From Publishers Weekly
Prolific British author Brett's fifth Fethering mystery (after 2003's Murder in the Museum) featuring Carole Seddon offers comfortable pacing and plenty of plot twists. Carole's pal Jude Nichols bails out an old friend by waiting tables at the Hopwicke Country House Hotel, once the playground of the very rich and very famous. Hopwicke and its owner, former model Suzy Longthorne, have fallen on hard times since 9/11, and the hotel has been forced to accept a far less sophisticated clientele, like the Pillars of Sussex men's club. The Pillars have a long and spotty history of philanthropy, but are far better known as a group of carousing gentlemen with friends in high places. When a possible inductee is found hanged in his room, only Jude believes it wasn't a suicide. The Pillars all tell the same story, the police are convinced with little investigation and even Suzy, who found a threatening note before the inductee's death, suddenly clams up. Jude turns to Carole, and the two try to untangle a tightening web of lies. The entertaining supporting cast includes a chef with attitude and a slew of solicitors, one of whom is maddeningly smitten with Carole. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
*Starred Review* An Edwardian country house converted into a sumptuous hotel, complete with sweeping views of the South Downs and the English Channel, provides the setting for two murders in Brett's fifth Fethering mystery. This may sound like another fraying-around-the-edges formulaic cozy, but not in the hands of Brett, who once constructed backstage, behind-the-mike British theater mysteries starring an alcoholic, fading actor-sleuth. Brett infuses his plots with scathing and hilarious social commentary; reading him is very much like deciphering Hogarth's pictorial send-ups of low and high society. Brett's latest sleuths are middle-aged women in the seaside village of Fethering-- Carole Seddon, an early-retired, acerbic refugee from the Home Office, and her neighbor, Jude, a blowsy, New Agey freethinker. They have stumbled upon (and over) bodies on the beach, on the Downs, and on the grounds of a museum. Jude has the honors of finding a body this time as she helps out at the local hotel--the body of a young man strangled by a cord on a four-poster bed. Even odder than the man's death is the fact that seemingly everyone wants to dismiss this and a subsequent death at the hotel as accidental or suicide, especially the members of the all-male, all-powerful Pillars of Sussex, to which one victim belonged and the other aspired. Intricate plotting and wry comedy make this the best Fethering yet. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The Hopwickle Country House Hotel once boasted to a clientele of the rich and famous. But hard times call for hard measures, so owner Suzy Longthorne throws open her doors to welcome the Pillars of Sussex - an elitist group of local businessmen whose social gatherings revolve around drinking and off-color commentary." "Short staffed, Suzy recruits Jude as a waitress to help keep the spirits flowing. But the next morning, Jude discovers that one spirit has flown away for good, when she finds the body of a young man - supposedly an initiate for Pillar membership - hanging from the beam of a four-poster bed." The police are quick to rule the death a suicide. The Pillars of Sussex deny that the victim was ever considered for membership. Suzy just wants to forget the incident ever happened. But Jude knows that both parties have something to hide - so she enlists a reluctant Carole to nurture her relationship with a flirtatious Pillar in the hope that they'll topple him over and uncover the truth.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Prolific British author Brett's fifth Fethering mystery (after 2003's Murder in the Museum) featuring Carole Seddon offers comfortable pacing and plenty of plot twists. Carole's pal Jude Nichols bails out an old friend by waiting tables at the Hopwicke Country House Hotel, once the playground of the very rich and very famous. Hopwicke and its owner, former model Suzy Longthorne, have fallen on hard times since 9/11, and the hotel has been forced to accept a far less sophisticated clientele, like the Pillars of Sussex men's club. The Pillars have a long and spotty history of philanthropy, but are far better known as a group of carousing gentlemen with friends in high places. When a possible inductee is found hanged in his room, only Jude believes it wasn't a suicide. The Pillars all tell the same story, the police are convinced with little investigation and even Suzy, who found a threatening note before the inductee's death, suddenly clams up. Jude turns to Carole, and the two try to untangle a tightening web of lies. The entertaining supporting cast includes a chef with attitude and a slew of solicitors, one of whom is maddeningly smitten with Carole. Agent, Jane Chelius. (Aug. 3) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews