Murder in the Museum: A Fethering Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Murder where?
Review: After a successful career in the Home Office, Carole Seddon retires to the seashore resort town of Fethering in West Sussex where she becomes friends with Jude, her next door neighbor. They partner up solving several local homicides. Carole has recently taken a volunteer position of trustee at Bracketts House, the home where the famous Catholic writer Esmond Chadleigh once lives. The property was turned into a heritage house and is in need of outside funding to keep on operating.

In the kitchen garden, a skeleton is found that dates back over seventy years. The find horrifies many of the trustees who don't want the author's named sullied. When Carole and Sheila Cartwright, the unofficial head of Bracketts House, are walking toward their cars after a trustee meeting, a shot rings out killing Sheila instantly. Carole believes there is a connection between the bodies found in the kitchen garden and Sheila's death and she is determined to find the common link knowing she may already be in danger.

Although Jude isn't working the investigation as much as usual because she is nursing a very sick friend, Carole picks up the slack and for once is not overshadowed by her best friend. She proves she can investigate a murder on her own and is able to subtly put the pieces together to figure out why the homicide occurred in the first place. Carole ferrets out the secrets and scandals of Bracketts house, which makes the heritage home more appealing to visitors and readers.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: solid amateur sleuth
Review: After a successful career in the Home Office, Carole Seddon retires to the seashore resort town of Fethering in West Sussex where she becomes friends with Jude, her next door neighbor. They partner up solving several local homicides. Carole has recently taken a volunteer position of trustee at Bracketts House, the home where the famous Catholic writer Esmond Chadleigh once lives. The property was turned into a heritage house and is in need of outside funding to keep on operating.

In the kitchen garden, a skeleton is found that dates back over seventy years. The find horrifies many of the trustees who don't want the author's named sullied. When Carole and Sheila Cartwright, the unofficial head of Bracketts House, are walking toward their cars after a trustee meeting, a shot rings out killing Sheila instantly. Carole believes there is a connection between the bodies found in the kitchen garden and Sheila's death and she is determined to find the common link knowing she may already be in danger.

Although Jude isn't working the investigation as much as usual because she is nursing a very sick friend, Carole picks up the slack and for once is not overshadowed by her best friend. She proves she can investigate a murder on her own and is able to subtly put the pieces together to figure out why the homicide occurred in the first place. Carole ferrets out the secrets and scandals of Bracketts house, which makes the heritage home more appealing to visitors and readers.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Where's Charles?
Review: Boo! These Fethering mysteries are way below par. What makes Brett's other work so great is the wit and polish of writing and the great characterization. Neither quality is apparent in this series. The two main characters are shallow stereotypes of the middle-class civil servant and the free spirit who have somehow come together over an interminable glass of white wine. To compare these to a Miss Marple is ludicrous. This one is particularly inane...the deep, dark family secret, the weak nephew, the vicious do-gooder, the ambitious administrator, the self-important bureaucrat, the unprincipled American academic (by the way, Americans do not pronounce "God" as "Gard"), the escaped convict and even the handicapped child! Please. Can we have more Charles Paris? Less white wine and more Bell's??

Rating:
Summary: Where's Charles?
Review: Boo! These Fethering mysteries are way below par. What makes Brett's other work so great is the wit and polish of writing and the great characterization. Neither quality is apparent in this series. The two main characters are shallow stereotypes of the middle-class civil servant and the free spirit who have somehow come together over an interminable glass of white wine. To compare these to a Miss Marple is ludicrous. This one is particularly inane...the deep, dark family secret, the weak nephew, the vicious do-gooder, the ambitious administrator, the self-important bureaucrat, the unprincipled American academic (by the way, Americans do not pronounce "God" as "Gard"), the escaped convict and even the handicapped child! Please. Can we have more Charles Paris? Less white wine and more Bell's??

Rating:
Summary: I want Charles Paris back!
Review: I have read all the Charles Paris and Mrs. Pargeter books in hardcover. I loved them all and looked forward to the latest series. I find it hard to believe they are written by the same author. The main characters are shallow and, in the case of one, mean spirited and jealous. The other, Jude, is just strange. I find no suspense; maybe because I don't care what happens to these two sad and unfulfilled women. After buying the first couple in hardcover I purchased next in paperback. I don't think I will buy another.

Rating:
Summary: Murder where?
Review: My major complaint about this book is the title. None of the events takes place within a museum; the museum is a structure that has been designed and anticipated, but has not been constructed within the time framework of the story. I'm sorry to be so picky, but why do authors or publishers do this sort of thing? It seems totally unnecessary. Book was all right, although Carol is anything but an appealing main character.

Rating:
Summary: traditional whodunit
Review: Simon Brett is the author of the Charles Paris series, the Mrs. Pargeter series and the Fethering mysteries. This is the fourth Fethering mystery that features Home Office retiree Carole Seddon. Fethering is a West Sussex seaside village. Most villages are quaint and quiet without much going on there. Fethering seems to get more than its share of murder. This time the action revolves around Brackett House which is the historical home of writer and poet Edmond Chadleigh. Carole has taken on the role of a trustee for Brackett House (the museum in the title). Tensions are high while trustees decide how to bring in some money to keep the museum afloat and also what to do about a proposed biography of Edmond Chadleigh. Before long a 90 year old skeleton is found in the garden, and shortly thereafter a murder takes place.

The Fethering series are very traditional cozy mysteries. Simon Brett has written a conventional, but entertaining whodunit. Broadly drawn quirky characters abound. It reminded me very much of the Agatha Christie Miss Marple books. Readers who want a light, witty, traditional mystery won?t go wrong with this one.

Rating:
Summary: A skillful blend of the historic and the contemporary
Review: This is a classic English country house whodunnit. In this case it's a country house owned by the family of an English poet and a house that will soon be expanded into a museum. Except that a body is unearthed on the potential site of the new building. Not to worry - the body's been there almost a century, but of course its discovery is followed by other, highly contemporary murders.

Into this blend of family secrets, academic jealousies and the out-and-out bitchiness of the board of trustees there is woven a central plot that reflects the history of the house and a number of sub-plots that are purely contemporary and carry the story forward at a cracking pace.

But it is the strongly drawn characters that make this mystery a winner. All the characters are three dimensional and true to life, especially the women who are prominent in the story. (I couldn't believe the writer was male until I saw his photo on the back jacket.) The female characters, especially Carole the sleuth-in-chief, appear real right down to the working of their minds and the emotional spin they give to seemingly unimportant events. Linked to that the dialogue is sharp and edgy and the personal interactions are articulate and witty.

From the first dreadful meeting of the museum trustees to the climax where the final victim has a crumb of ginger cake at the corner of his mouth the characters in this story will carry you delightfully along.

Rating:
Summary: Mistake in the Museum
Review: This is the first Fethering mystery I have read and if the inaccuracies are typical, I don't think I will read another. When the author has not provided a character list, or when the story involves several generations,I try to make my own name list or simple family tree. On page 4 in the PB, the father of Graham and Esmond is stated as being Felix Chadleigh. On page 103 he is Gerard. By page 318 he is back to Felix. Belinda Chadleigh is Esmond's daughter on page 7 and his sister on page 253 before returing to daughter. I enjoy mysteries that give the reader a fair chance of knowing who is who. Otherwise it was a fairly enjoyable cozy. The identity of the first body was too obvious once the family falsifies documents to make it look like one person was never there. Being the wife of an American professor, I did not like the characterization of the American or of all the researchers. They do often deal with an overwhelming amount of info. or they are denied access to what they need. But that does not make them into such pitiable creatures as Brett described.