Given that I’ve already written series posts for most of Simon Brett’s other series – namely Fetherings, Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter – it would be remiss of me not to mention that he has a new book out this week and it’s the first in a new series. It’s called Major Bricket and the Circus Corpse and there is already a second book in the series listed on Amazon for this time next year. Our new amateur sleuth has just retired to the village in Suffolk where he’s owned a home for years, although he hasn’t really lived there because his work has taken him abroad a lot. The village has speculated about his occupation, but when he discovers a body on his lawn, he uses his professional skills to try and figure out what happened. I’ve actually read this already (thank you NetGalley) so this could actually count as a bonus review so your luck is in!
Now I’ll admit that I haven’t read Brett’s Blotto and Twinks series, so i can’t include them in this but if there is a scale of realism in his books where Jude and Carol in Fetherings live in the most realistic world and Mrs P is the least – then Major Bricket is the new measure of the far end out beyond Mrs P. Brett is doing his thing on your spy-thriller-secret identity type novel with more than a dash of the OTT about it. I’ve been trying to figure out what it reminded me of, and I can’t quite work it out – but it’s definitely closer to the M C Beaton Hamish MacBeth-everything-falls-into-place end of the cozy scale than it Brett usually is. Overall, I’m glad I read it, but I would rather have had another Charles Paris I think!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 
I didn’t really enjoy this one. I think it was just too far away from reality. I ended up feeling bored as none of the characters really appealed to me
I didn’t hate it, but I definitely didn’t love it. But I’m not a whimsical book person – and I couldn’t work out if it was a me thing or a book think if that makes sense. I definitely think the Major needed more fleshing out if he was going to be as appealing as say Charles Paris is if that makes sense.
That makes total sense as he didn’t feel real at all to me in the way that Simon Brett’s characters usually do.
Speaking of series, Verity, I wonder if you have ever read any of Peter Maughan’s novels: one series about a young American who inherits a kind of squiredom in rural England; another about an assortment of characters around 1950 who start a travelling theatre group.I think they are comparable to P.G. Woodhouse, and A.A. Milne’s adult writing, mixed with Laurie Lee’s nostalgia for a vanished England.Could be interesting … happy reading!