MURDER IN THE TITLE

by Simon Brett ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1983

Brett only occasionally manages to strike just the right balance between laughs and mystery; and this time out the comedy hits a few uproarious peaks. . . while the plot is unusually tenuous. Charles Paris, you see, is now reduced to his greatest indignities yet as an actor: at the Regent rep in Rugland Spa, he's playing the non-speaking role of the corpse in The Message Is Murder, a dreadful 1950s mystery-play whose rottenness supplies some of the hilarity (as does a prim, vain leading-lady type who expurgates her way through rehearsals for Shove It, a dated, raunch/nudity item). But another sort of foul play soon bedevils the Regent, of course: a near-fatal hanging during a performance; the suicide (?) of the unstable artistic director, who seems to have been mining the theater through ineptitude. So Charles sleuths into the matter of the theater's value as real estate, fingering the villain--while himself joining the undraped cast of Shove It. Most readers, however, will spot the culprit very early on (though his motivation never becomes credible). And this ninth outing will only enchant those who read Brett almost entirely for the theater-satire--or for likable Charles himself, who here must deal with the first extramarital dallying by estranged (yet beloved) wife Frances.

Pub Date: June 1, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION