Guilt at the Garage

Brett takes a shrewd look at the nasty side of village life in his slyly witty 20th Fethering mystery (after 2019’s The Killer in the Choir). When garage owner Bill Shefford, a longtime widower, returns home to Fethering, “a village of unimpeachable middle-class propriety, minding its own business in West Sussex on the South Coast of England,” from a vacation in Thailand with Malee, his beautiful new bride, the locals are quick to brand Malee a gold digger who’s out to cheat Billy, Bill’s son, out of his rightful inheritance. The noxious flow of village gossip escalates when a gearbox falls on Bill’s head while he’s working on a car, killing him. The tone darkens as the series leads—Carole Seddon, a straight-laced retired civil servant, and her zaftig neighbor, Jude Nichols, an alternative healer—investigate the circumstances surrounding Bill’s death. The disparate duo uncover a crime even more sinister than outright murder. Well-developed subplots support the intricate narrative. Brett proves once again to be a master of the amateur sleuth genre. Agent: Lisa Moylett, CMM Agency (U.K.). (Feb.)