The Hanging in the Hotel (Fethering Series #5)

by Simon Brett

Overview

Jude and Carole Seddon investigate an elitist, hard-drinking group of businessmen after the suspicious suicide of the one of their inductees.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101204757
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/02/2005
Series:	Fethering Series , #5
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	411 KB

Table of Contents

Editorial Reviews

Prolific British author Brett's fifth Fethering mystery (after 2003's Murder in the Museum) featuring Carole Seddon offers comfortable pacing and plenty of plot twists. Carole's pal Jude Nichols bails out an old friend by waiting tables at the Hopwicke Country House Hotel, once the playground of the very rich and very famous. Hopwicke and its owner, former model Suzy Longthorne, have fallen on hard times since 9/11, and the hotel has been forced to accept a far less sophisticated clientele, like the Pillars of Sussex men's club. The Pillars have a long and spotty history of philanthropy, but are far better known as a group of carousing gentlemen with friends in high places. When a possible inductee is found hanged in his room, only Jude believes it wasn't a suicide. The Pillars all tell the same story, the police are convinced with little investigation and even Suzy, who found a threatening note before the inductee's death, suddenly clams up. Jude turns to Carole, and the two try to untangle a tightening web of lies. The entertaining supporting cast includes a chef with attitude and a slew of solicitors, one of whom is maddeningly smitten with Carole. Agent, Jane Chelius. (Aug. 3) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A convivial group of misogynists check into the Hopwicke Country House Hotel. One checks out early. Sometime around 3 a.m., Nigel Ackford, after drinking way too much as a guest at the Pillars of Sussex men-only dinner, retires to his room in the posh hotel owned by former model Suzy Longthorne. Kerry, the teenager filling in as a chambermaid until a big break makes her a rock star, discovers him swinging from the four-poster, his head decidedly askew. Eager to quash any bad publicity, Suzy, her ex-hubby, former rocker turned TV pop music critic Rick, Suzy's celebrity chef Max, Pillars clubmen Donald Chew and Bob Hartson, and the West Sussex constabulary all insist it's suicide. But Suzy's friend Jude, the self-appointed Fethering area crime-stopper who'd been helping out the short-staffed (and -funded) Suzy, immediately suspects murder. With the assistance of her neighbor Carole Seddon (The Torso in the Town, 2002, etc.), Jude eventually establishes a timetable of who was sleeping where, when, and with whom, and assigns motives to everybody, ranging from a cover-up of homosexuality to revenge for thwarted stardom to solicitor duplicity. There'll be another death, a vexing attempt at seduction, and a first meeting with her son's fiancee for Carole to deal with before the red herrings are dispatched in a burst of silliness. Smatterings of the Brett wit don't compensate for gaping plot holes and emphatically distasteful attitudes toward homosexuality. Agent: Jane Chelius/Jane Chelius Agency

Kirkus Reviews