Simon Brett

Charles Paris's acting career plumbs new depths when he takes on the part of a possible murder victim in Public Enemies, a true-crime TV series. Finding himself in a bizarre world somewhere between police procedure and showbiz, Charles can't help getting involved in the investigation - especially when dismembered limbs start turning up.

Appearing in his own one-man show on Thomas Hood at the Edinburgh Festival, middle-aged actor Charles Paris finds himself falling for a gorgeous young girl with navy-blue eyes. He also finds himself being dragged into a complex murder investigation involving the death of a fading pop star, a bomb scare in Holyrood Palace and a suicide leap from the top of the Rock.

A brief appearance on a TV game show, 'If the Cap Fits', means a day's pay, a few interesting contacts and a chance to visit the West End Television bar - not the least of incentives for a man of Charles Paris's thirst. But murder? Even for game shows where they'll try almost anything once, murder is going too far.

Madeleine Severn is a tutor at the Garrettway School of Languages, she has a young outlook on life, and is proud of her looks. Eighteen-year-old student Paul Grigson idolises Madeleine and during a date of his own he sees Madeleine with the married Bernard Hopkins. When Bernard arranges to meet Madeleine again, he feels jealous, but like most teenagers, Paul's moods change like a chameleon's. This is a romantic triangle surely destined for disaster...

West End TV are planning a new sit-com series called The Strutters and Charles Paris has landed the role of a golf club barman. But when, one by one, members of the production crew start falling victim to mysterious 'accidents', Paris finds himself on the trail of a mass murderer.

During a period of 'resting', actor Charles Paris takes on a job as a house painter. Arriving for work at the flat above a fashionable Holland Park restaurant, he discovers the mutilated body of chef Yves Lafeu. It would appear to be an open-and-shut case. Yves' business partner Tristram Gowers caught the night boat to France within hours of a spectacular public quarrel with Yves, and has now disappeared. But is there more to it than that? Charles...

Who killed Marcus Steen, the theatrical tycoon with a fortune to leave to his young mistress Jacqui? And who killed Bill Sweet, the shady blackmailer with a supply of compromising photographs? Charles Paris, a middle-aged actor addicted to booze and women, decides to investigate by assuming a variety of roles, among them that of the mythical Detective Sergeant McWhirter. But, as Paris is about to discover only too painfully, impersonating a police...

Welcome to Fethering! The race is on to find a killer when Jude stumbles across a body at the bookies in this quirky, cozy, British village mystery. Jude has never been averse to a bit of a flutter; her friend Carole, on the other hand, thinks that the local betting shop is a den of iniquity. But when Jude stumbles upon the body of fellow customer Tadeusz Jankowski after placing a bet, the odds of finding his killer don't look good. No one seems...

Ten years since it was first published in hardback, and now for the first time as an eBook, this volume of short stories by the cream of British crime writing talent celebrates 75 years of the quintessential Detection Club. The Detection Club represents the cream of British crime writing talent. Founded on the cusp of the 1930s, the Club's first President was G.K. Chesterton, and since then the mantle of Presidency has passed to some of the most significant...