Wed 30 Nov 2022
An Archived Mystery Review: SIMON BRETT – Cast, in Order of Disappearance.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[8] Comments
SIMON BRETT – Cast, in Order of Disappearance. Charles Paris #1. Gollancz, UK, hardcover, 1975. Charles Scribner’s Sons, US, hardcover, 1975. Berkley, US, paperback, 1979. Dell, US, paperback, 1986.
The British entertainment industry is the target of some rather pointed jabs as a new sleuth makes his debut. He’s actor Charles. Paris, now 47, and relegated to BBC radio productions and third-rate horror movies , with a tendency toward drink and dalliance. Without quite knowing how, he finds himself in a [mystery] affair of dirty pictures and the pretty young widow of an aging producer.
His actor’s voice and disguises do come in handy, but this is not a whodµnit, the questions are [rather] how and why, built precariously on coincidence and second-hand clues. Veddy British, but with undeniable charm and humor. Paris is an engaging fellow, in spite of his faults,. and hints are that he’ll soon return.
Rating: B
November 30th, 2022 at 9:04 pm
If I was ever right about anything in a review, it was that closing phrase that ended this one.
You might say that Brett’s Charles Paris series was a resounding success: there were 20 in all. Not at all bad for a broken down hack of an actor doing a bit of crime solving on the side.
December 1st, 2022 at 1:09 am
The acting didn’t go very well in future. Perhaps Paris should have made a career change.
Is it only in Britain where the BBC still has radio drama and soap operas that actors can still keep working even if they’ve only “got a face for radio”?
I saw a picture of the cast of a radio play production featuring an aged corpulent athletic hero, a black woman playing a blonde femme fatale and her grandfather in the play played by someone who could have been her grandson. On air they all played very well.
December 1st, 2022 at 9:35 am
To be sure. A voice is a voice.
And I’ve always thought Brett was pitch perfect in his portrayal of Charles Paris. If Brett didn’t go through the vicissitudes of being an actor hanging on by his fingertips himself, he had a keen observational eye on those who had.
December 1st, 2022 at 8:03 pm
Ironically Charles Paris ended up adapted on BBC radio drama (where I believe Brett was a producer before taking up writing), a natural I suppose, you could even say the most popular of Paris long undistinguished career as an actor.
For Brett in a different mood check out his Woodhousian Blotto series about a somewhat Wooster adjactent brother and his much smarter sister encountering crime from the country house to Ruritania in a delightful series of mysteries.
December 1st, 2022 at 9:26 pm
I’ve read over a dozen of the Charles Paris mysteries. But as the series went on it became much less enjoyable. Paris’s drinking problem became full-blown alcoholism. His relations with his ex-wife and family teetered on domestic abuse. The darkness of his character and situation nearly overshadowed any of the crimes.
Now when I feel like a Simon Brett book I pick up one of the Mrs. Pargeter series. They are considerably lighter in tone. So far …
December 1st, 2022 at 10:05 pm
Thanks for the warning. Of the 20 Paris books, I’ve read no more than 6 or 8, and those of the first 10 or 12.
I’ve yet to read any of his other series, which I’ve been meaning to try, but so far haven’t:
8 Mrs Pargeter
21 Fethering
12 Blotto & Twinks (see David’s comment, with the 12th scheduled for next year)
and 3 in what are called “Uncluttering Mysteries”
December 1st, 2022 at 10:08 pm
The first book in the latter series, being totally new to me, had to be Googled. It is synopsized online thusly:
“Ellen Curtis runs her own business helping people who are running out of space. As a declutterer, she is used to encountering all sorts of weird and wonderful objects in the course of her work. What she has never before encountered is a dead body.”
December 3rd, 2022 at 5:56 pm
I love the Charles Paris series, but I love the Bill Nighy audio book productions just as much! Highly recommended! https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Paris-Murder-Unprompted-audiobook/dp/B01467Z4O4/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2IUQP5ROG9I21&keywords=charles+paris+audio+books&qid=1670107993&s=books&sprefix=charles+paris+audio+book%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-3
I bought them but I’ve seen them in Libraries, too.