The Torso in the Town (Fethering Mysteries) - Hardcover

Simon Brett, called by The Baltimore Sun "one of the wittiest mystery writers around", is the author of the Mrs. Pargeter Mystery series, and the creator of the Charles Paris mysteries. Death on the Downs is the second novel in the new Fethering Mystery series, following The Body on the Beach. A former president of Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association and Chair of the Society of Authors, he lives in the south of England with his family.

(*Starred Review*) A dinner party in a richly restored country house in a Sussex village that is "riddled with class consciousness" is interrupted by a scream. A body, arms and legs neatly removed, has been discovered in the cellar. There to witness the discovery is an outsider, a middle-aged woman from the seaside village of Fethering. The woman, Jude, brings news of the grisly find back to her pal Carole, another middle-aged woman from Fethering, in hopes that a little mystery will pull her out of a depression brought on by a lapsed love affair. The two friends, one an ebullient New Age healer sort, the other a prickly, introverted retiree from the Home Office, are Brett's newest series sleuths, following in the footsteps of the author's two long-running series stars, Mrs. Pargeter and Charles Paris. As in their debut, the acclaimed Body on the Beach (2000), the ladies from Fethering once again proceed totally outside the bumbling police investigation in a somehow utterly credible way, gaining access and insight where the police can't. An "art crawl" through the village, for example, gives Jude and Carole clues cops would miss. Brett provides plenty of jolts along the way as the sins of the village writhe to the surface. A traditional country-house mystery, broadened and spiced by splendidly evocative writing and canny social comedy. Connie Fletcher
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