"Fine investigative tale"

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 lived. The property was turned into a heritage house and is in need of outside funding to keep 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, is murdered, 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

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 13, 2003