The Body on the Beach

A Fethering Mystery

By: Simon Brett

Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard

Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Recently retired, Carole Seddon is residing in Fethering in the cottage she purchased with her ex-husband. There she maintains a quiet and sensible life with the companionship of Gulliver, her Labrador retriever. But everything changes when she and Gulliver, while taking their daily constitutional, find a corpse on the beach. What's more, there are two wounds on its neck. The body mysteriously disappears and the police dismiss Carole as a befuddled middle-aged woman. She almost starts to believe it herself...until a stranger threatens her to keep quiet or else.

Unable to contain her anxiety, Carole confides in her eccentric neighbor, Jude - who suggests that if the police cannot be bothered to catch a killer, maybe they should do it themselves.

©2000 Simon Brett (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Simon Brett is one of the wittiest mystery writers around." ( Baltimore Sun)
"Howard's narrative clarity and varied inflection illustrate the story remarkably well." ( Booklist)
"Brett has written yet another mystery with a good central puzzle and intriguing individual touches." ( Chicago Tribune)

Clean book! - Solid four star story and reader

I found the story pretty good and enjoyed it. The reader's voice is very easy to listen to for me. I like the cultured tone of his voice, not too high pitched or nasally, just steady and calming to listen to. Nice accent as well.

The story was solid, two middle aged ladies stick their noses into a murder mystery. Nice plot twist at the end when 'the big reveal' happens. I enjoyed it. I plan to listen to more of these books.

Of note to those of us who tend towards a rated G preference, this one is nice and clean, I don't recall anything objectionable in it. Rare to find these days, but they are still out there. This is one of them. Enjoy!

A good listen!

It was an interesting English small town mystery that unraveled some of the intrigues and relationships between the town folk. The performance by Geoffrey Howard was well done and his English accent was perfectly suited to the storyline. A comfortable story with enough intrig to keep you interested till the end.

Fresh voice in a quirky British mystery.

Portrait of a British seaside town with diverse, well drawn characters. Clever, unexpected mystery plot.

Fun series

I love all the Fethering mysteries. They’re just delightful and very well read. I am actually listening to some of them again, they are that good.

A Proper Mystery

I don't usually listen to British cozy mysteries. I tried this one because it was recommended to me. It was a pleasant surprise. The story was slow, but, the plot and characters were intriguing. The two lead characters fit together like an old married couple. Jude has a mellow and relaxed attitude, while Carole is uptight and conservative. For these two new friends opposites attract and they bring out the best in each other.

There are enough twist and turns in the mystery to keep you interested and guessing. The one thing I do not like about this mystery is it's narrator. The two lead characters are female yet the narrator is male. Surely there are some British actresses who could have given their voice to this book. All in all it's a good mystery.

Delightful book

Delightful. Entertaining. Made me laugh out loud several times.

In the style of the classic British mystery!

A real surprise find for the start of a good mystery series. Brett writes a witty, balanced, & classy mystery. There is an amateur sleuth, a sidekick, & a picturesque English village. The narrator, Howard, is easy to listen to & believable as to the female characters.

I am definitely looking forward to listening to more of Simon Brett mysteries.

Couldn’t finish it

I finally gave up because of the narration. Two female characters and a make narrator was bad enough but his voice was also very grinding. Too bad as the story was slow but interesting.

A fun mystery!

Simon Brett's style is rather similar to that of CS Lewis. This is made even better by having been read by Geoffrey Howard, who also narrated 'Mere Christianity'. However, one has to wonder why Audible has Ralph Cosham's name on the cover pic. Very odd, that. 🙂

The body on the beach

This was a entertaining book to read. I liked the characters and they were an interesting bunch.