Reviews for The torso in the town

The average rating for The torso in the town based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-05-27 00:00:00 Justin Henderson So I waded through the first several pages of exposition, I endured the frustrating head-hopping, I gritted my teeth throughout the clumsy dialogue and why? Certainly not for the ending. It was about as limp and lifeless as the haddock I would like to slap Simon Brett with. No offence intended to Mr. Brett of course. He set out to write a nice cosy mystery and he certainly achieved that, but I just had so many problems with his writing style that I couldn't enjoy it properly. It's mentioned in the blurb that "they [Carole and Jude] can't help but wonder why a town... is proving so terribly amenable to their enquiries" and this is picked up on several times in the course of the novel, yet I can't help but see this as a heavy-handed attempt by Brett to explain away the fact that anyone would even entertain the thought of these two busy-body old women sticking their noses into their private lives. The two main characters Jude and Carole are not employed by the police, nor are they private investigators, they are just nosy. Someone has died and all they can see it as is a fun chance to play detective. And I'm meant to empathise with these dreadful ghouls? They spend the whole novel harping on obsessively about the torso that is found at the beginning of the novel, yet all the characters act as if this is perfectly acceptable behaviour. Slap them with a wet haddock, says I. Another thing that annoyed me was that although in his narrative, Brett skipped happily from head to head without a word of warning, he seemed strangely timid to do so in dialogue. It's natural for people to infer from someone else's behaviour and words what they're feeling etc., but in this he would often have someone - usually Carole or Jude - say something along the lines of 'I can't help but notice from the way you ripped that gentleman's throat out with your teeth, you don't really like him'. Okay, so I exaggerate. No one's throat got ripped out by anyone's teeth. I don't get though, why they had to signpost their inferences like that in dialogue. Especially when he didn't bother to do so in his narrative, instead preferring to change the point-of-view from one paragraph to the next. I would also like to pick up on Brett's use of homosexual characters. About halfway through the book, we are introduced to Terry and Andrew - a gay couple. Later on, Andrew mentions that they are only invited to various dinner parties because they are seen as nothing more than performing animals. I was left with the distinct feeling that this was all the characters were to Brett as well. A kind of 'look at liberal ol' me, I have some gay characters! Marvel at my broad-mindedness!' So in the future, when I next find myself craving a cosy bit of crime solving, I will turn back to Agatha Christie and apologise profusely from ever tuning away from her in the first place.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-01-13 00:00:00 Jerr Affer The Torso in the Town is the 3rd book English author, Simon Brett's Fethering cozy mystery series. I've also enjoyed books in his Mrs. Pargeter and Charles Paris series. The Fethering series features two neighbors, Carole Seddon & Jude, from the south coast town of Fethering (near Brighton) who get involved solving mysteries in the surrounding communities. Jude is invited to dinner by a couple, she met previously in Spain, living in a nearby town, Fedborough. During the dinner, the Roxby's teenage son discovers a loose panel in the cellar and behind that panel the dismembered torso of a woman's body. It appears that the body has been there for a number of years. Carole has withdrawn from her friend and Fethering due to a failed romance with neighborhood bar owner Ted Crisp. Carole is embarrassed and can't bring herself to face Ted. Jude thinks that investigating the appearance of the body and how it ended up in the Roxby's basement might distract Carole from her issues. So the two friends begin to spend time in Fedborough, taking part in the communities Art Festival, meeting and chatting with locals, trying to gather clues on the body and the 'murder'? It's an entertaining story and is filled with interesting characters. Jude and Carole make an excellent team and it's fun getting to know them again. I find it interesting that Carole still doesn't even know her neighbor's last name or much else about her private life. It's due to a combination of Carole's insecurities and Jude's enigmatic attitude towards providing info about her life. It's a nice, entertaining cozy mystery with lots of clues and suspects. The process of trying to gather information is as interesting as the mystery itself. I liked discovering more about the community of Fedborough, how everyone in a small community seems to know everything about everyone else; or tries to portray that they do and also the power of the gossip chain of communication. All in all a light, entertaining mystery. (3.5 stars)