The Body on the Beach

Written by Simon Brett

Narrated by Geoffrey Howard

Recently retired, Carole Seddon is residing in the Fethering the cottage she purchased with her ex-husband. Theree she maintains a quiet and sensible life with the companionship of Gulliver, her Labrador retriever. But everything changes when she and Gulliver, while taking their daily constitutional, find a corpse on the beach. What’s more, there are two wounds on its neck. The body mysteriously disappears and the police dismiss Carole as a befuddled middle-aged woman. She almost starts to believe it herself...until a stranger threatens her to keep quiet or else.

Unable to contain her anxiety, Carole confides in her eccentric neighbor, Jude-who suggests that if the police cannot be bothered to catch a killer, maybe they should do it themselves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Apr 20, 2009
• ISBN: 9780786118397

Simon Brett

Simon Brett worked as a producer in radio and television before taking up writing full time. As well as the much-loved Fethering series, the Mrs Pargeter novels and the Charles Paris detective series, he has written a number of radio and television scripts. Married with three children, he lives in an Agatha Christie-style village on the South Downs. You can find out more about Simon at his website: www.simonbrett.com

Reviews for The Body on the Beach

[bsquaredinoz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Carole Seddon is not someone I’d like to meet in real life. In her 50′s and retired from a job in the Home Office she has established a very orderly life for herself in the village of Fethering. She has a long list of rules about what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behaviours and seems to judge people on the most insignificant of factors. As this book opens she is walking her dog Gulliver on the beach when they discover a body. After making her way home and washing the dog Carole notifies the Police but when they look in the spot Carole has described there is no body. Being a little shocked at finding a body and at having been treated like a silly old lady by the Police, Carole takes the unusual step of talking to her new neighbour about the events.

Jude (just Jude, no surname) is the woman who has moved in next door to Carole and is her complete opposite in terms of personality. She has no set rules for acceptable behaviour as can be evidenced by her ordering large glasses of wine (sometimes at lunch time) and beating her rugs in the front garden! But though Jude isn’t ‘a Fethering sort of person at all’ she listens to Carole and doesn’t think she’s crazy so the two women embark on a friendship of sorts and decide to investigate what happened to the body they are both convinced that Carole saw. Through a series of orchestrated meetings with key players in the village they start to build up a picture of what might have gone on.

As the setting is described in a fair amount of detail the story here is slow to get going but once it does there’s a nice build up of suspense, though the plot is not terribly difficult to work out for people who’ve read a lot of crime fiction. However if English village mysteries are your thing then I think you’d really enjoy this book as Brett has done a great job of depicting the place and its various characters so that not all is as idyllic as it might first appear. Somewhat unusually for this kind of story the motive for murder and associated covering up activities is really very credible when finally revealed.

There are a further 11 books (so far) in this series and because there are hints that Carole’s very prim and proper personality might be weakening towards the end of this book I could be tempted to read another if for no other reason than to find out if she does join the human race after all. The Body on the Beach certainly has decent plotting, an intricately drawn setting and credible, if not likable, characters to recommend it as a promising start to a series.

[janetf8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyable weekend's read. I'd been looking for some entertainment and having heard a snatch of this on Radio 4 Extra I was delighted to find it in the library. Forgive the pun in the opening sentence of this novel, it gets better. There must be a reason why I suddenly enjoyed reading about a heroine in her early fifties, recently retired, but I just can't quite put my finger on it.Forgive also, the moment when the plot falls apart because the criminal's motivation just doesn't seem plausible.I'll look out for other books by this author - and there are lots of them!

[cookiedemon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first in the `Fethering' mystery series, and though I'm a bit late to the party I'm sure it won't be long before I'm fully caught up with the rest of these, because this was a really fun read. It's not quite a `cosy' mystery as it is a bit darker in tone, but still manages to retain a nice traditional feel owing to its small coastal town setting which I enjoyed a lot.The main protagonist is fifty-something divorcee Carole Seddon, a rather prim woman who tends to keep herself to herself, until she stumbles across a body on the local beach whilst she's walking her dog. After reporting her find to the police, she is perplexed to be told there is nothing there. The only person who believes that she isn't merely a hysterical woman is her new neighbour, Jude, a woman who seems to be hiding a few secrets of her own...I have to confess that from the get go I wasn't sure if this mystery would appeal to me. I do read *a lot* of mystery and crime novels and this book at first mainly appeared to focus on a description of the village itself which I thought would be a little bit dry. However, the description was nicely done and it did pull me into the story, so by the time Carole actually came along I did feel I knew a little bit about Fethering and could clearly see it in my mind. Carole and Jude make terrific amateur sleuths and it was nice to see a genuine friendship building between them as the book progressed- particularly as they are complete opposites in just about everything!The characters are sharply portrayed too, even the secondary ones, and I appreciated the depiction of small town attitudes and actions that were written into the novel, particularly the attitudes towards newcomer Jude which rang very true to life. The book is varied in context and I couldn't quite put all of the pieces of the mystery together until near the end, which was good. I hate mysteries that are just too obvious, but thankfully this wasn't. It's also a non-too-taxing read, ideal if you have a few hours to curl up and relax.The little seeds of mystery have also been well and truly sprinkled about the enigmatic Jude. I look forward to getting to know her and Carole better as I continue the rest of this lovely British crime series. Recommended if you like traditional mysteries and British detective stories; this is a lovely little whodunit. *This review also appears on Amazon.co.uk*

[fluffyblue_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed this crime novel. On the front it say "...thoroughly English whodunnit" and I have to agree! Carole Seddon is an ex home-office officio and thinks herself quite well-to-do. She looks down on her new neighbour, Jude, who has recently moved to Fethering, a seaside town in Sussex, mainly filled with retirees. Whilst walking her dog on the beach, Carole finds a body. When the police call round to talk to her about her report, they tell her that there was no body found. The next day another body is found and Carole is threatened by a lady with a gun. Suffice it to say, with the help of her new neighbour they manage to solve the riddle of the two bodies (which are connected) in a very enjoyable romp. I'll certainly look out for more "Fethering" mysteries in the future. I liked this one immensely. I enjoyed the fact that the two main characters were so different - Carole being nosy and wanting to know more about her rather 'hippy' neighbour, and Jude, never giving anything away about herself, although being far more free-spirited that Carole. For example, we never find out her surname - not for lack of trying on a number of people's parts though!

[bcquinnsmom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good first entry of this series featuring Carole Seddon, who lives in the tiny little seaside village of Fethering in England. One day Carole is out walking her dog when she comes across a body on the beach. She looks at it, walks home, and because her dog is stinky from being in the water, she gives him a bath. Then because she made a mess in her kitchen, she cleans up her kitchen. THEN she calls the police and when they arrive, they don't take her seriously. It seems that by the time the police arrived, there was no body on the beach. So, Carole is really upset that the police are taking her for a complete idiot, and spills her guts to her new neighbor, Jude. Jude's response is that if they police don't care enough to look into the situation, then the two of them should do some digging and solve the crime themselves. So that's what they do.Carole is one of those very prim and proper persons where Jude is the total opposite...more of a free spirit and she doesn't mind anyone knowing. They work well together because they are so balanced, and I'm looking forward to going through this series. It was fun & I'm sure that the characters will develop even more as the series continues.My first novel by Simon Brett; British mystery readers will enjoy this one and I recommend it.

[majkia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Carole, a buttoned-down, highly OCD sort, lives in a small country town, Featherings. When a younger woman named Jude moves into the cottage next door, Carole enlists her help when she finds a body on the beach, which subsequently disappeared. The two women form an unlikely pact to find out just what is going on.Enjoyable cozy mystery which had me laughing out loud at several points as Carole details the strictures on Feathering's social structure. The mystery was interesting with twists and turns but the mystery wasn't the most important aspect of the book. Rather Carole and Jude and the town's inhabitants were front and center.

[mirihawk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm off and running with a new series. If you are unfamiliar with Simon Brett, let me just say that his use of wry description is amazing.

[drapple_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I started this novel with a strong dislike of the main character, but I must say, she grew on me. By the end of the book, I was very fond of her and fascinated by the mysteries she was investigated.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Carole, retired from a job with the Home Office, settled in the quiet village of Fethering. A mysterious neighbor Jude moves in next door. While walking her dog, Carole discovers a body on the beach. Before calling the police, she washes her dog and tidies the kitchen. When they arrive at the scene, the body is missing, and they don't put much stock in her story. Her neighbor Jude is the only one who believes her account. A woman comes to Carole's door threatening her with a gun. She escapes out the back when Jude comes calling. Jude talks Carole into going to the local pub, even though Carole is not a pub person. Strange things occur at the yacht club, and ultimately that venue along with scenes with its members in other locations, provides most of the action for the book. The characters are quirky. I am not naturally drawn to them. I think the novel would have been strengthened by making it a police procedural. Carole and Jude are not the most endearing investigative team. I listened to the audio version read by Geoffrey Howard.

[quibee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pleasant read but not wildly riveting.