A cut and dried case?

The modern crime novel tends to be a serious matter involving body parts and serial killers, sometimes with a spot of social analysis thrown in for good measure. It was not always like this, and Simon Brett is among the handful of distinguished contemporary crime writers who remind us of those far-off days of innocence when detective stories were meant to be fun. Death Under the Dryer is the latest title in Brett’s ‘Fethering mysteries’. Fethering, a fortunately fictional seaside town in West Sussex, has the sort of murder rate that used to distinguish Miss Marple’s village of St Mary’s Mead. It has two resident sleuths, ladies of a certain age whom one character describes as Fethering’s very own Marple Twins. Their personalities, however, are quite different. The cautious Carole, a retired civil servant at the Home Office, is divorced and waiting anxiously for the birth of her first grandchild. Jude, a plump alternative therapist, has credit cards in several names and welcomes the world with open arms.

Carole rashly decides to have her hair done at Connie’s Clip Joint, only to discover the strangled body of Kyra, Connie’s pretty young trainee, in a back room. A dozen red roses, a handful of beer cans and an empty vodka bottle complete the scene. Kyra’s boyfriend Nathan Locke has disappeared, and is naturally the principal suspect. The police, who play an almost invisible part in the subsequent investigation, appear to be stumped.

Carole and Jude are made of sterner stuff. Fortunately everyone involved in the case is more than willing to discuss it with them. It is not long before they have discovered that Kyra’s elderly father, a ferociously stern Czech, did not like Kyra to have boyfriends. Connie’s ex-husband Martin and his current wife Martina (herself of Czech extraction) own a prosperous chain of hairdressers.