The Corpse on the Court (Fethering Series #14)

by Simon Brett

Overview

'Brett performs his magic on the traditional cozy,making the frame rock with laughter at human foibles and quake with well-placed surprises' - Booklist Starred Review

The genteel game of Real Tennis takes a murderous twist in Simon Brett’s witty and entertaining new Fethering mystery

Jude’s life has been turned upside-down thanks her new mant, Piers Targett, who’s keen to get her involved in his hobby – or obsession – of Real Tennis. But when one of Piers’ friends dies on the court in suspicious circumstances, Jude finds herself caught up in the police investigation. Meanwhile, Jude’s neighbour Carole is trying to identify the human remains known locally as the ‘Lady in the Lake.’ As the two investigations become intertwined, Carole and Jude’s efforts to find the truth look set to lead to more murders.


Simon Brett is the winner of The CWA Diamond Dagger 2014.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780295329
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	02/15/2014
Series:	Fethering Series , #14
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Simon Brett worked as a producer in radio and television before taking up writing full-time. He is the author of the much-loved Fethering mysteries, Charles Paris series and the Mrs Pargeter novels. In 2014 he was awarded the Crime Writers' Association's prestigious Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence and contribution to crime writing. He lives in an Agatha Christie-style village in the South Downs.

Editorial Reviews

Court tennis—the ancestral form of lawn tennis played by Henry VIII—provides the backdrop for Brett’s absorbing 14th Fethering mystery (after 2011’s Guns in the Gallery). Court tennis enthusiast Piers Targett introduces his new lover, amateur sleuth Jude, to the game at a club near her Sussex home. Early one morning, the pair arrive at the club to find an elderly member lying on the court, dead of a heart attack. Suspecting foul play, Jude resolves to look deeper into the death. Meanwhile, Jude’s good friend and neighbor, Carole Seddon, pursues a missing person’s case involving an adopted teenage girl of Russian origin who disappeared from home several years before. As the two investigations converge, Jude finds an important clue in a self-published court tennis memoir by a club member that apparently no one else has read. That Piers’s bedtime efforts to explain the arcane rules of the game put Jude quickly to sleep is another amusing touch. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Fethering followers will love the way Brett showcases Jude here, showing new vulnerable bits. For everyone else, Brett performs his magic on the traditional cozy, making the frame rock with laughter at human foibles and quake with well-placed surprises" Starred Review

Booklist

"Fethering followers will love the way Brett showcases Jude here, showing new vulnerable bits. For everyone else, Brett performs his magic on the traditional cozy, making the frame rock with laughter at human foibles and quake with well-placed surprises" Starred Review

Booklist

"Brett’s absorbing 14th Fethering mystery"
Publishers Weekly

" Fethering followers will love the way Brett showcases Jude here, showing new vulnerable bits. For everyone else, Brett performs his magic on the traditional cozy, making the frame rock with laughter at human foibles and quake with well-placed surprises."
Booklist Starred Review of The Corpse on the Court

From the Publisher

In this 14th series entry (after Guns in the Gallery) Jude's new man has a love of tennis, but the game takes a turn when a man dies on the court. Meanwhile, Jude's neighbor Carole is doing some sleuthing of her own to discover the identity of the "Lady in the Lake." The women soon discover their cases are connected.

Library Journal

Propelled by spite (in Carole's case) and love (in Jude's), the Fethering ladies embark on separate investigations. Jude is so besotted with Piers Targett that she hasn't given a thought to her alternate therapy practice or schmoozed with her neighbor Carole for two weeks now. Carole doesn't know about the new man in Jude's life, but to dispel the doldrums and prove she doesn't care that she hasn't heard from her friend, she's looked over old crime stories and decided to tackle the unsolved Lady in the Lake mystery, a cause célèbre seven years ago. Jude meanwhile has taken up Piers' obsession, real tennis, a sport much admired in Henry VIII's reign and nearly as incomprehensible as cricket. Unfortunately, her first lesson at tony Lockleigh House coincides with the death of Reggie Playfair, who collapses on court. Reggie's wife, suspecting that he was meeting a lover there, asks Jude to investigate. Ever intrepid, Jude unearths various late-night courtside trysts, a wannabe ghost wandering around in her wedding dress, a liaison begun years back in Paris and a wife to whom Piers still seems emotionally attached. Carole's equally dramatic venture leads her to a mother still grieving over her long-lost child, a father who so loathes his ex that he's erased her from his press releases and CV, and an abusive Russian who smacks his wife around. When Carole and Jude finally reunite and discuss their cases, resolution is produced by the one name common to both. Top-flight Brett (Guns in the Gallery, 2012, etc.), with droll potshots at flawed husbands, the women who shouldn't have married them, rabid sports enthusiasts and quasi-tiffs among friends.

Kirkus Reviews