Carole Seddon's son is about to be married. But as plans for the big day get underway, Stephen's future parents-in-law, Marie and Harold, seem desperate to keep the affair as discreet as possible. Then, after a quiet engagement party, Harold disappears ... only to be found dead the next day, in a burnt out car in Epping Forest.

While the family try to deal with their grief, Carole discovers they are concealing secrets that can be traced back thirty years, to the murder of Marie's best friend. Now the girl's killer has been released from prison and is back in his old stomping ground, near Fethering.

As Carole enlists the help of her friend Jude in researching the truth, Gaby returns to London to find herself in grave danger. Fearing the bride-to-be is the killer's next target, Carole and Jude must unravel the Martin family's past before he makes another deadly move ... and before the happiness of the impending wedding day is ruined.

'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. James

'Murder most enjoyable' Colin Dexter

Anyone for cricket - and a spot of burglary?

An idle conversation on the merits of the glorious game with an old Etonian chum is just the excuse Blotto needs to put himself forward for a cricket tour to foreign climes... and so begins the next adventure for our intrepid duo, where the action takes them to India where, as everyone knows, the finest cricket players hail from - as well as the world's most skilled jewel thieves...

The Dowager Duchess has no problems in letting her two children go to the subcontinent as having her beautiful daughter Twinks married off to a massively rich Maharaja offers the Dowager Duchess the prospect of a permanent solution to the cash-draining maintenance of the Tawcester Towers plumbing.

So Twinks joins Blotto on a steamer bound for India, one that is full of young woman desperate to marry well there - only once having encountered the dashing Blotto, a lot of them fancy the idea of getting married before they reach their destination. And, unbeknownst to the siblings, also on the ship is the international jewel thief Archie Montmorency, passing himself off as one of Blotto's cricketing entourage. His real mission though is to steal the diamond which adorns the turban the Maharajah of Koorbleimee . . .

Praise for Simon Brett

'One of British crime's most assured craftsmen . . . Crime writing just like in the good old days, and perfect entertainment' Guardian

'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times

'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories. I would recommend them to anyone' Jilly Cooper

Christmas can be murder ...

Carole Seddon hates Christmas - it all seems rather a waste of time. So when her neighbour and best friend, Jude, drags her along to go shopping at a local store called Gallimaufry, she can feel her inner-Scrooge knocking. But the sales are on and even Carole can't resist a bargain.

Then, a few days later, Gallimaufry is burnt down and a body is discovered in the ashes. It seems like a tragic accident, but no-one can die of natural causes when a gun is involved. The victim was young, pretty and in a long-term relationship - who could possibly want her dead?

With a host of suspicious characters - the infamous womanizer Ricky Le Bonnier with a string of ex-wives; Piers Duncton, a comedy writer who just isn't that funny; or Anna Carter, the lonely dog walker - the lady detectives know they have their work cut out for them. And as they dig deeper they discover a host of half-truths and lies. It seems that someone in Fethering has a deep, dark, deadly secret - and is prepared to kill to keep it.

When healer Jude pays a visit to Long Bamber Stables one evening - to meet her unusually equine new client and his owner Sonia Dalrymple - she does not expect to stumble across a man laying in the darkness. Co-owner of the stables, Walter Fleet, has been viciously stabbed to death.

Sleuthing neighbours Jude and Carole begin to make discreet enquiries, but it soon becomes clear that Long Bamber Stables is a hotbed of dangerous passions, murderous rivalries and hidden truths ... and this horsing community will do anything to protect their reputations.

'Murder most enjoyable ... An author who never takes himself that seriously, and for whom any fictional murder can frequently form part of the entertainment industry' COLIN DEXTER, The Oldie

Very little disturbs the ordered calm of Fethering, a pleasingly self-contained retirement town on England's southern coast. Which is precisely why Carole Seddon, who has outlived both her husband and her career at the Home Office, has chosen to reside there. So the last thing Carole expects to encounter in Fethering is a new neighbour with but one name and an obviously colourful past.

'Jude' was not really Fethering ... but neither was the body Carole found on the beach. A body, it has to be said, that has disappeared by the time the police arrive. Only Jude is ready to believe what her neighbour says she saw - and from that moment on, the two women are resolved to turn detectives.

'I stayed up until three in the morning and chewed off two fingernails finishing this delightful, thoroughly English whodunnit.' Daily Mail