Charles Paris Books

A middle-aged actor with a taste for wine and women takes to detection to uncover the connection between the murder of a wealthy theatrical tycoon and the killing of a blackmailer with a supply of compromising photographs

Charles Paris, actor turned amateur sleuth, sees a university staging of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots turn into actual murder and is caught up in an investigation that finally unmasks the killer

Simon Brett is back with one of his best theater-inspired detective novels. Though the target for murder is an odious theater and television star, actor/detective Charles Paris finds that the main character is behind the strange happenings backstage, including the rehearsal pianist being shot in the hand, and an actor falling and breaking his leg. Why does the star want to sabotage his show? The answer is one much more human than it first appears.

An Amateur Corpse is another fascinating Simon Brett mystery set in the backdrop of theater. Charles Paris is a part-time detective and professional actor, drawn into the affairs of an amateur theater company. Charles’s friend Hugo’s wife is murdered, and Hugo is charged with the crime. Now, Paris takes on the case personally. The solution to the mystery lies in a clever double alibi. An Amateur Corpse is an absorbing, and entertaining account of theatrical backstaging, backscratching and backbiting.

Paperback reprint. Mystery fiction: actor-sleuth Charles Paris.

West End Television are planning a new situation-comedy series, to be called The Struttters. From the outset, things go horribly wrong with the new series. Odd accidents—if they are accidents—remove, one by one, the sharp-tongued Production Assistant, the self-effacing script-writer, the hearty Floor Manager. Death even takes from us the revolting Yorkshire terrier, Cocky, who’s the idol of the indestructible Dame Aurelia Howarth, theatrical star for fifty years. There’s no discernible pattern in all this, but Simon Brett’s regular sleuth, the bit-player Charles Paris, is confidently on the trail of another mass murderer. But the bizarre solution, brilliantly led up to, surprises even him.

Published by Dell 1984, 1st thus.(#0-440-16145-2) Publisher edition: Murder Ink (alternative cover art matching Murder Ink series). Part of a complete Charles Paris collection for sale by owner

Simon Brett again takes us behind the scenes in a back-stage drama of crime and detection. This time it’s the world of provincial rep, with an historic theatre threatened with closure by unscrupulous property developers. And the theatre management seems to be digging its own grave: a deplorable choice of current productions; a painfully incompetent director; bizarre accidents happening on stage. Charles, as Mr. Brett’s readers know, is an amateur detective and a professional actor. As an actor his career is still on the way down, with not much further to go. But as a detective he goes from strength to strength. He soon establishes that someone is deliberately sabotaging the company. All this culminates in a spectacular suicide. Or is it murder, as Charles Paris suspects?

Tristam Gowers and Yves Lafeu have the flamboyance of stage matinee idols, but currently they are running a very smart restaurant, Tryst, which is much patronized by top people in the theatrical profession. Which means it’s not Charles Paris’s usual ambience, but this small-part player, who’s more successful as an amateur detective than as professional actor, is the guest tonight of another fascinating duo, William Bartlemas and Kevin O’Rourke, wealthy collectors of theatrical memorabilia. And he is in at the death: the gruesome murder of Yves. It seems to be an open and shut case. Tristam caught the night boat to France within hours of a spectacular public quarrel with Yves over a pretty youth, and now he has disappeared. But of course there’s much more to it than that: much more, as Charles discovers when he begins to investigate.

Poor Charles Paris: as an actor, which is his chosen profession, he is reaching rock-bottom; but as a detective, the role he is continually called upon to play, he’s brilliant, as he demonstrates again in his latest adventure. He is now reaching the lowest form of showbiz life, the television give-away panel game. And when he and his vast audience least expect it, there’s a murder in the studio, right in front of the cameras. Once again, Simon Brett reveals his mastery as he unravels a complex mystery and revels in the humour of this showbiz world.

Charles Paris is on his way up again, career-wise. No longer “resting” and no longer just a corpse in a cupboard, he blossoms in the play dreaded by superstitious theatre folk, who will not even speak its name: “the Scottish play” —Macbeth. It’s only in the provincial rep, but you have to start (or re-start) somewhere. And his agent has promised that though what’s offered is not much of a part, “other good parts are in the offing”. By which perhaps is not meant precisely what happens: that Charles finds himself doubling almost every role in the play that isn’t held by the three principals. And as for the principals, they could hardly be more ill-sorted. Macbeth is played by George Birkitt, the TV game-show personality whom we met in Dead Giveaway. Lady Macbeth comes straight from Stratford: an intense young woman with Method in her madness. And Duncan is that notorious old ham, Warnock Belvedere, who feels that he’s in the tradition of great acto-managers. With such a cast, sparks are bound to fly. It’s not long before death strikes in the night. And Charles Paris takes on the role of private eye…

Charles Paris is in clover. He has been contracted for three whole months to play brainless bobby Sergeant Clump, foil to the charismatic amateur sleuth, Stanislas Braid, in a TV series of that name. Recourse to the Bell’s is still needed, however, to get him through a day’s filming—one made all the more arduous by the pompous posturings of the show’s star, and the constant outraged interruptions of the ancient author whose detective novels are being adapted. Indeed, there is plenty of friction about, but when a particularly unpromising actress is killed, crushed to death, there seems no reason to doubt it was an accident…except in Charles’s mind. Leaving behind a trail of broken resolutions and empty bottles, Charles indulges in some sleuthing of his own. He may lack the panache of the suave Stanislas Braid, but unlike the great detective the danger Paris encounters is only too real. A Series of Murders is a witty and delightful addition to Simon Brett’s popular series.

Hired to operate a forklift in a corporate video, struggling actor and English sleuth Charles Paris finds the job complicated when a girl on the set is crushed to death by the machine. Reprint.

While playing the part of missing property developer Martin Earnshaw on "Public Enemies," a true-crime television series, actor-sleuth Charles Paris begins to uncover the shocking truth about the missing man's disappearance

Struggling actor and amateur sleuth Charles Paris finally lands the much-coveted role of Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, but his expected acting break turns into a nightmare when the production is sabotaged by a series of suspicious events, including murder. 12,500 first printing.

Delighted to land a role in an acting company touring the provinces, struggling actor Charles Paris finds himself embroiled with two very different women and becomes a suspect in the death of an old drinking buddy, forcing him to turn sleuth to clear his name. 10,000 first printing.

After a long period of ‘resting’, life is looking up for Charles Paris, who has been cast as the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father and First Gravedigger in a new production of Hamlet. But rehearsals are fraught.  Ophelia is played by Katrina Selsey, who won the role through a television talent show.  Hamlet himself is also played by a reality TV contestant, Jared Root – and the two young stars have rather different views of celebrity and the theatre than the more experienced members of the cast. But when the company reach the first staging post of their tour, the Grand Theatre Marlborough, matters get more serious, with one member of the company seriously injured in what appears to be an accident, and another dead.  Once again, Charles Paris is forced to don the mantle of amateur detective to get to the bottom of the mystery.

A Christmas production of Cinderella is marred by a series of killings in the waspishly funny new Charles Paris mystery Landing a minor part in the Empire Theatre Eastbourne’s Christmas production of Cinderella, Charles Paris soon discovers that his main role is to gently introduce the show's baffled American star, famous sitcom actor Kenny Polizzi, to the bizarre customs of English pantomime. During their convivial sessions in the local pub, Charles finds himself increasingly caught up in Polizzi’s tangled affairs as the American fends off a vengeful soon-to-be-ex-wife, an obsessed groupie, and a barely-controlled drink problem. But Charles is about to be far more involved than he might wish when he stumbles across a body beneath Eastbourne Pier, a neat bullet hole in the centre of the forehead. As the world’s press descends on Eastbourne, the pantomime rehearsals descend into chaos and he himself comes under suspicion, it’s up to Charles to put his renowned sleuthing skills to the test to find out who really killed his fellow cast member – and why. Simon Brett is the winner of The CWA Diamond Dagger 2014.

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 …