The Torso in the Town (A Fethering mystery) (Hardcover)

'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P.D. James; 'Aficionados of the elegant, well-turned mystery novel will find much cause for delight in the inauguration of this series.' Crime Time

Simon Brett, well known for his radio and TV scriptwriting, produces just the kind of light-hearted, fascinating mystery one would hope for, and this third book in the Fethering Mysteries series easily lives up to the standard of its predecessors. The crime is discovered in Fedborough, neighbouring town to Fethering, during - of all things - a dinner party. It's bad enough to have your guests disturbed by your teenage offspring - worse still when they have found something very nasty in the cellar! The Roxbys, new to the town, had hoped with this party to infiltrate Fedborough society. Their guests include the doctor and his wife and the vicar. Jude, who becomes our amateur sleuth, is also there and she rushes back with the gory news to tell her friend Carole in Fethering. The two women set out to find out who the corpse can be and how and when the murder took place. The trail leads them further into Fedborough and into the backbiting, gossiping group led by Fiona Lister, self-styled queen of the dining circuit. The police are kept tidily in the background; we hear news from them from time to time, for example the identity of the torso. However, Jude and Carole patiently work out the solution to the mystery. Most of the story is kept comfortably low key with realistic dialogue and skilful narration as the two women test their theories and interview witnesses. Then Jude makes a classic mistake, suspense moves up a gear and real danger presents itself. This is well-crafted, witty writing. Jude appears as a modern Miss Marple, engaging the townsfolk of Fedborough in the trivial chat that leads her to names, alibis and suspicions. The characters of Jude and Carole develop along with the case and the denouement is both surprising and satisfying. One to enjoy. (Kirkus UK)

Fedborough, just a few kilometers down the road from Fethering, is a posh little town full of antique stores, gourmet food shops, and wealthy resettled Londoners like Kim and Grant Roxby, the new owners of Pelling House, where their rather tedious dinner party is interrupted by their teenage son Harry's discovery of a neatly dismembered woman's body in the cellar. Who was she, and who put her there? Fortunately for the coppers, who haven't a clue, one of the dinner guests is Fethering's nosiest amateur sleuth, that middle-aged bohemian Jude (Death on the Downs, 2001, etc.), who bustles right over to her glum chum Carole, despondent over her breakup with the local publican, and pries open all sorts of village secrets. Who was sleeping with whom? The busiest bed seems to have belonged to Virginia, the promiscuous wife of former Pelling House owner Roddy Hargreaves, who left him a few years back. Roddy is soon found floating in the muddy Fether, the victim of a drunken misstep or a second homicide. There'll be eavesdropping at the Coach and Horses, a walking tour of Fedborough, and some apprentice sleuthing by young Harry before Jude and Carole solve the Pelling House mystery and decide never to venture those few kilometers from Fethering again. Genial if not memorable, with a few swipes at villages accommodating the upscale tourist market and unsubstantiated sexual assumptions. Even so, Jude and Carole hardly rise to the level of Brett's marginal actor Charles Paris-or the sublime Mrs. P. (Kirkus Reviews)

Amateur sleuths Jude and Carole take on their third case when a terrible discovery is made in the cellar of a grand old house. 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 town of Fedborough. For their guests - including the couple's old friend Jude - had been enjoying a pleasant meal before they were rudely interrupted by a gruesome discovery. A human torso hidden in the cellar. Jude races home to Fethering and her friend Carole with the news. And soon the pair are back in Fedborough, questioning the locals. But they can't help but wonder why a town so notoriously distrustful of outsiders is proving so terribly amenable to their enquiries...