The Funny Farm

Four different tradesmen working for a mutual client and his wife who have more money than sense, until jealousy and resentment leads to an investigation by the Dept. of Works and Pensions.
The Funny Farm is a comic novel, told by Charles Wilson, an antique furniture restorer, who is at the centre, about the relationships that develop between a group of tradesmen that have worked together for several years and a mutual client. The mutual client being Frank Knight and his wife Nisha. Frank and Nisha have two teenage daughters that couldn't be less alike.
Frank is the successful family firm's accountant. Unknown to his father, Frank devotes almost as much energy into squirrrelling away company funds into personal assets, like paintings and what he believes are genuine antique furniture; not to mention employing tradesmen on a regular basis improving and maintaining his family home.
Although Frank can be very generous, and his heart is generally in the right place, the location and condition of his brain is often suspect. A self-confessed 'picky bastard', he will fuss over details to the nth degree. dado rails are screwed in more positions than a porn star; leaving more holes to fill than the site of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
Charles is fifty, and although a furniture maker and restorer by trade, he has allowed himself to be monopolised by Frank at the expense of his other clients, on building related projects. Charles is often accused by his long suffering wife Alex, of not taking life seriously. Alex is a Headteacher, and Charles often feels that she puts her work before the family. They have two teenagers, Adam and Lizzie. Adam is nineteen and has left home and works as a landscape gardener.Lizzie is fourteen and sports-mad; continually requiring dad's taxi service. Lizzie misses her mum's presence not only at home but supporting her at her various sports, and appears sensitive to the friction caused by her mother's long hours and the effects on the family relationships.
Just to add to Charles' marriage problems, he discovers intimate emails to his apparently hard-working wife. Charles leaps to conclusions. However the course of action he takes to save his marriage, produces unforeseen results.
Friction develops at The Funny Farm, as Charles irreverently refers to Frank and Nisha's stately pile, when Wayne, the bricklayer, but also a highly successful metal-detectorist, spends more time on his phone flogging his finds.
The atmosphere is only made worse by the disappearance of a substantial amount of cash, and the subsequent cloud of suspicion.
Nisha's flirtatious banter with Charles, is only fuelled by Frank's apparent lack of interest in her. It also fuels Wayne's jealousy.
Unfortunately for Frank, Nisha is unaware that Wayne is also privy to her husband's various tax dodges; and so has him by the short-and-curlies. Nisha's increasing resentment and frustration at her husband's lack of intervention regarding Wayne's lack of productivity, leads her to take matters into her own hands. Unaware that Eric the alcoholic, chain-smoking gardener who is having to retire on health grounds has also decided to help out with a leaving present, with disastrous consequences for all.
Meanwhile Charles, who has been frustrated by the working situation at The Funny Farm for some time, thinks he's found a saviour in a new wealthy client, Rachel Foxley. However Rachel is not only wealthy, she is also young, extremely attractive and single.
Unfortunately the harmless flirting that Charles had enjoyed with Nisha over several years, looks like back-firing when he can't control his mouth with Rachel.