The Torso in the Town (Fethering Mysteries) - Hardcover

Brett, Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0425185028 ISBN 13: 9780425185025

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover, 2002

Synopsis

In the historic village of Fedborough, Jude attends a dinner party for the new homeowners of Pelling House. But an uninvited guest - in the form of a mummified, armless and legless torso - has crashed the party. There's no telling how long the dead body has been in the cellar, or even who it once was.
Intrigued with the new mystery on her hands, Jude elicits Carole's help to solve the case - and hopefully snap Carole out of her growing depression from a recent failed relationship. Their detective work soon uncovers that Pelling House's previous owners include two divorced couples who harbor a lot of resentment. And Jude and Carole suspect that they may be harboring some dark secrets as well.

About this title

About the Author

Simon Brett, called by The Baltimore Sun "one of the wittiest mystery writers around", is the author of the Mrs. Pargeter Mystery series, and the creator of the Charles Paris mysteries. Death on the Downs is the second novel in the new Fethering Mystery series, following The Body on the Beach. A former president of Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association and Chair of the Society of Authors, he lives in the south of England with his family.

From Booklist

(*Starred Review*) A dinner party in a richly restored country house in a Sussex village that is "riddled with class consciousness" is interrupted by a scream. A body, arms and legs neatly removed, has been discovered in the cellar. There to witness the discovery is an outsider, a middle-aged woman from the seaside village of Fethering. The woman, Jude, brings news of the grisly find back to her pal Carole, another middle-aged woman from Fethering, in hopes that a little mystery will pull her out of a depression brought on by a lapsed love affair. The two friends, one an ebullient New Age healer sort, the other a prickly, introverted retiree from the Home Office, are Brett's newest series sleuths, following in the footsteps of the author's two long-running series stars, Mrs. Pargeter and Charles Paris. As in their debut, the acclaimed Body on the Beach (2000), the ladies from Fethering once again proceed totally outside the bumbling police investigation in a somehow utterly credible way, gaining access and insight where the police can't. An "art crawl" through the village, for example, gives Jude and Carole clues cops would miss. Brett provides plenty of jolts along the way as the sins of the village writhe to the surface. A traditional country-house mystery, broadened and spiced by splendidly evocative writing and canny social comedy. Connie Fletcher
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About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0425185028
• ISBN 13: 9780425185025
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352