Bones Under the Beach Hut
ISBN: 9780330471275
Description
The affluent seaside resort of Smalting is unaccustomed to crime. So when human remains are found beneath the floorboards of one of its beach huts, the community is awash with suspicion and fear.
Amateur sleuths Carole Seddon and best friend Jude are drawn into the mystery, and their suspicion quickly falls on attractive Philly Rose, a young Londoner newly arrived in the area, whose boyfriend has recently vanished in mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, Kelvin Southwest, self-appointed ‘ladies’ man’ and caretaker of Smalting's beach huts, seems to be hiding a dark secret beneath his smooth exterior, while Reginald Flowers, pompous President of the Smalting Beach Hut Association, becomes increasingly defensive about his own history.
Reviewed on 12th April 2025
Carole and Jude get to spend some time in a neighbouring town when Carole decides to take on a beach hut to entertain her granddaughter, not realise its history will provide two mysteries for the perfectly mismatched neighbours to solve.
I enjoy these as very relaxed, low pressure comedy, mystery novels. There’s an element with this one of the crimes in question being possibly more horrific than the series tends to go for, but it’s still kept at fairly arm’s length.
There are perhaps some slightly more political discussions about some of the crimes than usual, and I didn’t find all of the resolutions very satisfying. It leaves a bit of a bitter taste at the end which disappointed me and I felt spoiled what was otherwise a nice visit to Fethering.
