A Deadly Habit

Starred review from June 10, 2013
Brett’s actor-sleuth, Charles Paris, makes a long-overdue comeback in his droll 18th outing (after 1998’s Dead Room Farce). Paris, a has-been, is delighted to get steady work in a new, offbeat English production of Hamlet, featuring reality-show stars Jared Root and Katrina Selsey as Hamlet and Ophelia, and set inside a gigantic model of the Danish prince’s skull. Root’s lack of acting talent raises the tension level on the production, as do his and Selsey’s efforts to out-diva each other. Before long, an “accident” and a murder allow Paris the chance to play amateur sleuth again. Golden-age fans will appreciate the fair-play whodunit, which demonstrates that the form can be adapted to a contemporary setting. Satirical touches, such as Paris’s reaction to a documentary about the 1455 Battle of St. Albans partially set in a shopping mall, keep the atmosphere on the lighter side. Brett has a rare gift for balancing humor and detection.

July 16, 2018
Things are looking up for Charles Paris in British author Brett’s clever, well-paced 20th outing for the alcoholic, middle-aged actor (after 2014’s The Cinderella Killer). Frances, his estranged wife, has hinted that she will take him back if he stops drinking. Plus, he’s been offered a part in a West End show by actor Justin Grover, with whom he once worked in a regional production of Hamlet, the two playing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Justin has since gone on to become a brand, thanks to a major role in a movie franchise based on a computer game. In London, Charles soon realizes that other actors and members of the play’s stage crew are also beholden to Justin’s largesse. One evening, an inebriated Charles finds the lifeless body of a promising actor backstage. He can’t inform the police, since he can only sketchily remember his own movements. Worried about what he might or might not have done, he decides to investigate. Sobering asides about addictions and methods to overcome them somewhat dampen the sleuthing fun. Agent: Lisa Moylett, Coombs Moylett Maclean Agency.

July 1, 2018
Can it be? Minor actor and major alcoholic Charles Paris (The Cinderella Killer, 2014, etc.) is finally trying to get a handle on his drinking.Unlikely as it seems, Charles has some powerful motivations for getting on the wagon. His ex-wife, Frances, has hinted at a closer rapprochement if he can kick the bottle, and he's been cast--just like that, without even an audition--in the West End performance of The Habit of Faith. Of course, it's only in the supporting role of "Brother Benedict, The Monk Who Just Listened To All Of The Other Monks Who Maundered On In Long Speeches About Their Own Internal Conflicts," but it's real money guaranteed for four months. On the down side, the old colleague who's invited Charles into the production, Justin Grover, has become the star of the television franchise Vandals and Visigoths, and his talent is no match for his vanity, and his leading (and only) lady, Liddy Max, has the bad timing to get killed--maybe in a fall, maybe some other way--during a break-in before The Habit of Faith can even open. But DI Tricker and DS Bowles accept without question Charles' perfunctory denial that he was in the theater at the time, and the show goes on with scarcely a hitch with understudy Imogen Whittaker in the coveted role of The Girl. Sadly, there's not much detective work of any kind here: The real drama is watching Charles, who's never met a glass of water that couldn't be improved by a shot of Bell's, try AA, a less minatory program called TAUT, and his own willpower as he waits for the information that will identify the killer without providing enough evidence to prosecute.An agreeable, efficient, low-impact backstage whodunit from a savvy veteran, with just enough excerpts from earlier reviews of the hero's storied career to keep up the snark quotient.

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