The Hanging in the Hotel (Fethering Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Simon Brett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2005 | Series: Fethering Mysteries

Jude and Carole Seddon investigate an elitist, hard-drinking group of businessmen after the suspicious suicide of the one of their inductees.

Editorial Reviews

Review

One of the wittiest writers around. (Baltimore Sun)

From AudioFile

One of audio's finest author/readers, Simon Brett, narrates this fifth installment in the Fethering mysteries. This time a group of businessmen holds an overnight meeting at elegant Hopwicke Country House Hotel. The Pillars of Sussex, well-connected, philanthropic, and unashamedly chauvinistic, are known for their heavy drinking and dubious dealings. When a young Pillar hopeful is found hanged in his room, the authorities call it suicide. However, Jude, a middle-aged holistic healer, doesn't think so. Jude and her next-door neighbor, Carole Seddon, late of the Home Office, begin an investigation that makes everyone uneasy. Believable characters, intriguing motives, sudden plot twists, and an assortment of jibes at the vanities inherent in Britain's upper crust, combined with Brett's vocal expertise (born of years of performing in British radio mysteries) make this excellent listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 345 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (August 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425199258
• ISBN-13: 978-0425199251
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #629,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Evil Lurks Behind Smiles of Propriety, March 20, 2007

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Hanging in the Hotel (Fethering Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This series gets better and better!, May 11, 2006

By 

Mary H. Lesser "doc lesser" (Valdese, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hanging in the Hotel (Fethering Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

3.0 out of 5 stars Social Murder, October 6, 2010

By 

Nash Black "Troubadour" (Jamestown, KY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Hanging in the Hotel (Fethering Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

THE HANGING IN THE HOTEL by Simon Brett brought to a close my interest in this series. Too much indulgence in the current British social scene and too little exploration of the off beat sleuths that originally made the series so much fun.
The Pillars of Sussex, a group of businessmen come off as a bunch of dirty old men who have too little to do with their time and too great an ego to understand they are deadly dull.
Even Jude and Carole become infected with the dullness of a lower order social club.
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS.