Customer Reviews

Murder in the Museum: A Fethering Mystery

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Your enjoyment of the Fethering Series will depend more upon your like or dislike of the two protagonists than on the story lines themselves, most of which are modestly serviceable. Solid characterization can forgive a multitude of plot sins, but sadly there is little that is redeeming in either instance.

Protagonist #1: Mrs. Carole Seddon is priggish and prudish, but polite; she is a retired civil servant with "predictable" middle class mores. Brett would like us to believe that Carole Seddon is like *all* middle class people: uptight, humorless and asexual. As a character, Carole Seddon is certainly not warm and fuzzy, but why does Brett feel the need to demean, albeit subtly, her "middle class" attitudes of discretion, circumspection and civility? In doing so, Carole Seddon's character is a pastiche of flimsy stereotypes conjured up from the battle lines of class warfare, and as such, it soon tires the insightful reader.

Protagonist #2: Jude. That's right, "Jude" apparently has no surname, middle name nor any honorific. Like "Madonna" and "Lassie," Jude is known by a one word moniker, and I personally found this pretentious contrivance rather annoying. In direct contrast to Carole, her "middle class" counterpart, Jude is sensitive, unconventional, direct to the verge of rudeness, and a dilettante of alternative therapies. She understands -- and even helps heal -- psychotic, antisocial offenders and other such *misunderstood* folk. Jude consumes vast quantities of wine, and freely offers her ample, middle-aged body to the men of her choosing. In short, She's a cross between Mother Earth and Dr. Phil, with a bit of Linda Lovelace thrown in for good measure.

"The Hanging in the Hotel" was the first Fethering book I listened to, and I thought that it was good enough to warrant trying another. However as "Murder in the Museum" came to a close, I found my sympathy for Carole and her propriety waxing, while my tolerance for Jude and her unconventional *style* waning. Quite frankly, Jude's fanciful notions and personal peccadilloes are just too tedious and irksome, and her inane psychobabble reveals that she is either naive, stupid or just plain mad.

However, there is one plot element with which I would like to take exceptional issue, and that's Brett's depictions of Roman Catholics, all of whom seem like candidates for the nearest lunatic asylum. One's opinions about Roman Catholicism aside -- and Brett doesn't disguise his as no Catholic character in his book is portrayed with any sympathy, morals or brains -- if one is going to comment on Church theology, one should at least get it right. And I don't know about you, but I don't need an old, dried-up octogenarian cackling about "Humanae Vitae" in the murder mystery I'm reading, unless it's set in the Vatican, and essential to the plot....and maybe not even then!

But as I said at the onset, it's up to the individual, and I, being a "middle class" person, found Mrs. Seddon a tolerable character: with a little more development, and a really juicy plot, she could sleuth these mysteries out herself rather handily. Meanwhile, Earth Goddess Jude needs to be relegated to list of ancillary characters, and then Brett might have a real series on his keyboard.

Boo! These Fethering mysteries are way below par. What makes Brett's other work so great is the wit and polish of writing and the great characterization. Neither quality is apparent in this series. The two main characters are shallow stereotypes of the middle-class civil servant and the free spirit who have somehow come together over an interminable glass of white wine. To compare these to a Miss Marple is ludicrous. This one is particularly inane...the deep, dark family secret, the weak nephew, the vicious do-gooder, the ambitious administrator, the self-important bureaucrat, the unprincipled American academic (by the way, Americans do not pronounce "God" as "Gard"), the escaped convict and even the handicapped child! Please. Can we have more Charles Paris? Less white wine and more Bell's??

I would have thought that Murder in the Museum was even more contrived than it is if I hadn't known an American woman who sought to write an "authorized" biography of a prominent Englishwoman from the same period as the fictional Esmond Chadleigh. Clearly, Simon Brett must have run into one of those overly protective families during his life . . . and was inspired to write this ironic account of our "minor" figures get treated like royalty if they happen to be your relative.

In a place like South Stapley, you have to contrive to create murders because this is an area not known for its violent crime. But the contrivance in this story is too much. You'll see the creaky plot outlines stretching out in front of you as you ponder on the poor editing in the book. Clearly, this book was written under a tight deadline.

In this fourth outing of the Fethering mystery series, Carole Seddon is improbably on the board of trustees for Bracketts House, the home of minor poet, children's story author, and essayist Esmond Chadleigh. Carole finds she's made a mistake, but events intervene to keep her on the board before she can decently resign. The trustees are in a flap because the foundation is short of operating money, wants to build an addition, and an American scholar has expressed interest in writing what may be a somewhat irreverent biography of the departed author. Matters become more complex when a human skull (with an extra hole) is unexpectedly excavated in the garden. In addition, the new director and the former director are battling it out for power.

Jude, in the meantime, has received an old lover, Laurence Hawker, who smokes and drinks as much as ever. Carole isn't thrilled by this "intrusion" on her increasingly friendly relationship with Jude.

Even more improbably, Carole is selected to be the go-between handling the discussions with the American professor, Marla Teischbaum, on the theory that Carole knows so little that she cannot give anything away. Feeling torn between current director, Gina Locke, and the former director, Sheila Cartwright, Carole is increasingly miffed that Jude seems too devoted to her friend, Laurance.

The new characters in the book all come across as very thinly drawn. You'll barely remember the differences in many of them, and you won't care that you don't.

If you have problems figuring what the skull is all about and the other crime in the book, you won't have been paying attention. Solving this book's "mysteries" would have been easy for even Dr. Watson. "Elementary, my dear Holmes."

What redeems this book are two features:

1. Jude is compelled to give a last name (one that I won't reveal).

2. The book's conclusion is full of classic Simon Brett ironies.

MURDER IN THE MUSEUM by Brett Simon represents a series that is on a downhill slide. The characters of Jude and Carole as the free spirit and the uptight widow woman are becoming rather cloying.

The other characters in the novel seem to arrived for a dart board selection of stereotypes so that they become charactertures instead of characters. How many do you need to make a point.

Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS.

After a successful career in the Home Office, Carole Seddon retires to the seashore resort town of Fethering in West Sussex where she becomes friends with Jude, her next door neighbor. They partner up solving several local homicides. Carole has recently taken a volunteer position of trustee at Bracketts House, the home where the famous Catholic writer Esmond Chadleigh once lives. The property was turned into a heritage house and is in need of outside funding to keep on operating.

In the kitchen garden, a skeleton is found that dates back over seventy years. The find horrifies many of the trustees who don't want the author's named sullied. When Carole and Sheila Cartwright, the unofficial head of Bracketts House, are walking toward their cars after a trustee meeting, a shot rings out killing Sheila instantly. Carole believes there is a connection between the bodies found in the kitchen garden and Sheila's death and she is determined to find the common link knowing she may already be in danger.

Although Jude isn't working the investigation as much as usual because she is nursing a very sick friend, Carole picks up the slack and for once is not overshadowed by her best friend. She proves she can investigate a murder on her own and is able to subtly put the pieces together to figure out why the homicide occurred in the first place. Carole ferrets out the secrets and scandals of Bracketts house, which makes the heritage home more appealing to visitors and readers.

Harriet Klausner

Simon Brett is the author of the Charles Paris series, the Mrs. Pargeter series and the Fethering mysteries. This is the fourth Fethering mystery that features Home Office retiree Carole Seddon. Fethering is a West Sussex seaside village. Most villages are quaint and quiet without much going on there. Fethering seems to get more than its share of murder. This time the action revolves around Brackett House which is the historical home of writer and poet Edmond Chadleigh. Carole has taken on the role of a trustee for Brackett House (the museum in the title). Tensions are high while trustees decide how to bring in some money to keep the museum afloat and also what to do about a proposed biography of Edmond Chadleigh. Before long a 90 year old skeleton is found in the garden, and shortly thereafter a murder takes place.

The Fethering series are very traditional cozy mysteries. Simon Brett has written a conventional, but entertaining whodunit. Broadly drawn quirky characters abound. It reminded me very much of the Agatha Christie Miss Marple books. Readers who want a light, witty, traditional mystery won?t go wrong with this one.

This is a classic English country house whodunnit. In this case it's a country house owned by the family of an English poet and a house that will soon be expanded into a museum. Except that a body is unearthed on the potential site of the new building. Not to worry - the body's been there almost a century, but of course its discovery is followed by other, highly contemporary murders.

Into this blend of family secrets, academic jealousies and the out-and-out bitchiness of the board of trustees there is woven a central plot that reflects the history of the house and a number of sub-plots that are purely contemporary and carry the story forward at a cracking pace.

But it is the strongly drawn characters that make this mystery a winner. All the characters are three dimensional and true to life, especially the women who are prominent in the story. (I couldn't believe the writer was male until I saw his photo on the back jacket.) The female characters, especially Carole the sleuth-in-chief, appear real right down to the working of their minds and the emotional spin they give to seemingly unimportant events. Linked to that the dialogue is sharp and edgy and the personal interactions are articulate and witty.

From the first dreadful meeting of the museum trustees to the climax where the final victim has a crumb of ginger cake at the corner of his mouth the characters in this story will carry you delightfully along.

My major complaint about this book is the title. None of the events takes place within a museum; the museum is a structure that has been designed and anticipated, but has not been constructed within the time framework of the story. I'm sorry to be so picky, but why do authors or publishers do this sort of thing? It seems totally unnecessary. Book was all right, although Carol is anything but an appealing main character.

Ah, those quirky people of Fethering...

Carole and Jude are back and solving another mystery together. Carole still doesn't think of herself has a "pub person" and Jude still doesn't share her life details. Carole is still annoyed by that, and Jude is still amused by Carole's annoyance. (You have to read the series to understand the friendship between these two women)

The mystery was interesting and reached a pretty good climax.

Another winner from Simon Brett.

I was left guessing right up to the very end. I was a little put off by Carole's attitude, but I absolutely love Jude's out look on life. Brett wrapped things up nicely @ the very end.