Mrs, Presumed Dead

Smithy’s Loam, tastefully designed housing estate - perfect for upwardly-mobile business executives and their model families, and perfect for murder.Into this epitome of middle-class respectability moves Mrs Pargeter, fresh from her stay at the Devereux Hotel (recounted in Simon Brett's 'A Nice Class of Corpse') and ready to settle down into her new home.With all the material trappings beloved of her new neighbours and an irreplacable legacy from the late Mr Pargeter, life should have been more than comfortable. When the central heating breaks down Mrs Pargeter decides to contact the former occupants, the Cottons, for advice. But the address to which they should have moved doesn't exist and Mr Cotton's employers seem to have no trace of him. Then Mrs Pargeter finds an unposted letter addressed to the Church of Utter Simplicity. She begins to wonder - where are the Cottons?Mrs Pargeter delves behind the veneer of the estate's net curtains into the intriguing lives of the inhabitants of Smithy's Loam and discovers that some people's manners leave a lot to be desired.With a fine attention to the idiosyncracies of suburban life, Simon Brett has again produced a marvellously entertaining and deceptively simple tale of suspense.