The Body On The Beach

Author(s): Simon Brett

Location(s): South Coast Britain

Genre(s): Crime, Fiction

Meet your favourite new sleuthing duo: chalk-and-cheese neighbours, Carole and Jude!

Carole
If British restraint could take human form, it would look suspiciously like Carole Seddon. A retired civil servant with a penchant for order, she keeps her seaside life as tightly buttoned as her sensible raincoat. Carole enjoys the predictable: routine, solitude, and a well-mannered Labrador named Gulliver (at least he doesn’t answer back like her troublesome ex-husband). But when a dead body rudely interrupts her morning stroll, Carole is reluctantly dragged out of her comfort zone. Cue exasperated sighing and meticulous note-taking.

Jude
On the other side of the spectrum (and Carole’s garden fence) lives Jude, a woman of mystery and many scarves. A free-spirited, incense-burning, alternative medicine-dabbling whirlwind, she breezes into Fethering with a knowing smirk and a refusal to reveal her past. Unlike Carole, Jude is perfectly at ease with life’s chaos — actually, she thrives on it. So when Carole finds herself at the centre of a vanishing body mystery, Jude gleefully jumps in, convinced that life is far more interesting when it involves a bit of detective work.

Together, they make the most unlikely crime-solving duo: one stiff as a starched collar, the other as loose as a yoga instructor at a full moon retreat. But despite their differences, this odd pair is about to prove that murder in a sleepy seaside town is anything but predictable.

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