The Fethering Mystery Collection – by Simon Brett (unabridged) (10 books) Free Audiobook

#1 *The Body on the Beach* [7 hours 34 mins]
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.

#2 *Death on the Downs* [8 hours 31 mins] (thanks to Bookywoody)
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 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 enquires 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 Baylis 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.

#3 *The Torso in the Town* [8 hours 13 mins]
Amateur sleuths Jude and Carole take on their third case when a terrible discovery is made in the cellar of a grand old house. Grant and Kim Roxby had hoped that their first dinner party at Pelling House would make an impression with their new neighbours. And the next day it’s certainly the talk of the town of Fedborough. For their guests – including the couple’s old friend Jude – had been enjoying a pleasant meal before they were rudely interrupted by a gruesome discovery. A human torso hidden in the cellar. Jude races home to Fethering and her friend Carole with the news. And soon the pair are back in Fedborough, questioning the locals. But they can’t help but wonder why a town so notoriously distrustful of outsiders is proving so terribly amenable to their enquiries…

#4 *Murder in the Museum* [8 hours 26 mins]
Fethering sleuths Carole and Jude return in a wonderful mystery of bitter rivalries and deep-rooted jealousies. Bracketts, an Elizabethan house near the town of Fethering, is about to be turned into a museum. Once the home of celebrated poet Esmund Chadleigh, it has now been decided that it should become a shrine to his life and poetry. But the transition from house to museum is running far from smoothly. For a sudden discovery is made: Buried in the kitchen garden is a human skeleton. And before too long, there is a second body, not yet cold. Murder is no longer just a dreadful possibility, but a certainty. It is a case that will test the sleuthing powers of Board member Carole Seddon and her friend Jude as never before…

#5 *The Hanging in the Hotel* [8 hours 30 min]
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 society are involved in a grand collusion.

#6 *The Witness at the Wedding* [7 hours 58 min]
Carole Seddon’s son is about to be married. But as plans for the big day get underway, Stephen’s future parents-in-law, Marie and Harold, seem desperate to keep the affair as discreet as possible. Then, after a quiet engagement party, Harold disappears …only to be found dead the next day, in a burnt out car in Epping Forest. While the family try to deal with their grief, Carole discovers they are concealing secrets that can be traced back thirty years, to the murder of Marie’s best friend. Now the girl’s killer has been released from prison and is back in his old stomping ground, near Fethering. As Carole enlists the help of her friend Jude in researching the truth, Gaby returns to London to find herself in grave danger. Fearing the bride-to-be is the killer’s next target, Carole and Jude must unravel the Martin family’s past before he makes another deadly move …and before the happiness of the impending wedding day is ruined.

#7 *The Stabbing in the Stables* [7 hours 50 min]
Fethering’s favorite sleuths are at it again as Jude and Carole Seddon find themselves in the midst of some horseplay, after stumbling upon the body of ex-equestrian Walter Fleet at Long Bamber Stables. The police attribute the stabbing death to the mysterious “Horse Ripper,” who’s been mutilating mares across West Sussex-and who Walter obviously caught in the act. But considering Walter’s track record out of the saddle, Jude and Carole find that there are plenty of suspects- including Walter’s put-upon wife and more than a few jealous husbands who wanted Walter put out to pasture.

#8 *Death Under the Dryer* [8 hours 8 min]
When Carole goes for a hair trim at Connies Clip Joint, she doesn’t 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. 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.

#9 *Blood at the Bookies* [7 hours 33 min] (thanks to Telpointer)
The bets are on whodunnit when a body is found at the bookies …Jude has never been averse to a bit of a flutter; her friend Carole, on the other hand, thinks that the local betting shop is a den of iniquity. But when Jude stumbles upon the body of Polish immigrant Tadeusz Jankowski – the race is on to find his killer. The odds aren’t looking good. No one seems to know anything about the mysterious Tadek – even his sister can’t shed any light on what he was doing in Fethering. Who was the anonymous woman in the bookies who seems to have vanished? Why was Tadek interested in the local university? And who is the ‘Fifi’ Tadek spoke of with his dying breath? As they question the local residents, Carol finds an unexpected friend in an inveterate gambler and Jude finds herself in potentially more trouble than she can handle with a lecherous and charming drama professor. In this race there can only be one winner, but with no leads and several suspects in the running will our lady detectives be pipped at the post by a cold and calculating killer?

#10 *The Poisoning in the Pub* [8 hours 7 min] (thanks to Telpointer)
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.