“Watch Out. The Car Window Was Just The Start.”

When Carole Seddon’s car window is broken, it first seemed to be random vandalism, so a quick trip to the local garage, and Bill Shefford would sort it out. The idea of vandalism in Fethering would seem unlikely, but when it is clear that this was a targeted attack on Carole, things seem to be taking a sinister turn.

Of course, things get worse when Bill is found dead in the garage, crushed apparently by a falling gearbox. It could be an accident, but when Carole and her neighbour Jude begin to question a few things, it begins to look a lot like murder…

The twentieth Fethering Mystery, a regular stop in cosy-crime territory for me. Well, it’s not that cosy, as there are some distinctly nasty under-currents in this story, not least in what the villain of the piece is up to and in something else that would be a spoiler to mention. Oh, and a nasty over-current, if one can use that word, in a racist old woman. But we’ll come to her in a moment.

As a murder mystery, there’s an interesting plot idea here that isn’t that common in the genre. Obviously I can’t talk about it, but it did subvert my expectations of what was going on. I think the finale, once we realise the truth, is perhaps a little long without a final surprise – I’ve got a hunch there was something that Simon Brett was toying with that he decided not to do, as I was expecting a certain reveal in the final confrontation that never came. Admittedly, it would have been quite a silly reveal, but it never stopped Brian Flynn. If it was in his mind, I don’t blame Simon for not doing it…

The primary subplot, concerning the campaign against Carole, did seem to be heading in an obvious direction. I think it still does, despite a sharp left-turn at the end, because I didn’t really buy the twist. I’m convinced it does happen – Simon wouldn’t have included it if it didn’t – but it still felt rather unreal.

And the racist character. Hmm – maybe it’s me being sensitive, and I have been accused of that before – but I wouldn’t expect to see the racial epithet for a person of Chinese descent being used in a cosy mystery, even to emphasise the unpleasantness of the character, especially when the person the word is directed to is from Thailand. I’m sure it’s a reflection of many people in our green and pleasant land, but seeing it in print is… well, there could have been other ways to express a character’s dislike for another character.

Overall, this is a clever mystery – not unguessable by any means, as a certain character’s importance to the plot seemed stand out to me, but again, I have read a lot of mystery novels. Fans of the series will enjoy this one – twenty books in and still going strong.

Guilt At The Garage is published by Severn House and will be released in hardback and ebook on the 30^th November 2020. Many thanks to Severn House and NetGalley for the review copy.