On This Page
Description
An English village is shaken by murder in this police procedural from the "dependably pleasing" author of The Night She Died (The Boston Globe). Det. Inspector Luke Thanet may be the only happy cop in England. He has two healthy children, a wonderful wife, and the inner peace that comes from knowing there's nothing on the job he can't handle. But all that changes the first day he goes to Nettleton, a little town with evil secrets-and a body count on the rise. The first victim is Carrie show more Birch, a quiet woman who lives with her elderly mother and has never made an enemy in her life. When she doesn't come home one night, her mother panics and calls the police. Inspector Thanet's partner, the brash young Mike Lineham, answers the call. He finds Carrie brutally murdered in a Nettleton bathroom, the first revelation in a series of shocks that will tear the little village wide open. A classic British mystery, Six Feet Under is perfect for fans of Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, and the blockbuster television series Midsomer Murders. Six Feet Under is the 2nd book in the Inspector Thanet Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
I had not read any of the Detective Inspector Luke Thanet series before and I read these all at once. In the introduction to the first one, Ms Simpson explains that she spent her professional career as a marriage counselor and that she found some inspiration for her plots in the psychological insights she gained as a therapist. That admission coloured my reading of the books, as did my familiarity with the early run of Midsommer Murders, a long-running UK TV series.
Luke Thanet and Tom Barnaby share a smarminess about their home lives and marriages that I find repulsive. In the case of Luke Thanet, I read Ms Simpson's efforts to teach responsive marriage techniques and her idea of how a married man should act. She even drags DI Thanet's show more assistant, Mike Lineman, his controlling mother and his suffering wife into it. Yuck.
The mysteries are OK but nothing special.
I don't need this series.
I received review copies of "Close Her Eyes", "Puppet for a Corpse", and "Six Feet Under" by Dorothy Simpson (Open Road Integrated Media) through NetGalley.com. show less
Luke Thanet and Tom Barnaby share a smarminess about their home lives and marriages that I find repulsive. In the case of Luke Thanet, I read Ms Simpson's efforts to teach responsive marriage techniques and her idea of how a married man should act. She even drags DI Thanet's show more assistant, Mike Lineman, his controlling mother and his suffering wife into it. Yuck.
The mysteries are OK but nothing special.
I don't need this series.
I received review copies of "Close Her Eyes", "Puppet for a Corpse", and "Six Feet Under" by Dorothy Simpson (Open Road Integrated Media) through NetGalley.com. show less
Very excited to read more of Dorothy Simpson. Great writer.
August 2007
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
22 Works 3,320 Members
Dorothy Simpson is a mystery writer. Her character, Inspector Luke Thanet, has solved upper-crust mysteries in more than a dozen novels. Her novel, Last Seen Alive, received a Silver Dagger Award from the Crime Writers of America in 1985. Another book, The Maine Islands in Story and Legend, was written with information gathered by the Maine show more Writers Research Club. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Six Feet Under
- Original publication date
- 1982
- People/Characters
- Inspector Luke Thanet; Carrie Birch; Paul Ennerby; Joy Ingram; Marion Pitman; Matilda Cox (show all 8); Joan Thanet; Mike Lineham
- Important places
- Sturrenden, Kent, England, UK; Kent, England, UK
- Epigraph
- Cruelty has a Human Heart,
And Jealousy a Human Face;
Terror the Human Form Divine,
And Secrecy the Human Dress.
The Human Dress is forged Iron,
The Human Form a fiery Forge,
The Human Face a Furnace sea... (show all)l'd,
The Human Heart its hungry Gorge.
William Blake - Dedication
- FOR MARK, IAN and EMMA
- First words
- Detective Inspector Luke Thanet was a happy man.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Yes, he was whole-heartedly in favor of marriage, himself.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 217
- Popularity
- 150,367
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.45)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 6
