I like these books for the clear portrayal of Charles Paris as a schmuck. Often a likable schmuck but always weak. This book includes a weekend bender which led to a Monday morning rehearsal with vicious hangover. This was followed by hair of the dog at midday and then drinking til closing time that night. I almost started drinking water myself to try and offset the dehydration. My least favorite part of these books is consistently the psychology of the killer. ( )

Another enjoyable crime story where, yet again, our hero, Charles Paris, beat me to the solution. Not great literature but, nor is it pretending so to be: this is great entertainment AND a history of the theatre. Simon Brett certainly knows his stuff.

Well worth a re-read in a couple of years time (and I bet our sleuth beats me to the denouement again!) ( )

No production of the Scottish Play would be complete without a bit of bad luck, it seems. In this particular production, Charles Paris, the man of many roles, has the misfortune of stumbling upon the corpse of the actor playing Duncan. The actor was not particularly well liked, but Charles, as the finder of the body and the only one in the theatre at the time of death, is the prime suspect. Can he conduct his own investigation and clear his name?

This ended up being way more fun than I thought -- so much so that I'm keeping it instead of giving it away. I am a sucker for stories about productions of Macbeth and this was very funny, with plenty of clever narrative asides, and Charles is a great main character who diesn't take himself too seriously. It may have helped that I pictured him as Bill Nighy, who has played him in some radio dramatizations. I did not appreciate the attitude of his friend John B. Murgatroyd toward the Lady Macbeth, but Charles did chastise him for his crudeness.

I would likely pick up other books in this series if I thought of it. ( )

I would have given more stars if a horrible "joke" about rape was not countenanced as acceptable within the text. The depiction of the theatre is so accurate, even based on my limited experience (high school musical theatre, with me playing 3 parts, altering costumes, doing the choreography, setting the stage, greeting the guests, serving the food, cleaning up, and finally getting to eat and fall over at the end of it all--after the tables were all put away of course!). I really enjoyed the book mostly for those descriptions of the play and now it has me wanting to act again, which is really unfortunate because I live in the sticks. I guess the fact that this book was about Macbeth helped too...I have a great fondness for "the Scottish play" and still long to play Lady Macbeth someday.
The actual plot is pretty weak and unimaginative, but most of the characters are well drawn. ( )

Charles Paris is back, this time playing a selection of minor roles in a new production of Macbeth at the Pinero Theatre in Warminster which is being directed by his old friend, Gavin Scholes. Other members of the cast include: John B Murgatroyd, an itinerant actor whose career has been almost as devastatingly unsuccessful as Charles's; George Birkett, a man who despite possessing little more than journeyman ability has encountered considerable commercial success through having played pedestrian roles in a selection of mindless situation comedies; Felicia Chatterton, an alluring yet intense actress whose career has been almost exclusively served in the RSC and who has to devote hours to think herself into her role;, and Warnock Belvedere, an outrageous old ham who prides himself on being a theatrical "character" encompassing all the worst traits of old self-aggrandising stars without any compensatory talent.

Almost from the start Belvedere shows himself to be obnoxious, overriding the feelings of anyone else in the company and blatantly undermining the director. Within days of the company first coming together there is no-one whom he has not driven to utter fury. Consequently, there is an immense feeling of relief which politeness and propriety do little to hide, when he is found dead in the cellar of the theatre's bar, having seemingly fallen over and knocked himself out while simultaneously dislodging the CO2 hoses. Drunk and unconscious he succumbs to asphyxiation. This is put down as a dreadful accident, and just another manifestation of the dreadful luck that historically bedevils companies staging "the Scottish Play".

Predictably the body is discovered by Charles who, having overdone things in the bar earlier in the evening, had fallen asleep in his dressing room and found himself locked in the theatre. It is only gradually afterwards, as he struggles to reconstruct the events of the night, that Charles recognises vital clues that point to Belvedere's death as murder, and he also realises that the perpetrator must be another member of the theatre company.

Brett is always capable of weaving an intricate yet plausible plot, which he lightly peppers with humour. Charles Paris is always a sympathetic character - flawed (a virtual alcoholic and recalcitrant philanderer) yet essentially well-meaning, even to the point of frequent self-disgust. The conflicting ambitions and lifestyles of the different members of the theatrical company are also well constructed, and Brett clearly knows the theatrical milieu very well, and he is sufficiently conversant with the text and subtexts of Macbeth to throw in some convincing exegesis of the play's more obscure stretches.

Most entertaining on a number of levels! ( )