A Taste of Deceit
A Taste of Deceit Synopsis
After a row with her husband Kasper, Jocelyn Dexter, giving him time to cool down, leaves London to stay in their country cottage in Broadway.
They’d bought the cottage at her urging when friends had moved to a house nearby, but the cottage was small, even smaller than Jocelyn realised. Her friends have sold up and moved to Portugal and she knows nobody in Broadway so seeing a notice in a shop window advertising a craft night, she decides to go along especially since it’s being held in the Manor House she has passed and been curious about.
The lady of the manor, Claire, greets her and introduces her to the other 4 women – three of whom have lived in Broadway most of their lives.
By the end of the evening, Jocelyn is bored but also curious. A woman with secrets of her own, she recognises when others are keeping them. She decides it would be fun to try and find out what those secrets are.
Next day, she manages to find the address of Ruth and calls on her. While Ruth is making tea, Jocelyn snoops in a drawer and finds a photo of Ruth with a man – and she recognises the location as the room in the manor house she’d been in the night before. Ruth admits that she was in a relationship with Claire’s father, Alan, that they planned to marry.
More convinced there are big secrets, she decides the following day to try to find Hannah but as she leaves one of the other women, Sarah, arrives. She invites her in and finds out more about the women – that Claire and Hannah had been lovers twenty years before.
Next morning, there’s a note through Jocelyn’s letterbox telling her she should go home. It makes her more determined to find out the secrets. She tries to find Hannah but ends up having coffee with Ruth. When Joclyn gets back to the cottage she realise someone has been inside looking through her things.
Using it to her advantage, she goes to Claire, tells her what’s happened and ask to stay in the manor for the night. Reluctantly she agrees but makes a point of telling Jocelyn that everything she needed was in her room. Jocelyn is almost asleep later when she hears the door opening, someone sneaks into her room and goes through her handbag. An hour later, Jocelyn explores the house. In one of the rooms, she finds the man she recognises from Ruth’s photograph – but this man looks ill and is confused.
When she gets back to her cottage, she plans a day inside thanks to a storm but her peace is interrupted by a hammering on the door – it’s Hannah. Over several whiskey’s, she tells Jocelyn that she broke off the relationship with Claire. She told her she’d gone for counselling – conversion therapy and had told Claire she was no longer in love with her – but really she was facing up to the reality of being the only child whose parents expected her to take on the family farm. That was why Claire hated her. And she hated Ruth because she had been the one who’d counselled Hannah. Hannah also told Jocelyn that Alan and Ruth had made wills in expectation of their wedding, and that Ruth would inherit the house on Alan’s death
Hannah gets very drunk and Jocelyn is forced to allow her stay. That night, Jocelyn, unable to sleep hears shouting out on the street. It’s Hannah’s husband Doug, shouting outside the manor house, looking for his wife. Jocelyn goes out and brings him back. Over another drink he admits he’d always known he was second best, that Hannah really loved Claire.
Jocelyn knows if Claire leaves, this couple would be fine. But according to Doug she was staying around Broadway for good.
Jocelyn goes to visit Ruth again. She tells her about Alan’s condition, that he looked to be dying. She has come up with the theory that the reason Claire was preventing Ruth from seeing Alan was because she’d forced him to change his will to leave everything to her rather than Ruth – and if he were seen to be lacking capacity it would invalidate it.
Jocelyn asks Ruth what she’s going to do about it all and she realises that like Hannah, she’ll do nothing. She decides to help both of them. Before she leaves she asks Ruth for a bunch of flowers from her garden.
Next day, she decides to go back to London. She’d rang or messaged her husband every day but he’d not replied. It was time she went home and faced the future. Before she goes she makes muffins and mixes in some of the oleander she took from Ruth’s garden. She delivers 6 to Claire to thank her for her hospitality.
Jocelyn sends a message to Ruth to tell her she’d cooked up a solution to her problem. Then she goes back to London.
She meets a friend for lunch and persuades her to go back to the apartment with her – and when they do they find Kasper dead.
The police are called when paramedics find a note under his body accusing Jocelyn of leaving him to die after he had a stroke, but also accuses her of being responsible for the hit and run that killed his first wife and hiding the car in a lock-up.
Jocelyn tries to brush it off – accusing Kasper of trying to get revenge for the affair she’d had.
But the police find the evidence. They come back to the apartment and when Jocelyn realises it’s all over she admits everything – while she has a cup of tea and eats the last of the muffins she’d made.
Back in the station, with Jocelyn in a cell, the detective is puzzled when his phone rings – it’s his aunt in Broadway who tells him Teagan is dead – poisoned by muffins made by a visitor to the town called Jocelyn. The detective drops the phone and runs to the custody suite – but it’s too late, Jocelyn is dead.
After a row with her husband Kasper, Jocelyn Dexter, giving him time to cool down, leaves London to stay in their country cottage in Broadway.
They’d bought the cottage at her urging when friends had moved to a house nearby, but the cottage was small, even smaller than Jocelyn realised. Her friends have sold up and moved to Portugal and she knows nobody in Broadway so seeing a notice in a shop window advertising a craft night, she decides to go along especially since it’s being held in the Manor House she has passed and been curious about.
The lady of the manor, Claire, greets her and introduces her to the other 4 women – three of whom have lived in Broadway most of their lives.
By the end of the evening, Jocelyn is bored but also curious. A woman with secrets of her own, she recognises when others are keeping them. She decides it would be fun to try and find out what those secrets are.
Next day, she manages to find the address of Ruth and calls on her. While Ruth is making tea, Jocelyn snoops in a drawer and finds a photo of Ruth with a man – and she recognises the location as the room in the manor house she’d been in the night before. Ruth admits that she was in a relationship with Claire’s father, Alan, that they planned to marry.
More convinced there are big secrets, she decides the following day to try to find Hannah but as she leaves one of the other women, Sarah, arrives. She invites her in and finds out more about the women – that Claire and Hannah had been lovers twenty years before.
Next morning, there’s a note through Jocelyn’s letterbox telling her she should go home. It makes her more determined to find out the secrets. She tries to find Hannah but ends up having coffee with Ruth. When Joclyn gets back to the cottage she realise someone has been inside looking through her things.
Using it to her advantage, she goes to Claire, tells her what’s happened and ask to stay in the manor for the night. Reluctantly she agrees but makes a point of telling Jocelyn that everything she needed was in her room. Jocelyn is almost asleep later when she hears the door opening, someone sneaks into her room and goes through her handbag. An hour later, Jocelyn explores the house. In one of the rooms, she finds the man she recognises from Ruth’s photograph – but this man looks ill and is confused.
When she gets back to her cottage, she plans a day inside thanks to a storm but her peace is interrupted by a hammering on the door – it’s Hannah. Over several whiskey’s, she tells Jocelyn that she broke off the relationship with Claire. She told her she’d gone for counselling – conversion therapy and had told Claire she was no longer in love with her – but really she was facing up to the reality of being the only child whose parents expected her to take on the family farm. That was why Claire hated her. And she hated Ruth because she had been the one who’d counselled Hannah. Hannah also told Jocelyn that Alan and Ruth had made wills in expectation of their wedding, and that Ruth would inherit the house on Alan’s death
Hannah gets very drunk and Jocelyn is forced to allow her stay. That night, Jocelyn, unable to sleep hears shouting out on the street. It’s Hannah’s husband Doug, shouting outside the manor house, looking for his wife. Jocelyn goes out and brings him back. Over another drink he admits he’d always known he was second best, that Hannah really loved Claire.
Jocelyn knows if Claire leaves, this couple would be fine. But according to Doug she was staying around Broadway for good.
Jocelyn goes to visit Ruth again. She tells her about Alan’s condition, that he looked to be dying. She has come up with the theory that the reason Claire was preventing Ruth from seeing Alan was because she’d forced him to change his will to leave everything to her rather than Ruth – and if he were seen to be lacking capacity it would invalidate it.
Jocelyn asks Ruth what she’s going to do about it all and she realises that like Hannah, she’ll do nothing. She decides to help both of them. Before she leaves she asks Ruth for a bunch of flowers from her garden.
Next day, she decides to go back to London. She’d rang or messaged her husband every day but he’d not replied. It was time she went home and faced the future. Before she goes she makes muffins and mixes in some of the oleander she took from Ruth’s garden. She delivers 6 to Claire to thank her for her hospitality.
Jocelyn sends a message to Ruth to tell her she’d cooked up a solution to her problem. Then she goes back to London.
She meets a friend for lunch and persuades her to go back to the apartment with her – and when they do they find Kasper dead.
The police are called when paramedics find a note under his body accusing Jocelyn of leaving him to die after he had a stroke, but also accuses her of being responsible for the hit and run that killed his first wife and hiding the car in a lock-up.
Jocelyn tries to brush it off – accusing Kasper of trying to get revenge for the affair she’d had.
But the police find the evidence. They come back to the apartment and when Jocelyn realises it’s all over she admits everything – while she has a cup of tea and eats the last of the muffins she’d made.
Back in the station, with Jocelyn in a cell, the detective is puzzled when his phone rings – it’s his aunt in Broadway who tells him Teagan is dead – poisoned by muffins made by a visitor to the town called Jocelyn. The detective drops the phone and runs to the custody suite – but it’s too late, Jocelyn is dead.
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