the book and the descriptions felt trite and obvious. Why does Carole always have to wear M&S clothes? It's far too simple and obvious.
Another feature which frustrated me was how Carole would constantly say typical white middle class comments to herself, and would always follow these up with a reprimand for being so stereotypical and ignorant. This really felt like Brett wanted to include these stereotypes in the novel but felt guilty for doing so and was aware of how this would clash with modern sensibilities.
I'm not much of a reader of detective novels, so I'm not sure how connoisseurs of the genre would find the novel but I would imagine that the appeal with detective novels is to give the reader the chance to play sleuth themselves. This was not possible due to the huge leaps in imagination which Carole made and spelling out the full scenario at each stage. It was rather frustrating to have everything explained at regular intervals despite the realities of the characters really discovering or imagining these things of their own accord is so completely unlikely.
Finally, and without giving anything away, the people involved in the climax seemed to take part in activities which were so far removed from their characters and it certainly seemed like a leap from the main perpetrator to the culprits at the end. There were too many jumps made for this to be a palatable conclusion.
Another feature which frustrated me was how Carole would constantly say typical white middle class comments to herself, and would always follow these up with a reprimand for being so stereotypical and ignorant. This really felt like Brett wanted to include these stereotypes in the novel but felt guilty for doing so and was aware of how this would clash with modern sensibilities.
I'm not much of a reader of detective novels, so I'm not sure how connoisseurs of the genre would find the novel but I would imagine that the appeal with detective novels is to give the reader the chance to play sleuth themselves. This was not possible due to the huge leaps in imagination which Carole made and spelling out the full scenario at each stage. It was rather frustrating to have everything explained at regular intervals despite the realities of the characters really discovering or imagining these things of their own accord is so completely unlikely.
Finally, and without giving anything away, the people involved in the climax seemed to take part in activities which were so far removed from their characters and it certainly seemed like a leap from the main perpetrator to the culprits at the end. There were too many jumps made for this to be a palatable conclusion.
May 23, 2011
A return engagement to the seaside village of Fethering reveals more about Simon Brett's plans for this series. It seems that the Fethering series will have definite continuity, making it best for readers to follow in order. That is not necessary, but preferable.
This tale, oddly enough, only briefly takes place in Fethering. Most of the plot takes place on the downs in nearby Weldisham, where neighbors and (very) amateur sleuths Carole Seddon and Jude...uh, we still don't know her last name...try to discover the origin of a set of bones left neatly in a barn. Carole and Jude, on their own, become better acquainted with certain residents of Weldisham in order to collect and assemble the pieces of the puzzle. Success becomes more likely, although one of the two may not live to see it!
The fondness Simon Brett has for his lead characters is evident, as they both grow in this installment. The "odd couple" of Carole and Jude are rubbing off on each other, leading to subtle changes in their lives. Carole is my favorite, and she is the main beneficiary of character development in this book. Jude's past is still a mystery, to the point of its becoming annoying, but a read between the lines near the end of the book suggests the opacity of her personal life is not deliberate.
More Fethering books await on my bookshelf...I look forward to another visit to Fethering, which is taking on that "fictional place I'd love to visit" quality!
This tale, oddly enough, only briefly takes place in Fethering. Most of the plot takes place on the downs in nearby Weldisham, where neighbors and (very) amateur sleuths Carole Seddon and Jude...uh, we still don't know her last name...try to discover the origin of a set of bones left neatly in a barn. Carole and Jude, on their own, become better acquainted with certain residents of Weldisham in order to collect and assemble the pieces of the puzzle. Success becomes more likely, although one of the two may not live to see it!
The fondness Simon Brett has for his lead characters is evident, as they both grow in this installment. The "odd couple" of Carole and Jude are rubbing off on each other, leading to subtle changes in their lives. Carole is my favorite, and she is the main beneficiary of character development in this book. Jude's past is still a mystery, to the point of its becoming annoying, but a read between the lines near the end of the book suggests the opacity of her personal life is not deliberate.
More Fethering books await on my bookshelf...I look forward to another visit to Fethering, which is taking on that "fictional place I'd love to visit" quality!
February 17, 2019
This is the 2nd book in Simon Brett's Fethering mysteries, featuring amateur sleuths, Carole Seddon and her neighbour, Jude. I liked this one more than the first; Brett has found his way now that he's got over the introduction phase of the series. The characters are familiar and interesting and the case was also enjoyable. Carole finds a cache of human remains while taking shelter from a walk on the Sussex Downs. This starts an investigation into possible suspects by the two friends, which ultimately leads to threats on Carole's life. Well-paced and most entertaining and I'm looking forward to reading more in the Fethering series and also giving a start to Brett's Charles Paris and Mrs. Pargeter series as well.
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