Tuesday Treasures – 25 #Brainfluffbookblog #LightintheLockdown

In this week’s Tuesday Treasures, I’ve some photos of our walk on the beach on Sunday morning with Himself. As you can see, the sea was quite rough as we’d had high winds the previous night. It was a brisk day, with a temperature of around 39 degrees F – and yes… there were three surfers bobbing around out there in the water, which you can see in one of the pics.

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY arc Guilt at the Garage – Book 20 of the Fethering Mystery series by Simon Brett #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #GuiltattheGaragebookreview

I enjoy reading Simon Brett’s writing – see my reviews of Death on the Downs, Mrs Pargeter’s Public Relations, The Liar in the Library, The Killer in the Choir and The Clutter Corpse. Death on the Downs, The Liar in the Library and The Killer in the Choir are all Fethering Mysteries featuring spiky Carol and her far more laidback friend and neighbour, Jude. What is icing on the cake for me, is that Brett lives locally and sets his murders in a fictional village a few miles away from where we live, so that places we know well regularly feature in these entertaining stories.

BLURB: 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 .

REVIEW: These books come under the heading of ‘cosy mysteries’ but I’m not convinced that ‘cosy’ is a suitable adjective for the dynamic that Brett has set up here. Carole Sedden has to be one of the most prickly protagonists I’ve encountered. Unsociable, snobbish, judgemental and narrow-minded, I find her difficult to like. But she is also desperately insecure, horribly lonely and rather vulnerable. I also find it appealing that when her car is vandalised, she doesn’t immediately set to and try to discover the perpetrator – but rushes to get it repaired and cover up the event, because she is obscurely ashamed that such a thing has happened to her…

As ever, I was glad when Jude made an appearance. She is the opposite of Carole in so many ways and far more agreeable – they make an ideal Holmes and Watson pairing. Jude needs Carole’s obsessive tenaciousness and Carole needs Jude’s people skills. The garage murder worked well. I enjoyed the dynamic and learning more about a kindly man who took pride in his work. Brett’s take on the way the social fabric of this country is being strained, with everyone decamping to their own political and class echo chamber, is well depicted without becoming a rant.

Any niggles? Well, the trouble with setting up a hook, like the attack of a protagonist’s car, for instance – is that the denouement has to pay off. And in this case, I felt it was rather contrived and didn’t really satisfy. But because the main action was so well handled and crafted, this didn’t turn out to be a dealbreaker – more of a minor disappointment. I’ll certainly be getting hold of the next book, given there seems to be a major change in the air… Recommended for fans who like their murder mysteries with intelligent and sharp-edged observations on modern society, along with the dead bodies. While I obtained an arc of Guilt at the Garage from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10