The Poisoning in the Pub (34 page)

‘I was thinking from Lily’s point of view, Mum. I mean, she wasn’t born when you and Dad divorced, so why should she get involved in all that grief?’

‘She will not be aware of any grief,’ said Carole firmly. ‘Christmas Day at High Tor with just you, Gaby and me will be a very pleasant experience for her. Whereas spending Christmas Day with her grandfather also present would be an unmitigated disaster.’

‘Lily wouldn’t be aware of that.’

‘But I would!’

‘Then she’d have memories of a nice, happy Christmas Day with all the family together.’

‘Stephen – A, she is far too young to remember anything from this Christmas, and B, where do you get all this stuff about “a nice, happy Christmas with all the family together”? Is that how you recollect your childhood Christmases?’

He was embarrassed into silence, but Carole had by now got the bit between her teeth. ‘And from what Gaby’s told me of her family background, I can’t imagine that her family Christmases were much cheerier either.’

‘But we don’t want Lily to grow up in an atmosphere that might cause her problems in later life.’

‘Lily will survive. She will not notice her grandfather’s absence on Christmas Day. And she’s much more likely to develop problems in later life if she’s brought up in an atmosphere of lies. Yes, a happy nuclear family is a lovely idea, and some people are fortunate enough to grow up in one. But you didn’t and I didn’t, so let’s drop the pretence, shall we, Stephen?’

Carole had said more than she wanted to. Actually to admit to having had an unhappy childhood, and to suggest that Stephen had had the same, went against all her middle-class principles of reticence. What was worse, she had almost ended up shouting at her son. But she was so furious about the way he had tried to use Lily to blackmail her into doing something which she knew would be disastrous.

The conversation had unsettled her, though. David, even by his absence, could still sour the atmosphere between her and Stephen. The phone call had not been an auspicious harbinger for the week ahead.

PRAISE FOR SIMON BRETT AND THE FETHERING MYSTERIES

‘Well-written, witty, and entertaining . . . I’m ashamed to admit that this was my first read of Mr Brett’s work – it definitely
won’t be my last’

Tangled Web

‘A skilful and entertaining cosy mystery which oozes clues, red herrings and flights, or perhaps hops, of deductive reasoning . . . Thank heaven, he
reminds us, part of England remains forever Fethering’

Spectator

‘It’s hard to resist a title like
Death Under the Dryer
, especially when the author is that king of the witty village mystery, Simon
Brett . . . an enjoyable read’

Sunday Telegraph

‘A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans’

P. D. James

‘Murder most enjoyable . . . An author who never takes himself that seriously, and for whom any fictional murder can frequently form part of the
entertainment industry’

Colin Dexter

‘One of the exceptional detective story writers around’

Daily Telegraph

‘Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories . . . I would recommend them to anyone’

Jilly Cooper

‘A feast of red herrings, broadly drawn characters and gentle thrills and spills litter the witty plot’

Guardian

‘Simon Brett writes the kind of good whodunnits that could have been written fifty years ago . . . and he has a sly sense of humour’

The Times

‘An irresistibly old-time mystery’

Daily Mail

‘One of the wittiest crime writers around’

Antonia Fraser

Simon Brett
worked as a producer in radio and television before taking up writing full-time. As well as the much-loved Fethering series, the Mrs Pargeter novels and the
Charles Paris detective series, he is the author of the radio and television series
After Henry
, the radio series
No Commitments
and
Smelling of Roses
and the bestselling
How to Be a Little Sod
. His novel
A Shock to the System
was filmed, starring Michael Caine.

Married with three grown-up children, he lives in an Agatha Christie-style village on the South Downs.

The Poisoning in the Pub
is the tenth novel in the Fethering Mysteries series. The eleventh,
The Shooting in the Shop
, is available now.

Also by Simon Brett

A Shock to the System

Dead Romantic

Singled Out

The Fethering Mysteries

The Body on the Beach

Death on the Downs

The Torso in the Town

Murder in the Museum

The Hanging in the Hotel

The Witness at the Wedding

The Stabbing in the Stables

Death Under the Dryer

Blood at the Bookies

The Shooting in the Shop

Mrs Pargeter novels

A Nice Class of Corpse

Mrs, Presumed Dead

Mrs Pargeter’s Package

Mrs Pargeter’s Pound of Flesh

Mrs Pargeter’s Plot

Mrs Pargeter’s Point of Honour

Charles Paris novels

Cast, In Order of Disappearance

So Much Blood

Star Trap An Amateur Corpse

A Comedian Dies

The Dead Side of Mike

Situation Tragedy

Murder Unprompted

Murder in the Title

Not Dead, Only Resting

Dead Giveaway

What Bloody Man Is That?

A Series of Murders

Corporate Bodies

A Reconstructed Corpse

Sicken and So Die

Dead Room Farce

Short Stories

A Box of Tricks

Crime Writers and Other Animals

First published 2009 by Macmillan

First published in paperback 2010 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-230-73996-3 in Adobe Reader format
ISBN 978-0-230-73995-6 in Adobe Digital Editions format
ISBN 978-0-230-73997-0 in Mobipocket format

Copyright © Simon Brett 2009

The right of Simon Brett to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital,
optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be
liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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