Blood at the Bookies

Simon Brett continues to provide ideal entertainment for those who like reading mystery fiction. His prose is supple, the dialogue lively, the characterisation convincing, and the settings varied and well-sketched. "Blood at the Bookies" is the latest escapade involving Fethering neighbours Carol and Jude. It is Jude that finds herself in an unlikely situation. She is in a betting shop. She is there to place a bet for an elderly house-bound neighbour. It is a new experience for Jude and she is sharply observant. She notices a young man enter the shop. Dressed in an overcoat and looking ill, he staggers out apparently unnoticed. Jude, however, sees that he leaves a trail of blood. She follows the trail, finds the young man collapsed in a nearby alley and hears his dying words. Thus Jude and her neighbour Carol have yet another opportunity to investigate a crime. The investigation moves steadily forward, each move providing (perhaps too neatly) a pointer to the next move. Whether or not you guess how it will all end before it does, you will enjoy the good hunt that Simon Brett provides.

In Fethering, England, Jude takes the bets of flu ailing nonagenarian Harold Peskett to the local betting shop. While there she notices a young man stumbling before he leaves the parlor. Soon afterward, she finds him lying dead in an alley. She later learns the victim was Polish immigrant Tadeusz Jankowski who was in town studying music at nearby Clincham University. Jude tells her stuffy but sick neighbor Carole Seddon, who is recovering from the flu. Unable to resist they begin to investigate as "amateur sleuth old biddies". When his sister Zofia arrives from Poland, she encourages Jude to keep looking into who killed her brother and why; she does think Tadeusz was in love, but she does not know with whom. With no clues, the pair keeps on digging while the killer watches their every move. The Fethering amateur sleuths are consistently some of the most entertaining (see latest Fethering caper (see DEATH UNDER THE DRYER, THE BODY ON THE BEACH and THE STABBING IN THE STABLES). The latest one holds up that tradition as an enjoyable whodunit that showcases the social world of the betting club and somewhat the non acceptance of foreign students in England. Carole is at her best as she struggles with just entering the bet shop and with seeking her new granddaughter if that means seeing her ex. Jude escorts Carole to places she would never dared go before. Cozy fans will appreciate the newest tour of Fethering. Harriet Klausner