The Hanging in the Hotel: 6

If you haven't read any of the earlier books in the series, let me make a brief introduction to the two amateur sleuths whose persistence, nosiness, and good luck will bring you much good fun. Carole Seddon is fairly recently retired, divorced, and introspective. Carole is careful in everything she does, including the impressions she makes. Her fairly new neighbor, Jude, is just the opposite. Jude (a woman her age who avoids using her last name . . . of which she has had at least two) has a mysterious background that seem to include lots of different men and a variety of alternative healing skills. Carole is good at bringing order to Jude's life, and Jude brings some excitement into Carole's existence. In four past books, they've teamed up in successful solutions to murders. In The Hanging in the Hotel, Jude is pressed into service as a waitress for a catered event at her friend's hotel, Hopwicke Country House Hotel. Suzy Longthorne, the hotel's owner, is Jude's age, but Suzy has kept the looks that once made her face and figure a regular feature in the tabloids. Suzy has however fallen on hard times. She's divorced and all of her money is tied up in the hotel. Her once-exclusive place for the rich, famous, and affluent wannabes now has to scramble for crumbs . . . which is what it's like to host the Pillars of Sussex, an unusually misogynistic group of local male movers and shakers. As the men drink too much and say obnoxious things, Suzy and Jude just grin and bear it. Jude is jolted however when the happy young man she helped into bed turns up dead by hanging the next morning. Everyone is quickly convinced it's suicide, except Jude. A cover-up also seems in the works, along with continual pressure on Jude to change her mind. Carole Seddon is brought into Jude's investigation, and the two are soon off turning rocks over. Carole's life is also turned a bit upside down by the news that her only child is engaged and wants Carole to meet his fiancée. This development also adds new windows onto the development of Carole as a character in the series. A lot of the humor in the book is extremely heavy handed. But it's still in good fun as you see people go to great lengths to secure small advantages for themselves. But behind the humor, there's the dark face of evil. Simon Brett does a good job of hinting at the evil and letting you use your imagination. If you think about what's hinted here, the ham-handed humor will remind you of how Shakespeare used clowns and fools to lighten his darkest tragedies. I thought that the implied evil was the best part of the book. Without that element, this would have been an average mystery at best.

Interesting, entertaining, generally enjoyable. Too much back-tracking for me, especially early on. Original ending!

This is the fifth book of the Fethering mysteries. The main character is a holistic healer, Jude, assisted by her next-door neighbor Carole Seddon (who used to work at the Home Office). Jude is helping out at the upscale Hopwicke Country House Hotel (as she has done before) for a meeting of a men's group called the "Pillars of Sussex" whose members are aptly described by the editorial review above as "well-connected, philanthropic, and unashamedly chauvinistic" and "known for their heavy drinking and dubious dealings." As you might suspect, a wannabee Pillar is found dead. Is it murder? Is it suicide? You'll really enjoy the journey to find out.

This book by the masterful crime writer Simon Brett is not a bit "delightful." The two amateur sleuths are oddly matched quirky middle-aged women. Jude - last name unknown - has a Past. She's a bohemian with an untidy house and a mane of cleverly colored blonde hair. Her uptight neighbor Carole Sedden is a retired bureaucrat with a frigid emotional temperature. Carole's sense of propriety and reserve would not have displeased the old Queen Victoria. Jude's been temping as a waitress at a posh local hotel run by old friend Suzy, who was a superstar model in the 1960's. Suzy's now struggling to keep her hotel afloat, the tourist trade having been devastated by the September 11 U.S. terror attacks. Her hotel hosts a private party for an Old Boys' secret society, and Jude finds a young male guest dead by hanging in his room on the morning after. Jude and Carole's reasons for investigating this death are not convincing; their attempts to extract information from witnesses are tedious. However, the subplot involving Carole's adult son and his fiance warmed up the proceedings. This book was redeemed for me by its ironic and skeptical take on money, power and crime in modern life generally and small towns in particular. If I'm finding a whodunit to be tedious to read I will often flip to the last chapter, read its trite ending, and toss the thing aside. I found this book tedious in parts but worth working through to the end. The conclusion of this story is not trite. Delightful? Not at all. Trite escapism? Not completely. This one is a mixed bag but I'm glad I stayed with it to the end.

Former model Suzy Longthorne owns the Hopwicke County House Hotel. She was doing quite well until 9/11 caused a major drop in travel. The once exclusive hotel turned to a different type of client to stay afloat. In addition, helping Suzy at times is her friend Jude who fills in when a waitress calls in sick and her pal is short handed. The last time Jude worked at the hotel, the Pillars of Sussex, an exclusive men's club with plenty of influence, held their meeting there. Nigel Petford, a junior lawyer, is thrilled to be a guest of the illustrious club as he expects membership to be forthcoming. In his celebration, he overindulges with alcohol and Jude has to take the cheerful man to his room. The next day, Jude checks to see if Nigel is okay only to find him dead with a curtain rope around his neck. The police assume suicide, but Jude knows how elated Nigel was and believes it was homicide. Jude obtains the help of her pal Carole as she investigates the club and others, but everyone lies. Gifted author Simon Brett shows why he is a grandmaster of the amateur sleuth sub-genre with this delightful who-done-it filled with twists, red herrings, and false clues. Jude and Carole are total opposites, but together make quite a team as their solid friendship serves as the bedrock in their dangerous escapade. THE HANGING IN THE HOTEL is full of viable suspects with the opportunity, many of whom are almost untouchable, but what makes the case is finding the motive. Harriet Klausner