A cosy crime novel in style, with some droll moments, although the subject matter ended up being rather out of that genre: paedophilia, for a start. The book is a bit turgid to begin with as it commences with a massive info dump about Carole, telling us things that were better shown and were in any case shortly afterwards.

Carole and her neighbour Jude are middle aged women and neighbours. Their friendship is an attraction of opposites as Carole is supposedly a retiring ex-Home Office employee and a stickler for formality whereas Jude is a bohemian alternative healer. I say supposedly because Carole often cross examines people to the point almost of browbeating them. When the story begins, Carole has sublet a beach hut from a friend of Jude's in anticipation of the visit of her daughter and small granddaughter, but her plans go awry when she discovers vandalism to the hut and has to report it to the creepy council employee in charge of beach huts, Kelvin. Then, in the course of repair, a workman finds human remains buried beneath it in the sand. Jude and Carole promptly launch into an investigation, in the course of which they veer very near the edge of getting into trouble themselves, when people infer that they are undercover cops and they do not deny it, something that strained my suspense of disbelief.

I thought this must be an early book in the series, as I had heard this was part of one, given the infodump about Carole's shyness as surely she would have overcome that to some extent after doing some investigations -but after I finished it, I discovered this was book 12. So she definitely should have overcome her problems by now!

The cast of characters included some that there were to be poked fun at, such as the wannabee writer who is endlessly redrafting her manuscript to conform to what she has been told at the latest writers' course she has attended, and some who are suspects such as the creeply Kelvin, and his friend the ex-copper and somewhat lax security officer.

The book would have benefitted from a good editor to check continuity. Twice I was pulled up short - in one sequence, during a telephone call a character refers to her ex-husband having left the girl he was living with by the seaside, which made me wonder how she knew about that when she was claiming not to have seen him for weeks - but when the two women meet her in the following scene, she professes to know nothing about it and they don't point out that she had admitted she did on the phone. As she doesn't appear again or figure in the denoument, that was obviously a continuity error. In another scene, Jude is treating someone and twice asks them to turn onto their front - as I'd pictured them lying on their front and her massaging their back during the preceding conversation, I was jolted out of the story when she asked them to do it the second time. That was just careless editing and not what I expected from a professionally published book.

I found the story a bit perfunctory and none of the characters likeable. It eventually transpired that a pathetic tragedy lay at the bottom of the crime, and I didn't particularly believe the actions of the two 'culprits' especially the man in question. So I can only rate this as a 2-star and won't be seeking out further volumes in this series. ( )

I like that he takes older characters seriously. I find this series compelling even in their cosy/melodramatic unreality. ( )

I thoroughly enjoy these outings with Carole and Jude. They are light cozies with blood rarely in evidence, although the doughty pair of meddlers are often investigating a disappearance or even a murder. Simon Brett draws such vivid and recognisable characters. It is not really that the scenarios are particularly credible, but he manages to create mysteries and puzzles that keep you reading.

I have enjoyed the development of the characterisation of both Carole, stuffy ex-public servant, and Jude, bubbly outgoing massage purveyor, as the series has developed. The series began in 2000 with THE BODY ON THE BEACH, and this year will have its 15th outing with THE STRANGLING ON THE STAGE. The stories are mainly told from Carole's point of view, but next door neighbour Jude is an excellent foil to Carole's natural reserve. ( )

I don't care for these characters. ( )