::READERS REVIEWS::

Another great installment - Carole and Jude are back solving another mystery, but this time, not in their own village of Fethering. Carole finds a sack of human bones in a barn in a neighboring village, a village filled with people who are phony, deceitful, have odd family histories, and a few are just plain unfriendly. Nothing in the village is what it seems.

As with most of the books in this series, the nabbing of the culprit builds to a heart pounding but satisfying climax.

BOTH OF THE FETHERING SERIES ARE GOOD - I ENJOYED BOTH OF THIS NEW SERIES, AND WAIT FOR BRETTS NEXT BOOK TO COME OUT ESPECIALLY THE CHARLES PARIS, AND MRS PARGETER, I FIND HIM TO BE A PLEASENT WRITER WITH LOTS OF WIT, I HAVE READ ABOUT EVERY THING HE HAS OUT NOW, WHATS COMING UP? HOPE ITS SOON . A GA READER

A Step Below... - This was such a disappointing book for a Simon Brett fan like myself I was left wondering why he'd put his name on it. The likeable, if flawed, characters of Mrs. Partager and Charles Paris are what makes those books so winning. Here, the characters are not only unlikeable, they are shallow, wooden and one-dimensional. Instead of showing us personalities by "action", he "describes" what people are like. These are not direct quotes, but examples of writing style--"Jude is a very outgoing person who is attractive to many people, including most men" or "Carole is a rather shy, diffident person who likes to be around Jude and is curious about her free and easy lifestyle"). Thank you for telling me, but I'd rather figure that out myself from the character's behavior.

Usually, Brett's writing is witty and urbane. It was hard to swallow stuff like..."Jude was thinking about the man in London she'd had a relationship with"...hmm. Wouldn't she be thinking about him by name? Or, after a description of Brian Helling..."He was very dangerous." Show me.

Also, the book was very poorly edited. In the copy I read, at the climax of the action Brian Helling was called "Nick Helling".
So, I guess you can see I was disappointed! I hope if this series continues Brett will try a lot harder to make it worthy of his talent.

I miss Brett's usual wit - I'm a huge fan of Simon Brett's "Charles Paris" series, a moderate fan of his "Mrs.Pargeter" series. In his mysteries I always enjoy his wit and sense of irony particularly as regards his characters' (both principal and minor) lack of self-knowledge. In "Death on the Downs" Carol Seddons inadvertantly discovers a dismembered skeleton in a village near her town. Carol, a button-down (or at least a Burberry raincoat) type teams up with her free-spirited neighbor Jude to solve the case. What ensues is an exploration of the village's history and the interdynamics of its residents. Brett describes the gentrifying of the village, including the takeover of the local pub by a countrywide hospitality chain. Humble cottages become yuppie showplaces and skyrocketing property values make living in the village out of reach for working class people who were born and raised there. This class distinction is one of the causes of the action that follows and makes for amusing moments. Of one of the new homes Brett wonders whether it really needed both a turret and a belltower.

The situation is ripe for satire and yet Brett's storyline is grim, quite possibly due to the focus on Carol who really is quite dour. My sense is that Brett relishes characters with quirks and neither Jude nor Carol have many. I found the mystery itself dissatisfying and can only recommend it for Brett's talent for description of the village and some of the peripheral characters.

The second of a very good series - In Death on the Downs, Carole Seddon finds herself looking for a place to walk without running into too many people. Her dog Gulliver has cut his paw on a can on the beach and can't walk with her. Carole has difficulty talking to strangers and doesn't want to go to a place that has many walkers. She goes to a nearby village of Weldisham and takes a walk on the deserted downs there. It starts to rain, so she takes shelter in a dilapidated old barn. Underneath her bench she finds two bags of human bones. She calls the police and assumes that her involvement ends there. Carole keeps thinking back on the mystery, however and the people of the small village. With the help of her friend Jude. They solve the mystery together.

This is a rather dark mystery. There are no characters that the reader automatically roots for. Even the protagonist Carole Seddon is a quiet, withdrawn and not altogether sympathetic character. The mystery is very good, with lots of twists and turns, and although I suspected the murderer, I wasn't sure until the end. This is a very good series.