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Start giftingDeath on the Downs
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Learn moreIt wasn't the rain that upset Carole Seddon during her walk on the West Sussex Downs, nor was it the dilapidated barn in which she sought shelter. What upset her was the human skeleton she discovered there, neatly packed into two blue fertilizer bags.
Thus begins the mystery for strait-laced Carole and her more laid-back neighbor Jude, whose investigation takes them to the small hamlet of Weldisham. There gossips quickly identify the corpse as Tamsin Lutteridge, a young woman who disappeared from the village months before, after becoming involved with several practitioners of alternative medicine. But Detective Sergeant Baylis will confirm nothing, and Tamsin's mother is adamant that her daughter is still alive. Others believe a serial killer is 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 fa├ºade.
Simon Brett is the creator of four series of detective novels, the Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter, Fethering, and Blotto & Twinks series. His 1984 stand-alone novel A Shock to the System was adapted as a film starring Michael Caine. He was awarded an OBE in 2016 for his services to literature and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Before turning to writing full time, he worked with BBC radio and London Weekend Television Other radio work includes several one-off plays for Radio 4 and a number of episodes of the Baldi detective series. A former president of Britain’s Crime Writers Association, he is president of the Detection Club, as well as being involved with various writers’ organizations.
Geoffrey Howard (a.k.a. Ralph Cosham) (1936–2014) was a British journalist who changed careers to become a narrator and screen and stage actor. He performed in more than one hundred professional theatrical roles. His audiobook narrations were named “Audio Best of the Year” by Publishers Weekly, and he won seven AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2013 he won the coveted Audie Award for Best Mystery Narration for his reading of Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery.
Reviews
“Like all the best English whodunits, this murder mystery is set in one of those old Home Counties villages where everything looks immaculate on the outside but old secrets have been simmering. Beautifully plotted, with a sharp eye for the social comedy of middle-class middle England.”
“Few crime writers are as enchantingly gifted…as Simon Brett…[He] writes in an amused satiric style.”
“Mr. Brett’s light touch produces an enjoyable mystery.”
“As in Agatha Christie mysteries, the characters are larger than life, but all the clues are provided to help the reader feel part of the puzzle-solving process. Simon Brett has a good track record…He’s onto another winner with the Fethering mysteries.”
“There’s something special about well-written British mysteries, and Simon Brett’s Death on the Downs is special, indeed.”
“Brett is off again on a marvelous send-up of contemporary British society…mixed with the kind of writing that makes you want both to savor the prose slowly and to turn the page quickly to find out what twist lies ahead.”
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