Blood at the Bookies

Jude is at the local betting shop, placing bets for a sick friend and herself, when a young man appears at the door, seems disoriented and then leaves. Shortly thereafter, walking down the alley by the bookies, Jude runs into the man again - on the ground, breathing his last, the victim of stab wounds. Naturally, Jude wants to investigate and when she tells Carole about the incident, the latter is also interested. And also naturally, the police have no interest in their theories and aren’t inclined to provide them with any information, so Jude and Carole have to search out the clues on their own…. This book, the 9th in the series, focuses a lot on the English distrust of foreigners and outright racism, while also showcasing a number show more of hardworking immigrants and very unsavory natives. Not perhaps a new take on such issues, but in the setting of the small town of Fethering and the cozy-mystery plot, there’s a certain bite to the story. I’m getting a little tired of Carole always assuming the worst of everybody, including Jude, but perhaps she’ll continue to thaw as the series goes on. Mildly recommended. show less

#9 in Simon Brett's cozy Fethering series featuring town busybodies retired Civil Servant Carole Seddon and her neighbour Jude.

Carole is laid low with the flu the day that Jude sees a pale young man come into the betting shop where she is placing bets for an elderly friend. She assumes he has come in to escape the heavy hail storm outside but after he has left she sees a circle of dark blood on the floor. She follows a trail of blood drops to an alley next door where she discovers the man dying. He mutters a word and expires.

Jude tells what she knows to the police and eventually discovers that the young man has recently arrived from Poland. A few days later his sister contacts Jude and together Jude, Carole, and the sister attempt to show more discover who killed Tadek and why.

This is just the sort of situation, a murder almost on their doorstep, that Jude and Carole love. For my part I love Simon Brett's gentle humour, and the degree of personal story he weaves into their characters. Carole is now a grandmother and is surprised to find in herself a degree of feeling for her new granddaughter. Jude has a dalliance with a man who becomes a suspect in their murder investigation.

It doesn't matter to me that, probably because Brett lays clues down thickly, I had worked out who was responsible for the original murder, and then for another attemptedmurder. The book is just such easy reading.

The only thing that annoys me about this book, is something that I've noticed with other books in the Fethering series. Simon Brett doesn't seem to know how to bring the book to a close. The final chapter is written as if it is a retrospective, written some time after the final action has taken place. So you read the book as if it is all happening in current time, and then the final chapter makes you feel as if you've been in some sort of time capsule. I'm not explaining it very well. The problem occurs because Brett tells you what happens to the main characters in the time following the book, and this can take you quite a time into the future. It makes me feel as if I don't know what the time scale is between the books in the series. show less

Not one of his best but still a good read.If you like the others in the series then you are sure to like this.