THE DEAD SIDE OF THE MIKE

by Simon Brett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1980

Actor-sleuth Charles Paris is back--this time with the BBC radio studios as background (and as the butt for some insular but awfully funny satire). The victim--studio-manager Andrea Gower, found at her tape-deck console with her wrists razored. Suicide? Of course not, says Charles--especially after he finds a musak cassette in Andrea's apartment bearing the name Danny Klinger. . . and then Klinger is found dead in his car in the Oxfordshire woods. What was the connection between Andrea (who'd just returned from a U.S. trip) and Klinger (a N.Y. musak peddler)? Charles finds out, on a trip to N.Y. for the funeral of his mother-in-law (love with estranged wife Frances re-blooms momentarily)--and the tape-pirating trail, which leads to a popular disk jockey, involves a very nice treasure-hunt-by-car sequence with clues hidden in the songs chosen for a radio show. Not as hilarious as some earlier Bretts, not one of his best plots--and his supposed N.Y. dialogue is riddled with Britishisms. But very nice indeed all the same, with jaunty pacing and Charles becoming a tenderer fellow year by year.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION