Simon Brett Omnibus Volume 8

A reconstructed Corpse 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 television series. Finding himself in a bizarre world somewhere between police procedure and show biz. Charles is inexorably drawn into the investigation... especially after dismembered limbs start turning up. Public Enemies' viewers get caught up in a macabre jigsaw puzzle of death; it is ghastly, of course, but it does make good television. As the programme's ratings soar; so the egos behind the scene become ever more inflated. Charle's relations with his wife and agent are at an alltime low, and he all too often has recourse to Bell's whisky, but no amount of pressure - or booze - can deter him from trying to solve the mystery. Sicken and so Die Things are going suspiciously well for Charles Paris. He has moved back in with his ex-wife and although he is not yet a permanent fixture in her bed, he has hopes. What's more, he has got a proper part in a proper production - Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. But this blissful state cannot last and, true to form, Charles is soon in trouble - both on and off stage. And when two members of the theatre company fall suddenly ill, Charles begins to suspect that someone might actually be trying to kill him... Dead Room Farce Charles Paris is standing on stage with his trousers around his ankles, playing Aubrey, the older lover of Gilly, in Not on Your Wife! a new farce. Rehearsals have gone well, but his marriage is on the rocks yet again and in addition to Bell's there is the attraction of ageing ingénue Cookie Stone. As the troupe reaches Bath a darker mood sets in. Cookie thinks that she and Charles are practically married (if only he could rememeber what happened!) and Charles' friend Mark has a drink problem that amounts to a death wish. But it's not the drink that kills Mark. The dirty little secret is in the cast and Mark could not reveal it...


Genre: Cozy Mystery