Love a Fethering Mystery!

As is my way with Fethering Mysteries, I listened to them all again before enjoying the treat of this new story.

Like Carole & Jude, I am in my 50s, & I enjoy spotting which bits of their contrasting characters I identify with most. I have Carole's insecurity & control freakery, combined with Jude's ability to connect with others, & her relaxed approach to diet & routine. It's a fun game to play!

I moved to Chichester aged 11 from East London, & Simon Brett does a fab' job at capturing all the petty snobbery of the Sussex middle classes! Makes me glad I went to Leeds University, married a Wakefield lad, & stayed up north!

I am now listening to Simon Brett's Decluttering Mysteries, which are darker in tone, but equally enjoyable, once you've adjusted to their first person narration.

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2 people found this helpful

As ever , brilliantly entertaining

This whole series is a an absolute joy. Simon Brett is one of the few authors who narrates as well as he writes , you can tell he’s had a brilliant career in radio drama , great characters and a great story .

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4 people found this helpful

Saved by the ending

Used to love these series and have listened to every single book so far. Simon Brett is one of my favourite authors, but really it must be true that authors start to despise their sleuths at some point, as we can see his two women sleuths characters changing for the worse in the past few books. Also, their relationship, really it’s not actually possible in real life. They would have either grown apart quietly, had a full blown argument on parting, or most likely would have grown closer than ever, regarding each other with love and respect, after having shared all these experiences together. Really, this dynamic doesn’t work and is going nowhere, with the women not milling together well, showing spite, envy and being unkind. It is very tiresome for the reader, boring and even annoying. The book was saved by the ending and a somewhat satisfactory conclusion. But I wish the Carol and Jude from the first books could come back or at least grow older more gracefully.

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As always, an absolute joy!

I will never tire of the casts of characters, storylines and wry social commentary on the residents of Fethering and surrounding areas. Having lived in West Sussex now for 15 years, I feel I could, at any point, bump into Carols and Judes. I dearly love Simon’s writing, and I even re-listen to some of the stories, which I don’t do with any other audio books. Hooray for the Fethering mysteries! Another absolute gem.

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If I could award six stars I would

Another great piece of creative work from the astonishingly multi-talented Mr Brett. Highly recommended

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2 people found this helpful

I enjoy Jude and Carole😃

Very good characterisation!! The plots are good in this series and the humour good!! You want to see them succeed 😃

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Superb as ever

I hope Simon Brett continues to enjoy bringing the characters of Carole and Jude to life for many years more. As usual a superb story with lovingly written characters and wonderfully performed. Thanks for a great listen.

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Brilliant Brett

Witty and articulate as always. Brett never disappoints. Looking forward to the new one on the series

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Narrator sniffing is appalling!

The narrator sniffs at the end of every sentence, which if you are listening with headphones is an awful sound directly in to your ears and completely ruins the book as you can’t avoid it! Do they not do sound checks with narrators before casting? Or even realise during editing? The story is light and takes no thought but really the whole book is not worth listening to. If you want an easy read, just buy the book but DON’T listen to this on headphones unless you like someone sniffing constantly in your ears!

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Meet the new Fethering Mystery, same as the old...

Predictable offering with little to recommend it. If you like the others in the series you may enjoy this . Once again two rather unattractive and meddlesome amateur detectives poke their noses into murder, finding the culprit but flinging accusations at all and sundry. The reading doesn't help. It recalls to me the other times authors have thought it a good idea to read their own works; Tennyson plodding through The Charge of the Light Brigade or Yeats droning through Innisfree.
I'd be quite happy if one of the victims of their unfounded accusations were to murder them both. The Courts would be lenient.

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1 person found this helpful