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A Series of Murders: A Crime Novel

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Simon Brett now returns to the extraordinary character who made him famous: Charles Paris, the usually out-of-work actor who on occasion imbibes a little too much and who detects even better than he acts. A Series of Murders finds Charles gainfully employed in what he hopes will be the long-running Stanislas Braid television series based on some rather dated 1930s novels. Charles is booked for three highly paid months as Sergeant Clump of the Little Breckington Police Station, foil to the suave detective Braid, a disciple of the School of Lord Peter Wimsey. Russell Bentley, a wooden and egotistical leading man who always plays himself, stars as Braid, and an impossibly bad actress, Sippy Stokes, is "absolute death" as Stanislas Braid's naive young daughter, Christina. Television sitcoms hardly require Shakespearean training, but Sippy is so awful she may ruin the show. Fortunately for the series but sadly for Sippy, Charles discovers the young lady crushed to death beneath a props case when he wanders into the props room (on his way to the bar) early in the shooting schedule. Charles knows that many people had cause to dislike Sippy or to wish her gone, but murder would seem to be an extreme way to terminate anybody's contract. Simon Brett is in very fine form here

Simon Brett's British character actor/amateur sleuth, Charles Paris, is generally out of work hanging around his seedy London bed-sitter. His agent is known as the worst one available, but he's full of valuable theater gossip that comes in handy for Charles's detecting work. Charles likes his Bell's whiskey a little too much, but it helps to stave off the bad effects of a marriage gone sour and his dire acting prospects. He occasionally gets hangovers that can be measured on the seismic scale.

In "A Series of Murders" Charles has landed a three-month assignment in a television mystery series as the cloddish Sergeant Clump. It's a pre-World War II drama that is more old-fashioned than period stuff. The TV detective is Stanislas Braid, and he is being portrayed by an actor who can never play anyone but himself. The leading men in Simon Brett's series are usually inept. The TV episodes are adapted from the mysteries of W.T. Wintergreen, a woman who along with her sister insists on everything being filmed exactly as she wrote it.

As usual Charles is the one who finds the victims, and often he'll know it's foul play, murder, when the cops think it's accidental death. This plot is very clever, and the solution is quite ingenious. Readers always have fun watching Charles trying to seek rapprochement with his estranged wife Frances who is onto his tricks and his broken promises.

Sometimes in a Paris novel an incompetent actor or actress will get done in, or it might be someone who is nasty or dodgy. Brett knows all the ins and outs of theater, and he's sharp delineating actors, directors, writers and crew members. There are always a lot of comic lines, and Brett knows how to get Charles in trouble. Charles is his own worst enemy. This page-turner has a lot of suspects, and it's all fast-paced and pleasant reading. Not the greatest Brett, but not bad either.

I received this book earlier than excepted and it was in exactly the condition that the seller said it was. I would definitely but from this seller again.

Charles Paris believed that everything was temporary. He felt that Russell Bentley, the star of the new television series, played every part the same way. W.T. Wintergreen is being adapted for television.

West End Television is hoping for a hit series on the order of MISS MARPLE starring Joan Hickson. The writer for this series vows to do only dead writers in the future. Charles has been hired to play a character, a uniformed policeman, appearing in every episode. He is pleased to have three months' employment.

Our hero encounters a dead cast member in the prop room. Real police arrive on the scene and the death is held to be accidental. Work has been an intermittent visitor in Paris's theatrical career. Drinking has served to fill-in time. He lives in a tacky bed-sitter. There is a phone on the landing. His agent, who hadn't found work for him for two years, knows more about the progress of the current television production than he does.

Unexplained deaths continue. Paris probes for causes while being amusing. His employment history has caused him to be an onlooker in life. An amused and knowledgeable and charitable observer is a good thing in a murder mystery. This book is well-done and will repay any reader's attention.