Simon Brett introduces a sparkling new series of crime whodunnits starring the redoubtable Carole Seddon and her worldly wise accomplice, Jude. Very little disturbs the ordered calm of Fethering, a self-contained retirement settlement on England’s southern coast. Which is precisely why Carole Seddon has chosen to reside there. So the last thing Carole expects to encounter in Fethering is a new neighbour with but one name and an obviously colourful past. ‘Jude’ was not really Fethering…but neither was the body Carole found on the beach. A body, it has to be said, that has disappeared by the time the police arrive. Only Jude is ready to believe what her neighbour says she saw – and from that moment on, the two women are resolved to turn detectives

It wasn't the rain that upset Carole Seddon during her walk on the West Sussex Downs. It wasn't the dilapidated barn in which she was forced to seek shelter. No, what upset her was the human skeleton she discovered there, neatly packed into two blue fertiliser bags ...' So begins the second investigation for strait-laced Carole and her more laid-back neighbour Jude. This time their enquiries take them away from their seaside village of Fethering to the small downland hamlet of Weldisham. There gossips quickly identify the corpse as Tamsin Lutteridge, a young woman who disappeared from the village months before. Detective Sergeant Bayliss will confirm nothing. So why is Tamsin's mother, a friend of Jude's, so certain her daughter is still alive? Why is village elder statesman Graham Forbes suddenly taking an interest in Carole? And why is the decidedly unstable Brian Helling so keen to announce that there is a serial killer 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 facade

Bracketts, an Elizabethan house near town of Fethering, is about to be turned into a museum. Once the home of celebrated poet Esmond Cloudleigh, it has been decided that it should now become a shrine to his life and poetry. But the transition from house to museum is running far from smoothly, and Carole Seddon soon begins to regret her decision to be on the Board as the witnesses bitter antagonism and rivalry amongst the members. Then a shocking discovery is made: Buried in the kitchen garden is a human skeleton. And before too long, there is a second body, not yet cold

The Hopwicke Country House Hotel is to host an event for the all-male society, The Pillars of Sussex. Jude helps out on the night, and in the early hours of the morning she watches with relief as the rowdy guests drag themselves to their beds. The next morning, one young solicitor is absent from breakfast. But when Jude heads for Nigel Ackford's room, presuming he is feeling the effects of the night before, she is horrified to find him hanging from the beams of his four-poster bed . . . Was it suicide? Jude has her doubts. Enlisting the support of her neighbour, Carole, she makes some tentative enquiries. It soon transpires that The Pillars of Sussex are involved in a conspiracy of misinformation

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. And when the father of the bride is found brutally murdered, Carole enlists Jude’s help in finding an uninvited guest before the festivities become completely funereal

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 don’t seem so certain that he is actually missing. Meanwhile Connies ex-husband Martin, co-owner of the rival hairdressing chain Martin & Martina, appears to have been quite the ladies man with his young assistants, including Kyra herself. Could he have silenced her before she divulged his sordid secret and potentially ruined his career? As our discreet lady detectives decide there are only so many haircuts they can have for the sake of neighbourhood crime solving, so too do they realise this is no cut and dry case, and that some people will stop at nothing to keep their private lives concealed…

All bets are on when there’s a body found at the bookies…When Jude wanders into Fethering’s local bookies she has no idea that she will shortly be investigating the murder of Polish immigrant Tadeusz Jankowski. With her partner in crime, friend and next-door-neighbour Carole, she’s determined to discover who killed him – and why? There are several favourites in the running: A mysterious woman in the bookies? The charming lecturer at the university? Or the mysterious attacker who Jude only narrowly escapes from? Talking to suspects and gathering information, the amateur investigators try to piece together the broken trail of the young immigrant’s life. But in this race there’s only one winner – and it could be that they are pipped at the post by a cold and calculated killer…

What’s your poison? Fethering residents, Jude and Carole, get more than they bargained for when a lunchtime meal in their local pub leaves everyone with food poisoning. The landlord is horrified and when a series of disasters start to befall his business it looks like it could be the end of the road for the Crown and Anchor. Left with a bad taste in their mouths – and not just from the food – the two amateur detectives wonder if it might just be more than a run of bad luck, which is forcing their favorite pub into bankruptcy. When Ray, a young man with the mental age of a five year old, is found in the kitchen of the pub with a knife through his heart – Carole and Jude swing into action. There’s a killer on the loose in Fethering and our lady sleuths need to uncover who it is before it’s last orders for the pub – and themselves

The affluent seaside resort of Smalting is unaccustomed to crime. So when human remains are found beneath the floorboards of one of its beach huts, the community is awash with suspicion and fear. Amateur sleuths Carole Seddon and best friend Jude are drawn into the mystery, and their suspicion quickly falls on attractive Philly Rose, a young Londoner newly arrived in the area, whose boyfriend has recently vanished in mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, Kelvin Southwest, self-appointed 'ladies' man' and caretaker of Smalting's beach huts, seems to be hiding a dark secret beneath his smooth exterior, while Reginald Flowers, pompous President of the Smalting Beach Hut Association, becomes increasingly defensive about his own history. When the bones under the beach hut are identified, the ghosts of the past are painfully reawakened, and long-hidden secrets begin to surface. "Bones Under the Beach Hut" is an ingenious mystery from one of England's favourite crime writers, exquisitely plotted, teeming with wonderful characters and packed with unexpected twists. 

Invited to a Private View of the work of controversial artist Denzil Willoughby, the good citizens of Fethering are not quite sure what to expect. And it turns out to be a lively affair, culminating in several embarrassing confrontations. But what no one could have anticipated was that the evening would end in sudden, violent death. The police seem happy to accept that it was suicide, but Fethering residents Carole and Jude remain unconvinced

When Jude agrees to lend her vintage chaise longue for the local Amateur Dramatics Society's production of George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple, little does she realize she'll end up in a starring role. It's an ambitious play, culminating in a dramatic execution scene: a scene that's played for real when one of the leading actors is found hanging from the especially-constructed stage gallows during rehearsals. A tragic accident - or something more sinister? Carole and Jude make it their business to find out

Carole and Jude's Turkish holiday takes a murderous turn in the new Fethering mystery Carole Seddon has never enjoyed holidays much. Nevertheless, she has allowed herself to be persuaded by her friend Jude to accept a fortnight's free accommodation at a luxurious Turkish villa owned by Jude's property developer friend Barney Willingdon. But from the outset the holiday is marred by a series of menacing incidents: threatening messages daubed on the villa walls; and their host being accosted by a knife-wielding man at a local restaurant. As Carole and Jude launch into what they do best — investigating — it becomes clear that Barney Willingdon has made plenty of enemies, with his ruthless business deals and complicated love life. Matters come to a head when Carole's sightseeing trip to nearby Pinara is curtailed by the discovery of a body in one of the ancient Lycian tombs. And what really did happen to Barney's first wife, Zoe?

The wickedly entertaining new Fethering mystery featuring chalk-and-cheese detective duo Carole and Jude Polly's Cake Shop has been a feature of the shopping parade for many years, but when its owner announces her retirement, the Fethering residents start to worry about the loss of this popular amenity. Alarmed by rumours that the café might become a Starbucks, a group clubs together to form the Save Polly's Cake Shop Action Committee. The plan is that Polly's should become a community venture, managed and run by volunteers from the village. Roped in to help, Jude finds the committee meetings fraught with petty power struggles, clashing personalities and monstrous egos. Matters take a turn for the worse when she and Carole come across a badly-decomposed body on Fethering beach - and uncover a link to Polly's. Not only do the two neighbours have to find out whodunit, they are also faced with the thorny question: is it possible to run a business on that

When an author event at the local library ends in murder, Jude finds herself a suspect in the waspishly witty new Fethering mystery. Having been booked to give a talk at Fethering Library, successful author Burton St Clair invites his old friend Jude to come along. Although they haven?t met for twenty years, Jude is not surprised to find that St Clair hasn?t changed, with his towering ego and somewhat shaky relationship with the truth. What Jude hadn?t been suspecting however was that the evening would end in sudden, violent death. More worrying, from Jude?s point of view, is the fact that the investigating police officers seem to be convinced that she herself was responsible for the crime. With the evidence stacking up against her, Jude enlists the help of her neighbour Carole not just to solve the murder but to prevent herself from being arrested for committing it

Although she hadn't known Leonard Mallett very well, nor liked him particularly, Carole Seddon feels duty bound to attend her fellow committee member's funeral. As she suspected, the hymns, readings and sermon are all very predictable - not unlike Leonard himself. What she couldn't have predicted was that the deceased's daughter would use the occasion to publicly accuse her stepmother of murder. Did Heather Mallett really kill her husband, as many Fethering residents believe? Deciding to get to the heart of the matter, Carole's neighbour Jude joins the new community choir – and discovers that amidst the clashing egos and petty resentments lurk some decidedly false notes. At least one chorister would appear to be hiding a deadly secret – and it's up to Carole and Jude to unearth the truth

When Carole Seddon's car is vandalised, it heralds the start of a disturbing series of events in the witty and entertaining new Fethering mystery. Carole Seddon's trusty Renault is one of her most treasured possessions. So when it is vandalised, there's only one person she will entrust with its repair: Bill Shefford has been servicing the vehicles of the good citizens of Fethering for many years. But how could something like this happen in Fethering of all places? Then the note is shoved under Carole's kitchen door: Watch out. The car window was just the start. It would appear that she has been deliberately targeted. But by whom . and why? Matters take an even more disturbing turn when a body is discovered at Shefford's Garage, crushed to death by a falling gearbox. It would appear to be a tragic accident. Carole and her neighbour Jude are not so sure. And the more they start to ask questions, the more evidence they uncover of decidedly foul play

Neighbours Carole and Jude uncover more than they bargained for when Jude decides to redecorate her cottage in this lighthearted cosy mystery. Having decided to redecorate Woodside Cottage, Jude has engaged the services of local man Pete, who has painted and decorated the homes of Fethering residents for many years. Pete is currently working on Footscrow House, a large Victorian building which is being converted into holiday flats by a local developer. Having arranged to meet at 'Fiasco House', as it is known locally due to the many failed business enterprises over the years, Jude and Pete make a surprising discovery behind a wall panel: a woman's handbag! The casual discovery becomes serious when the police identify the handbag's owner as Anita Garner, a young woman who vanished in suspicious circumstances twenty years earlier. Determined to find out what really happened to Anita all those years ago, Jude and her neighbour Carole's investigations plunge them into a maze of deception and murder, as they uncover a number of uncomfortable secrets beneath the serene surface of Fethering life . . .