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    Deadly Habit, A: A theatrical mystery
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    Deadly Habit, A: A theatrical mystery
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    Deadly Habit, A: A theatrical mystery
    Ebook265 pages3 hours

    Deadly Habit, A: A theatrical mystery

    By Simon Brett

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Rehearsals in a new West End play are disrupted by sudden, violent death in the intriguing new Charles Paris mystery

    Having landed a small part in a new West End play, The Habit of Faith, Charles Paris is dismayed to discover that his good fortune has been orchestrated by his bête noire, the now-famous screen actor Justin Grover. But why has Grover become involved in this relatively obscure production – and why has he roped in Charles to star?

    From the outset the production is fraught with difficulties — and matters become even more complicated when a body is discovered at the foot of the dressing room stairs. Did they fall – or were they pushed? As one of the last people to have seen the victim alive, Charles Paris is drawn into the ensuing investigation – and discovers that more than one person involved in the play has a scandalous secret to hide …
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSevern House Publishers
    Release dateSep 1, 2018
    ISBN9781780109770
    Author

    Simon Brett

    Simon Brett worked as a producer in radio and television before taking up writing full time. As well as the much-loved Fethering series, the Mrs Pargeter novels and the Charles Paris detective series, he has written a number of radio and television scripts. Married with three children, he lives in an Agatha Christie-style village on the South Downs. You can find out more about Simon at his website: www.simonbrett.com

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    Reviews for Deadly Habit, A

    3.5/5

    13 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Actor Charles Paris, who is in his late-fifties, rarely lands decent parts anymore. In fact, his lackadaisical agent, Maurice Skellern, has not even called Paris for more than four months. While awaiting his next role, Charles spends hours drinking; he is an alcoholic who does not recognize the seriousness of his condition. Much to Charles's surprise, Skellern informs him that he has landed a small but well-paying role in the West End. Meanwhile, Charles's estranged wife, Frances, is generously throwing her husband a lifeline. If Charles manages to stay off the booze, she will not rule out the possibility of a reconciliation. Charles cares for Frances, but does he love her enough to stop chasing younger women and drinking so much that he sometimes blacks out?

      Simon Brett's "A Deadly Habit" brings back one of the author's most irritating yet engaging characters. Charles is fascinatingly paradoxical. He can be witty and upbeat, or dour and self-pitying. In addition, he is self-deprecating, but proud enough to hotly deny that he needs help staying sober. At long last, Charles joins a program for alcoholics; he wants to stay dry long enough to solve these crimes and win Frances back. In addition to being a mediocre actor with a weakness for drowning his sorrows in a bottle of Bell's, Charles is an amateur sleuth. When a member of his ensemble is found dead, Charles interviews his fellow cast members as well as Gideon, the stage doorman, to learn more about what happened. Paris suspects foul play and, when another death follows on the heels of the first, Paris believes that the killer has struck again. It is unlikely that so many men and women would reveal their secrets to Charles, but one of the conventions of this series is that our hero readily convinces people to open up to him.

      Brett scathingly satirizes flashy and trashy pop culture, and makes fun of marginally talented but good-looking actors who make it big, and then expect everyone to defer to them. In addition to being sardonic and amusing, "A Deadly Habit" explores such serious topics as the price that sexually exploitative predators are finally paying for their misdeeds. Moreover, the plight of Charles and others who have addictive personalities draws attention to the toll that substance abuse takes on individuals, their families, and society as a whole. Finally, this fast-paced and engrossing novel exposes some of the flaws of Britain's criminal justice system. All too frequently, the police fail to catch and punish felons who are too shrewd and/or lucky to be caught in the act. It is a fact that not everyone gets the punishment that he or she deserves.
    • 4/5
      Another bumbling Charles Paris crime story. There are two things that I love about this series: firstly (and NOT "first up"!!!), Simon Brett really understands the acting profession, and particularly the lower ends thereof. Charles Paris, and each of the characters that he encounters, seems to be a real rounded person. The second is that Charles Paris is not some hero scaling twenty foot walls to tackle a muscular killer. CP investigates through actorly gossip and hunch.Thoroughly enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      Simon Brett’s journeyman actor Charles Paris makes a very welcome return. Charles has never ascended to the eights of his profession, and periods of gainful employment have tended to be the exception rather than the rule. His lack of professional success and achievement has been mirrored in his personal life, and now, nearing sixty (Simon Brett has not followed the approach of writers such as Ian Rankin and Michael Connelly in letting their protagonists age in real time, and Charles has been in his fifties ever since the publication of the earliest novels in the series back in the late 1970s), he is living alone in his bedsit near Paddington, and drinking prodigious amounts of alcohol. Things may be looking up on one front as Frances, his never-quite-divorced wife seems amenable to a rapprochement as they approach their sixties, but she has insisted that Charles needs to stop drinking. Predictably for anyone familiar with the series, Charles greets this terrifying prospect by getting hideously drunk.As the novel opens, Charles is in the unusual position of having some lucrative work lined up, and not just any old role. He has been selected for a role in a new play which is set for a three-month run in the West End, and did not even have to audition. The new play stars Julian Glover, an actor of similar age but markedly different career profile to Charles. Indeed, they had worked together more than thirty years ago in a repertory theatre in Dorset, when they had between them played Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (although at this remove neither could remember which was which). Since then, Glover had risen in the profession, starring in several films and securing a leading part in a blockbuster television series in the Game of Thrones genre. For reasons never made clear, Glover had recommended Charles for one of the minor parts in this play.Rehearsals begin, and the company seems to be coming together fairly well, with no major rifts or friction. As usual, Charles’s first concern is to sort out prospective drinking partners, and despite his hopes of continued rapprochement with Frances, he makes his habitual prospective philanderer’s assessment of the female members of the cast and crew. All is going well until one night towards the end of the rehearsal period, the female lead is found dead at the foot of a staircase, with no indication of whether she had fallen or been pushed. Shortly afterwards, the theatre’s ageing alcoholic doorman is also found dead in a seedy private drinking club. Charles once more finds himself in a theatre company which contains a murderer.Brett is very accomplished at developing engrossing plots, and adroitly judges the balance between suspense and humour. Charles is as engaging a character as ever, and this book adds another dimension to its predecessors with the reader rooting for Charles to succeed in his struggles over drinking.All in all, this was very entertaining.