A Fete Worse Than Death

Lady Charlotte's Grand Venture

Lady Charlotte Montgomery, a retired parliamentarian realises there is a gap in the hotel market, a hotel specifically to cater for naughty weekends by the great and the good. She takes over a hotel tucked away in the mountains of Wales; she does not open to the general public, she sells shares to MP's, Bishops, Golfers, etc offering in exchange guaranteed discretion. Unfortunately as in all good plans there is a snag. The local village church has held a fete on the front lawn of the hotel every year since 1916, Lady Charlotte knows that to refuse would be negative publicity so she gives the go-ahead knowing that somehow she has to keep her clients away from the public gaze. The situation gets worse when one of her guests, the well-known MP Sir Rodney Cobbedick there for a weekend with his researcher Helga, dies in bed. His wife, who knows nothing about his share in the hotel has sent a private detective who thinks he is the reincarnation of Humphrey Bogart after him to find out what her husband is doing when he is not at home. At the same time the Bishop of Whittington and his 'secretary' Fiona are also there; unfortunately the bishop knew the local vicar, the one who is running the fete when they were at college together, so keeping them apart is another complication. Two nuns turn up on the doostep because they say their Morris Minor has broken down, but even this is not what it appears.