Review: A Deadly Habit by Simon Brett

A Deadly Habit by Simon Brett, May 2018, 192 pages, Creme de la Crime, ISBN: 1780291051

Reviewed by Geoff Jones.

(Read more of Geoff's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

Charles Paris's luck seems to have changed. His agent Maurice Skellern has got him a three-month run in a play in the West End. His estranged wife Frances is talking about them getting back together. She is going to retire as the headmistress of a school, she has come into an inheritance and the future could be good for Charles. There is one problem, however, it depends on his giving up alcohol…

Charles doesn't think he has a problem with the booze but a few late nights and not remembering what he has been doing convinces him to seek help.

The play is really a vehicle for Justin Grover who has made it big in America in TV and film. Charles's part in the play, which is set in a monastery, is a monk who rarely speaks but listens to other monks' problems. When there is a suspicious death and Charles can just remember being at the theatre at night when it happened, he realises the police are suspicious.

Can Charles get back with Frances? Will the West End run last? Is there a murderer in the cast?
This is a very reflective Charles in this book which is very much a book of the moment as you will discover. This unbelievably is the twentieth book in this series. The author, an ex-producer for radio and tv, has written three other series besides this one. A DEADLY HABIT is very enjoyable and has a likeable flawed character. I very much recommend this Charles Paris book.

Geoff Jones, October 2018

New Reviews: Brett, Dugdall, Jaquiery, Kavanagh, Miske, Thorne, Vallgren, Wilson

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, six have appeared on the blog since last time, and four are completely new.

Plus, in case you missed them, here are a few recent links that might be of interest:

The winner of The Petrona Award & the announcement in pictures

Lee Child interviews Maj Sjowall

CrimeFest panel writeups: Euro Noir & Nordic Noir

The International Dagger 2015 shortlist

You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

A collection of mini reviews (by me) of recent Scandi-crime novels;


Mark Bailey reviews Simon Brett's Mrs Pargeter's Principle, the eponymous lady returns after a 17 year gap;

Susan White reviews Ruth Dugdall's Humber Boy B;

Terry Halligan reviews Anna Jaquiery's Death in the Rainy Season, set in Cambodia;

Michelle Peckham reviews Emma Kavanagh's Hidden, which revolves around a shooting in a hospital;

Lynn Harvey reviews Karim Miske's Arab Jazz tr. Sam Gordon, which has been shortlisted for the International Dagger;

Amanda Gillies reviews Nothing Sacred by David Thorne, which is the second in the Essex-based Daniel Connell series;

I also review Carl-Johan Vallgren's The Boy in the Shadows tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles

and Terry also reviews the reissue of The Mystery of Tunnel 51 by Alexander  Wilson.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, along with releases by year.

Review: Mrs Pargeter's Principle by Simon Brett

Mrs Pargeter's Principle by Simon Brett, April 2015, 192 pages, Creme de la Crime, ISBN: 1780290748

Reviewed by Mark Bailey.
(Read more of Mark's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This is the seventh of the Mrs Melita Pargeter novels by Simon Brett and is published seventeen years after the last one, MRS PARGETER'S POINT OF HONOUR.

Mrs Melita Pargeter has always made it a point of principle that she should complete any of her late husband's unfinished business. Therefore, she finds herself attending the funeral of the rich and respected Sir Normington Winthrop not because she knows him personally but because he is one of the names in the little black book bequeathed to her by her husband, detailing all the people who ever worked for him with details of their particular skill sets. But what exactly was the connection between Mrs Pargeter's late husband and Sir Normington? The investigations of Mrs Pargeter and her associates draw her into a shady world of gun-runners, shifty politicians - and a kidnapped vicar.

I read this very quickly as I do for most Simon Brett books which I find an absolute joy to devour. There is a good solid plot here where you can usually work out what is going to happen but part of the fun of the Mrs Pargeter books is finding out how it happens. That, however, is just a small part of the enjoyment of a Mrs Pargeter book – the main part is the characters. The associates of the late Mr Pargeter (and now their children) are realistic up to a point but have a light comic twist – Mrs Melita Pargeter herself is a force of nature who has huge loyalty to her late husband’s memory although she might just suspect that not everything he did was entirely within the letter of the law.

If you like your crime novels with minimal violence and a hint of comedy then I would give the Mrs Pargeter novels a try.

Mark Bailey, April 2015

New Reviews: Baylis, Brett, Charles, Connor, Corbin, Janes, Staincliffe, Weaver, Wilson

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, three have appeared on the blog since last time, and six are completely new.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Lynn Harvey reviews The Tottenham Outrage by M H Baylis and she liked it very much;

Rich Westwood reviews Simon Brett's Blotto, Twinks and the Riddle of the Sphinx, which is now out in paperback;

Mark Bailey reviews Paul Charles's The Lonesome Heart is Angry, set in Northern Ireland;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Bosch Deception by Alex Connor;

Michelle Peckham reviews Now That You're Gone by Julie Corbin;


Terry Halligan reviews Tapestry by J Robert Janes, the fourteenth in the St-Cyr and Kohler series set in Occupied Paris;

Laura Root calls Cath Staincliffe's Letters to My Daughter's Killer - "a little gem";

Susan White reviews Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver, the fifth in his David Raker series and




Terry also reviews Robert Wilson's You Will Never Find Me, the second in his Charlie Boxer series.





Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Brett, Camilleri, Connor, Griffiths, James, Robertson, Russell, Webster, Zeh

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, four have appeared on the blog over the last couple of weeks and five are completely new.

Plus a new competition - win an iBook of Invisible by Christine Poulson (no geographical restrictions).


NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Mark Bailey reviews the new Charles Paris mystery from Simon Brett, The Cinderella Killer;

I review the Judges anthology, which contains stories by Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo (tr. Joseph Farrell, Alan Thawley and Eileen Horne);

Amanda Gillies reviews The Caravaggio Conspiracy by Alex Connor;

Michelle Peckham reviews the latest in Elly Griffiths's Norfolk-based Ruth Galloway series, The Outcast Dead;

Geoff Jones reviews Want You Dead, the tenth in Peter James's Roy Grace series;

Terry Halligan reviews Craig Robertson's The Last Refuge, set in the Faroe Islands;

Amanda also reviews Fatal Act by Leigh Russell, the latest in her DI Geraldine Steel series;

Lynn Harvey reviews Jason Webster's Blood Med, set in Valencia

and Laura Root reviews Juli Zeh's Decompression tr. John Cullen which is set in Lanzarote.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Review: The Cinderella Killer by Simon Brett

The Cinderella Killer by Simon Brett, May 2014, 192 pages, Creme de la Crime, ISBN: 1780290640

Reviewed by Mark Bailey.
(Read more of Mark's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This is the nineteenth of the Charles Paris novels by Simon Brett and is published only just over a year after the last one, A DECENT INTERVAL so hopefully we will get these more regularly now – please!

Charles Paris is shockingly in reasonably long-term paid work albeit as one of the Brokers men in a performance of Cinderella in Eastbourne where he is so far down the bill he is amazed that he makes it on to the poster at all.

The big name of the show, as Baron Hardup, is a faded American sit-com star, Kenny Polizzi, who knows nothing of pantomime and is here almost entirely for the money although escaping his soon-to-be ex-wife proved an added incentive. She arrives in the country, Kenny goes off the wagon and soon he is found by Charles underneath the pier – no longer so full of life - having been shot.

As usual I read this very quickly as I do for most Simon Brett books. Personally I feel that both the murder aspect and the comedy aspect are much better handled in this one than in A DECENT INTERVAL. On the murder aspect, the killer is not that obvious although when revealed it does make total sense and in the comedy aspect, there are some great one-liners (the chapter sub-titles are also very funny if you know the traditions and running gags of Panto).

The best news for those of us who like Charles is there is a hint of sunlight in his relationship with his wife Frances. I am now just waiting to see what the next Simon Brett is to pre-order but will re-read some earlier Charles Paris stories in the meantime.

Mark Bailey, June 2014

New Reviews: Brett, McNamee, Malone, Ramsay, Roberts, Siger, Welsh, Winspear, Yoshida

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, three have appeared on the blog over the last couple of weeks and six are completely new.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Mark Bailey reviews the latest in the Fethering series by Simon Brett, The Strangling on the Stage;

Lynn Harvey reviews Eoin McNamee's Blue is the Night, the third part in a loose trilogy;

Amanda Gillies reviews Michael J Malone's Blood Tears, the first in the DI Ray McBain series;

Terry Halligan reviews Blind Alley by Danielle Ramsay, the third in the DI Jack Brady series set in Tyneside;

Amanda also reviews Mark Roberts's What She Saw, the second in the DCI Rosen series;

Terry also reviews the latest in the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series by Jeffrey Siger: Mykonos After Midnight;

Michelle Peckham reviews Louise Welsh's A Lovely Way to Burn, the first in the "Plague Times" trilogy;

Susan White reviews Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear

and Laura Root reviews Shuichi Yoshida's Parade tr, Philip Gabriel.



Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Simon Brett and the Diamond Dagger

When Severn House tweeted earlier today that Simon Brett is to be awarded the CWA's Diamond Dagger, I was amazed that he hadn't already "won" it. Many congratulations to this very worthy recipient.

From the CWA's website:

The diamond-studded Dagger will be awarded to Simon Brett at a gala dinner on the 30th June in London hosted by Lucy Worsley, who recently explored the phenomenon of our fascination with murder in the BBC television series ‘A very British Murder’.

The Diamond Dagger recipient is chosen each year by the CWA committee, from a shortlist nominated by the membership. It is very much an honour awarded by the author’s peers and this makes it special. Shortlisted authors must meet two essential criteria: first, their careers must be marked by sustained excellence, and second, they must have made a significant contribution to crime fiction published in the English language, whether originally or in translation. The award is made purely on merit without reference to age, gender or nationality.

New Reviews: Brett, Ellis, Hauxwell, Nickson, Persson, Perry, Reichs, Thomas, Wheatley

This week's set of reviews, added to Euro Crime today, is a mixture of new reviews and a catch-up of those posted directly on the blog in the last two weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

NB. There is also a Euro Crime page on Facebook which you can like and will keep you up to date with the blog (plus occasional extras).

New Reviews

Brother and sister detecting duo Blotto and Twinks are back in Simon Brett's Blotto, Twinks and the Riddle of the Sphinx, reviewed here by Mark Bailey;

Susan White reviews P R Ellis's Painted Ladies which introduces copper turned PI, Jasmine Frame;

Amanda Gillies reviews A Bitter Taste by Annie Hauxwell, the second book in her Catherine Berlin series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Chris Nickson's  Fair and Tender Ladies, the sixth in his Richard Nottingham series set in Leeds;

Laura Root reviews Leif G W Persson's He Who Kills the Dragon, tr. Neil Smith, the second in the Evert Backstrom series;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the Thomas Pitt series from Anne Perry, Death on Blackheath;

I review Kathy Reichs's Tempe Brennan short story Bones in Her Pocket;

Lynn Harvey reviews Ostland by David Thomas

 
and Terry also reviews the reissue of Dennis Wheatley's The Forbidden Territory.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Brett, Costantini, Martin, Seymour, Weeks, Womersley

Six new reviews have been added to Euro Crime today:

After a sixteen-year break, Charles Paris returns in Simon Brett's A Decent Interval, reviewed here by Mark Bailey;

Susan White reviews Roberto Costantini's The Deliverance of Evil tr. N S Thompson, the first in the Michele Balistreri trilogy, set in Rome;

Laura Root reviews the eighth in the historical Jim Stringer series by Andrew Martin: The Baghdad Railway Club;

Terry Halligan reviews Gerald Seymour's The Outsiders, now out in paperback;

Amanda Gillies reviews Lee Weeks's Dead of Winter the first in a new series featuring Detective Constable Ebony Willis

and Lynn Harvey reviews Australian writer Chris Womersley's noir The Low Road.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.