'A new Simon Brett novel is an event for mystery fans.' P.D.James

Very little disturbs the ordered calm in the retirement settlement of Fethering, which is exactly why Carole Seddon had chosen to live there since her divorce. Her intensely ordered life is challenged with the surprise arrival of a new neighbour with an obviously colourful past and only one name, 'Jude'.
Jude is not really Fethering ....but neither is the body Carole finds on the beach.
When the body goes missing before the Police investigate, Jude is the only person ready to believe Carole. The unlikely pair team-up together to solve the mystery, uncovering unsettling truths with each step.

The second novel in the Fethering Mysteries series, following The Body on the Beach (Pan paperback).

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 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 enquires 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 Baylis 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.

Grant and Kim Roxby hoped that their first dinner party at Pelling House would make an impression. And the next day it's certainly the talk of Fedborough. For their guests had been enjoying a pleasant meal before they were interrupted by a gruesome discovery. A human torso hidden in the cellar.
Jude and Carole are soon questioning the locals and learning that Fedborough works to its own rules. But why is a town so notoriously distrustful of outsiders proving so helpful to their enquiries . . . ?

Simon Brett lives near Arundel, West Sussex

'Brett is a master at subtle characterization, superb setting, and plotting in which his characters solve themselves in the process of solving murders' Booklist

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...

story of passion and idealism, which describes a group of men and women in the Middle Ages whose destinies are fatefully linked with the building of a cathedral. In a country torn by civil war, two generations struggle to rise above their primitive circumstances and create something beautiful.

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Remember the fairy stories you were told when you were a child? Tales of tiny, magical, winged beings and elves, wicked witches and goblins. Demons . . .
What if one day you found they were true? What if, when you became an adult, you discovered they were all based on fact? What if you met the fantasy and it was all so very real?
That's what happened to Thom Kindred. The wonders were revealed to him. But so were the