Cast in Order Disapp

In Simon Brett's "Cast, In Order of Disappearance" Charles Paris, actor/amateur detective, has four liaisons (one with his estranged wife Frances), and that's an unusual number for a single Charles Paris mystery. As usual, in this one he does more detective work than acting. The book features a number of the running characters in the series (my own theory of character conservation): his lousy but gossipy agent Maurice Skellern, theater solicitor Gerald Venables, and the fanatical theater-struck team of Bartlemas and O'Rourke. Having and re-using his own regular cast of characters, Brett gives readers the homey feeling that they are among friends again. Charles at age 47 is just barely skirting the outer fringes of alcoholism. One of his liaison partners, Jacqui, asks Charles to help her reconcile with her lover, the very successful theater impresario Marius Steen, who has told her to buzz off and is incommunicado. Jacqui has paid for some compromising blackmail photos that show her at a wild party with a masked Marius. She wants Charles to be the go-between and deliver the damaging photos to Steen to show her lover that she is trying to protect their love affair. Unfortunately Jacqui hasn't thought to buy the negatives so Charles has to visit the blackmailer, who it turns out has been killed in a roadside shooting, but his wife is carrying on the nefarious business. The wife, a sex pot, wants money and Charles. She gets Charles but no blackmail money. Typically there's a lot of insider theater and actor stuff that stage buffs will love. Brett is often comedic and ironic. Charles realizes what a loser he is, but he soldiers on thinking of the next Bell's whiskey, careful that he doesn't develop Distiller's Droop as he did with Jacqui. His daughter Juliet is a key player in this story, but her husband has a hard time stomaching his father-in-law who in turn can't the son-in-law. His daughter asks her father if he's an alcoholic, and he answers, "Where does liking a drink stop and being an alcoholic start?" Charles does several impersonations during his investigations, one being Inspector McWhirter of Scotland Yard. In this book Charles even gets a bullet wound in the arm during his detecting chores. This a highly recommended mystery with a busy plot line.