Christmas can be murder ...Carole Seddon hates Christmas - it all seems rather a waste of time. 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 burnt 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.
When Carole goes for a hair trim at Connies Clip Joint, she doesnt expect to find herself at the scene of a murder. But sure enough in the backroom, strangled by the cord of a hairdryer, sits Connies young assistant, Kyra. Whilst Carole and her sleuthing friend Jude enjoy some tactical snooping, Fethering fingers are pointing firmly at Kyras boyfriend, Nathan, who has disappeared. But Nathans family are also acting rather oddlywhilst convinced of Nathans innocence, they dont seem so certain that he is actually missing.
The seaside town of Fethering is home to Carole Seddon and Jude-"a pair of sleuths who are winning enough to make the reader invite them back for more" (Toronto Star)-and a place rife with foul play, as evidenced in the sixth mystery in the series. Carole's son is getting married to a wonderful girl-with rather odd parents. Not only do they have no interest in meddling with wedding preparations, but the mere thought of publicizing the affair frightens them beyond words.
A young solicitor is found hanged from his four-poster bed in a country house hotel following an all-male society dinner the night before. Jude doesn't believe it was suicide, and with her friend Carole's help, it would appear that The Pillars of Sussex are involved in a grand collusion.
Strait-laced Carole and her laid back neighbour Jude return in the second of Simon Brett's Fethering Series. 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 took shelter. No, what upset her was the human skeleton she discovered there... So begins the second investigation for Carole and her neighbour Jude. This time their enquires take them away from Fethering to the small hamlet of Weldisham.
