Shooting in the Shop - Softcover

Brett, Simon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330471252 ISBN 13: 9780330471251

Publisher: Pan Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

Carole Seddon hates Christmas. 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 burned 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.

With a host of suspects: Ricky Le Bonnier, the infamous womanizer; Piers Duncton, a comedy writer who can’t take a joke; or Anna Carter, the lonely dog walker—the lady detectives know they have their work cut out for them. As they dig deeper they discover a host of half-truths and lies. It seems that someone in Fethering has a deadly secret—and is prepared to kill to keep it.

About this title

About the Author

Simon Brett worked as a producer in radio and television before taking up writing full time. As well as the much-loved Fethering series, the Mrs Pargeter novels and the Charles Paris detective series, he is the author of the radio and television series After Henry, the radio series No Commitments and Smelling of Roses and the bestselling How to Be a Little Sod. His novel A Shock to the System was filmed, starring Michael Caine.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Two middle-age women, one a dour divorcée, the other a promiscuous New Age flake, are neighbors in the coastal English village of Fethering; they become, improbably, friends and, even more improbably, sometime sleuths. Such was the orginal premise for Brett’s Fethering series. It sounds contrived, but with the talented Brett, the character clash and the amazingly high homicide rate for a tiny village come across as both brilliant and perfectly reasonable. The secret is in Brett’s range. He moves effortlessly from sharp, pitiless physical description (e.g., a fiftyish woman who looks like Marilyn Monroe gone to seed) to flashes of compassionate insight (one of the sleuths, Carole Seddon, fears becoming a lone woman huddled in a shelter at the beach). Brett always spikes his plots with acerbic social commentary—his depiction of a Christmas Eve drinks party is as comically merciless an examination of characters’ pretensions as any Restoration comedy. In the latest Fethering, Seddon’s much looser friend, identified only as Jude, drags Carole into celebrating Christmas, starting with searching for the perfect gift at a trendy village shop and attending Jude’s Christmas party, which the shop owner and her music-producer husband also attend. A few days later the shop burns to the ground, and the body of this couple’s stepdaughter is discovered within. Jude and Carole kick into investigative mode, and the plot kicks up, providing more secrets and greater danger for the intrepid pair. Intricate fun. --Connie Fletcher

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0330471252
• ISBN 13: 9780330471251
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336