3 Stars
One Liner: It had its moments

Suffolk
Major Bricket has been an infrequent resident of Highfield House in Stunston Peveril. Thanks to his foreign assignments, his long absences from the village gave him an air of mystery. After his retirement, the Major has returned to settle down for good, only to find the dead body of a clown on his lawn!
However, none of the clowns from the village’s annual fair seem to be missing. So, who is that dead man? Is it really a clown or an unfortunate guest? Well, Major Bricket is here to find the truth.
The story comes in third-person omnipresent POV.

My Thoughts:
I have a hard time resisting cozies, so when I saw this one, I wanted to check out a potential new series with an older male as our sleuth.
Before I delve in, I have to highlight that I couldn’t enjoy the story much, mainly due to the awful formatting. Even if this is an ARC, it shouldn’t be this messy. There’s no capitalization in most places (not even for some names). The lines are weirdly cut off and have random breaks. Honestly, it gave me a headache!
Coming to the plot, it’s actually fun. This might come under humor cozy, though not the explicit kind. The mystery has OTT elements (and so does the main character). But this added to the narrative somehow instead of making it absurd. I mean, it is a bit absurd, but in a funny way.
The setting is a mix of contemporary and historical. I’m still figuring out the period. Maybe the 1990s or early 2000s? We have phones with cameras and laptops, and mention of Starbucks, but the village has been stuck in time and stayed back at least a few decades earlier.
We met an array of characters, some more impressive and memorable than others. Nga has definitely impressed me with her grasp of the small-town Brit elite and their silliness. The author pokes fun at their snobbishness and ignorance (of course, I enjoyed this).
The omnipresent narration makes it possible for the author’s voice to become prominent without affecting the characters. This worked for me, so no complaints. I still wish the formatting were better, as the head-hopping wouldn’t have been confusing.
The main character is capable, efficient, mysterious, and smart. He is a can-do-it-all kind of guy, and we get enough hints to guess his profession. James Bond vibes minus womanizing abilities (and I hope it stays that way).

To summarize, Major Bricket and the Circus Corpse is a decent start to a new series. It does have an interesting main lead and a quirky setting. I may read the second book to decide, though I hope the ARC will have better formatting!
Thank you, NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK (Constable), for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This is the first in a new series from Simon Brett, featuring a mysterious Major who is "retiring" and finally moving full time into a house he bought two decades earlier. His arrival in the village coincides with the arrival of a body dressed as a clown in his garage and soon he's investigating what happened and trying to figure out if the police have wrongly arrested the strong man from the circus that is visiting the village. Meanwhile residents of the village are trying to figure out exactly what Major Bricket's job was that kept him away from home so often.

I've read a lot of Brett's cozy crime books over the last few years (I'm basically up to date with Charles Paris and Mrs Pargeter, and two books behind with Fetherings) and if there is a scale of realism in his books where Jude and Carol live in the most realistic world and Mrs P is the least - then Major Bricket is the new measure of the far end 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 end of the cozy scale than it Brett usually is.

Major Bricket and the Circus Corpse in the first mystery in a new series by Simon Brett. Major Bricket has, allegedly, retired to a house he has owned for several years, but never properly lived in. Unfortunately, when he arrives at the afore-mentioned house, ready to take up residence, he finds a dead body spreadeagled in his garage.

The book is great fun. Various residents of the village are convinced they know what the Major’s occupation was. Although we are never told the facts, it soon becomes obvious how wide of the mark those guesses are. The secret room behind his clothes cupboard, full of disguises; and his secret – and highly specialised - shooting range, conjure up a delicious image of James Bond retiring from official work but keeping in practice.

There are some irritations: the review copy I received had a lot of sentences without capital letters. I’m assuming that’s the publisher’s way of being able to identify anyone who leaks electronic proof copies of the book. Fair enough, but it is surprisingly distracting. Also. the author creates the novelistic equivalent of catchphrases (think of Captain Mainwaring’s “Stupid boy”): when any untoward event happens in the village, Crocker is sure it’s the work of aliens; Deirdre in the Post Office assets that it’s the Knights Templar; and Lena tell the vicar’s wife that it’s a demonic cult. Some of these catchphrase-like tropes work better than others. For example, Nga Luong is from Vietnam but her customers assume she’s running a Thai restaurant because that’s what they’re used to. So far, so good, but the author’s phrase “Thai (actually Vietnamese)…” is repeated so often that it becomes tedious.

I really enjoyed the book and I shall definitely look out for further books, as it’s described as the first in a series. I have no idea why, but David Niven in his 1967 role as James Bond kept popping into my mind as I read the book. Oh, and the very last sentence in the book is audacious! I won’t repeat it because of the spoiler effect – and you do need to have read the whole book to appreciate it.

#MajorBricketandtheCircusCorpse #NetGalley

I love the Fethering and Mrs Pargeter books but somehow I did not enjoy this quite as much, maybe it is because it is a new series and I don't know the characters enough yet but not sure that it is for me, sorry. Still a nice enough book to read on your holidays.

3.5 stars

This is a classic little cozy mystery, embracing all the quirks of quaint village life. Major Bricket is newly retired but retired from what? No one can rightly say, although many have their theories. Regardless, his prior training in firearms, interrogation, ingratiating himself with people of all classes, and of course, keeping a stiff upper lip serve him well when he finds a body, dressed as a clown, in his garage.

This is the start of a new series and while I'm not sure I'll read on - the writing is a tad too twee for my tastes - I don't regret the time I spent with these characters. It is an easy, poolside kind of read. The case itself falls somewhere between Clue and Scooby Doo, with a healthy dose of zany hijinks. I was hoping for more circus scenes. I felt the setting was a little wasted having most of the action take place in country houses instead.

If you like Richard Osman and MC Beaton, you might enjoy this!

Major Bricket has retired from doing goodness knows what, often abroad. His neighbours in Stunston Peveril certainly liked to speculate about what he was up to.

But now he's back - and there's a dead clown on his lawn...

Luckily, his past...assignments leave him well placed to investigate what happened

Excellent

A new Simon Brett novel is always something to look forward to but I felt this first in a possible new series fell short and was disappointing. The story centres on Major Brickett and his return to the sleepy village of Stunston Peverill, Suffolk, to find the corpse of a clown on his front lawn and the ensuing investigation that follows. The story itself was ok but I found the constant snobbery between the locals a bit repetitive and boring.

I appreciate that the copy I received was a first proof but the layout was awful and the narrative jumped from one character to another so I found it difficult to follow the story.

On a positive note I enjoyed being introduced to the locals of Stunston Peverill and Major Brickett and his sneaky, underhand ways of investigating the murder appealed so I'll definitely be trying another if this becomes a series.

The first in a new series by Simon Brett is always something to look forward to. Major Brett is returning to his home in Sussex after a long time abroad and is hoping to enjoy a peaceful retirement. His plans are turned upside down when a the corpse of a clown is discovered and the Major tries to solve the mystery surrounding the death. Suspicion falls on the visiting Lavoisier Circus, in the village for the Summer Fair, and its cast of interesting characters.
Full of twists and turns and a few red herrings, the book is overloaded with possible motives and suspects. This was an entertaining read from the start and I look forward to reading more in this series.

I love Simon Brett and was excited to see that he had started a new series. However, sadly, Major Bricket and the Circus Corpse didn’t really hit the mark for me.
The author often pokes fun at snobbery and the strange values that people hold through his characters but in this novel, It all felt a bit contrived and over the top. I didn’t really like any of the characters and didn’t find the dialogue as amusing as I generally do in a Brett crime novel.
Unfortunately this novel wasn’t for me but I am very grateful to Net Galley and the publishers, Little Brown Book Group for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I approached this with an open mind, having been disapp6in a different Simon Brett book.
Thank goodness I did. It was highly enjoyable, fun and entertaining, despite being improbable.
I'd definitely love to read more about Major Bricket.
Thanks to Netgalley.

So It Begins..
A typical English village with an atypical and disconcertingly high death rate and a Major with a penchant for amateur sleuthing and a mysterious history of potentially undercover assignments and foreign travel. The first in the Major Bricket series finds the Major returning to the village for a peaceful retirement but finding a very dead clown spreadeagled on his otherwise pristine lawn. So it begins… A fun and frothy start to a series with a cast of eccentric and eclectic characters.

Major Bricket and the Circus Corpse is the first book in the Major Bricket Mystery series by British author, Simon Brett. With the news that Major Bricket will be returning to the Sussex village of Stunston Peveril for good, everyone in the village airs a myriad of opinions on what the unforthcoming Major actually did for a living.

The Summer Fair is on, Lavoisier’s Circus is on Ratchetts Common, and everyone, even the Major, will be at the Costume Ball at Fincham Abbey this evening. When Major Bricket arrives at Highfield House, though, there’s a nasty surprise in his garage. The corpse is dressed as a clown, and before calling the local constabulary, he examines the scene very carefully.

At the Ball, the whole village is agog with wild theories about what the police presence means: illegal immigrants (Rhona, Cosy Collectibles), aliens (Crocker Fosbury, Goat & Compasses publican), a demonic cult (Lena who cleans the vicarage), the Knights Templar protecting the fragment of the true Cross in the chapel (Deidre, Post Office), or an unexploded WW2 bomb (Elvira Finchcombe, Gingham Tea Shop).

The clown costume, and a twisted iron bar send the police in the direction of Lavoisier’s Circus but, after talking to several performers and the ring-mistress, Camille, the Major isn’t convinced. When he learns the identity of the victim, he begins looking in a different direction, checking the history surrounding his orphaned garden boy, Rod Enright. Nga Luong, the Vietnamese owner of the Green Lotus Thai, known as a “Human Fortune Cookie”, plays a surprising role.

While DI Pritchett goes after the circus strongman, the Major is questioning the publican’s brother, a petty thief, an art dealer and an antique dealer. Eventually, he realises that, while Rod isn’t much of a gardener, he will make an excellent investigator, having a photographic memory and an education in some nefarious activities.

Before the culprit is revealed, there are a few twists and red herrings, and the reader is kept guessing about what is going on in Stunston Peveril. The villagers certainly provide some humour, as does Nga Luong with her fortunes, while Bricket proves his powers of deduction are very good, and he gets a taste for solving murders. This is an enjoyable cosy and more of the cast will be welcome.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK

Sadly this book is unreadable. The author jumps from one set of characters to the next mid paragraph, with no warning. It was hard to follow even just the basic storyline due to this, and was impossible to get into. Sadly I can’t recommend this book due to this