The Hopwicke Country House Hotel once boasted a clientele of the rich and famous. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so owner Suzy Longthorne throws open her doors to welcome the Pillars of Sussex, an elitist group of local businessmen whose social gatherings revolve around drinking and off-color commentary. Short staffed, Suzy recruits Jude Seddon as a waitress to help keep the spirits flowing. But the next morning, Jude discovers the body of a young man, supposedly an initiate for Pillar membership, hanging from the beam of a four-poster bed. The police are quick to rule the death a suicide. The Pillars of Sussex deny that the victim was ever considered for membership, and Suzy just wants to forget that it ever happened. But Jude knows that both parties have something to hide, and she’s determined to uncover the truth. She enlists a reluctant Carole to nurture her relationship with a flirtatious Pillar in the hope that they can crack him.
Simon Brett is an experienced author and producer who received an Order of the British Empire for services to literature. The author of the Fethering mysteries as well as the much-loved Charles Paris series, he was also the recipient of the Crime Writer's Association Diamond Dagger in 2014. He currently resides in an Agatha Christie-style village in the South Downs.
Geoffrey Howard (a.k.a. Ralph Cosham) (1936–2014) was a British journalist who changed careers to become a narrator and screen and stage actor. He performed in more than one hundred professional theatrical roles. His audiobook narrations were named “Audio Best of the Year” by Publishers Weekly, and he won seven AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2013 he won the coveted Audie Award for Best Mystery Narration for his reading of Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery.