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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
kept me glued to the pages till the very end, October 23, 2005
This review is from: The Witness at the Wedding (Fethering Mysteries) (Hardcover)
The sublime joy of reading another well written and absolutely riveting British "cozy" should never ever be underestimated -- and I really cannot fully express what a joy it was to read Simon Brett's latest Fethering installment, "The Witness at the Wedding." While Carole Seddon is pleased about the approaching wedding of her son, Stephen, to the effervescent and capable Gaby Martin, she's not too terribly keen on their notion to marry in Fethering. And her feelings of reservation and disquiet grow even larger when she finally meets Gaby's parents, the reserved and drab Howard and Marie Martin, who have eschewed all involvement in planning Gaby's wedding and who seem absolutely horrified about Stephen's desire to place an announcement about the upcoming wedding in the newspapers. What are the Martins so afraid of? But when Howard Martin is found murdered in a manner reminiscent of one committed 30 years ago, Carole is sure that there is something in the Martins' past that is haunting them and may have set off a dangerous chain of events. The Martins, however, are good at guarding their secrets, and Carole senses that it is not going to be easy to get them to open up. Determined to help Stephen and Gaby achieve their happily ever-after ending, Carole decides to do some sleuthing of her own -- of course with the help of her friend and neighbour, the inestimable Jude... Fan though I am of this series, I will admit that not every installment has been an absolutely riveting read. Which was why I found "The Witness at the Wedding" to be such a pleasure. To being with the storyline was a truly tantalising one -- a murder that had been committed about 30 years ago and that's still affecting those concerned. And then there was the pacing -- Simon Brett did a fantastic job of subtly layering on the suspense, even as he maintained the even pacing. And then of course there was the well developed and defined characters -- I especially liked that Carole is still the same prickly and slightly prejudiced character that she was when the series first started. Of course she has changed slightly for the better, but in essentials she's still very much the same Carole Seddon here as she was in the first Fethering mystery, "The Body on the Beach." In all I spent a wonderful afternoon wrapped up in this book, and would recommend to anyone who's looking for a nice British "cozy" to sit down and curl up with.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wedding blues, January 7, 2006
This review is from: The Witness at the Wedding (Fethering Mysteries) (Hardcover)
While Carole Seddon is thrilled that her son, Stephen, is to be married to his girlfriend, Gaby, she is puzzled by the way in which Gaby's parents, Marie and Howard Martin seem to want to keep the event as low key as possible. Marie is a pale, wan creature with a habit of fainting if the slightest thing disturbs her. Following the couple's engagement party, Howard is picked up in a strange car which is found the next day, burned out and with his body inside. The Martin family is found to have connections to another murder which was carried out in just the same way, 30 years before, with the accused man having just been released after serving his full sentence. Carole delves into the secrets of this strange family with the help of her friend and neighbour, Jude, and uncovers murky pasts for several members of the family. It was an ok read, but not a book to keep me up into the small hours.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre book in a mediocre series, January 31, 2006
This review is from: The Witness at the Wedding (Fethering Mysteries) (Hardcover)
This was an odd book -- a combination of a lower quality Anita Brookner novel about the life of a lonely middle age woman with a poor mystery, with only one, obvious suspect. It has convinced me to give up on this series because, despite my best hopes, it is just not going to get better. Brett writes the same book over and over again. Emotionally constipated Carole and free spirit/prospective saint Jude team up to solve not too complex mysteries out of seeming sheer boredom. Despite the fact that one, or both, of our heroines contiually find themselves in life threatening danger, they perpetually fail to seek the intervention of the police or seek help. As a minor spoiler, at one point in the book, with a dangerous killer on the loose, one of the women fears she is being watched, but does nothing to help herself, not alerting the police or the other "detective". If she did so then, of course, there would be no supposedly exciting conclusion. I was a fan of the Charles Paris series, which Brett seemingly wisely stopped writing after turning Charles into an increasingly pathetic, unlikeable character. I also liked the Mrs. Pargeter series, which Brett also gave up after the one-joke nature of the series turned stale. Brett took up those flaws in this series, turning Carole into an unlikeable, sad character, who the author seems to detest. By contrast, Jude is portrayed as a noble goddess, insightful, wise, witty, etc, a view probably shared only by the author, especially as Jude. aware of Carole's emotional shortcomings, seems to take every opportunity to tortue and tease her "friend" by not revealing aspects of her life about which Carole is too emotionally constrained to ask about. The first two or three books were mildly diverting, and I read on hoping for an improvement, which did not occur. Instead, the same type of story has just been churned out again and again. Perhaps Carole can now hook up with Charles Paris, where they can live unhappily ever after. If the mystery was stronger, that would carry the book, but unfortunately Brett seems barely concerned with the whodunit aspects of the story. Indeed, to accomplish some of his more absurd elements, he makes sure that both of the heroines do not have the internet or know how to access the web, which, for example, enables them to act baffled when they seem confused as to how to find out details about a well known murder, a plot contrivance which is highly unrealistic. Sorry for spending so much time reviewing this book, but if I can keep one propspective reader from wasting their time like I did, then I accomplished something.
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