An Amateur Corpse

In Simon Brett's "An Amateur Corpse" (1978) boozy actor Charles Paris does a bit of voice-over work for an advertising agency, but otherwise he is busy being a dabbler in sleuthing. His friend Hugo is drinking too much and is distraught over what he thinks is the faithlessness of his beautiful wife Charlotte. "Husband and wife lived in a state of domestic apartheid." Hugo gets Charles involved with an amateur theater group, the Backstagers, in Breckton where Charlotte is acting. The group wants professional actor Charles to critique their performance of Chekhov's "The Seagull." In a diplomatic way he tries to tell them that they are really bad, and, of course, they don't want to hear it. Charlotte is found murdered in the woodshed, Hugo gets charged, and Charles is off and running trying to find out whodunit to save his friend. He's half-heartedly aided by his solicitor friend Gerald Venables, who should be more interested since Hugo is his client. In this one Charles seems more on the ball as a detective and actually follows the clues unlike his usual trial and error process. He has a habit of zeroing in on one suspect only to find that the person has to be dropped because of an alibi. As he juggles his suspects, he also keeps topping off his alcohol level throughout. The theater group are an oddball group that gives Brett a chance for some humorous jabs, but on the whole this is not one of his books that features much comedy. As usual Brett displays his knowledge of all facets of show business. In his mysteries he's a master of narration, plotting, dialogue, and characterization. Charles is 50 in this one, and estranged wife Frances is not featured. Brett is light reading, and his books effortlessly breeze along which is great for readers who don't want to deal with anything too intense. Charles, unlike some series detectives, ages from book to book, and our only fear is that he'll drink himself to death at too early an age.