The Dead Side of the Mike

Another ramble through murder Charles Paris style. I have mentioned, in reviewing other titles in the series, that Paris stumbles to a solution, rather than the suave methods of most fictional detectives; in this book, we have an additional variation. Most murder mysteries will have a reasonably large number of suspects so that one may be found innocent at regular intervals: this book limits the suspects but plays the game whereby after conclusively proving that X couldn't be the villain, the alibi is torn down, making him the chief suspect, once more.

The story moves at pace and, as a regular consumer of such tales, I am delighted to say that I do not work them out until the prescribed juncture - a couple of pages ahead of Charles show more Paris.

These are excellent good, clean fun stories i which the murder is not a gore festival but a cerebral challenge and I like them all the better for that. show less

The Dead Side of the Mike is the sixth Charles Paris mystery by Simon Brett. This one is set with BBC radio as the background. I find the the ones set with the BBC or ITV to be much lighter in feel than the ones set in the Theater. I enjoy them a little bit more for that reason.

Charles has been given a job doing a program on Swinburne for BBC radio and, of course, goes to the BBC Club to drink immediately after it's over. While drinking with friends there, he gets roped into being part of a committee to discuss making Features like they use to when radio was the king of entertainment. Through the course of all this he meets several young and ambitious employees and then finds one of them dead. Apparently, a suicide. Being Charles Paris, show more he has to investigate.

The ensuing mystery involves a trip to New York (his first) and a behind the scenes look at the music business. He spends time with Frances, his almost divorced wife, and goes on a treasure hunt.

The mystery was a good one. I didn't figure it out until he did. The way he pursues the mystery is fun and the description of his trip to New York is very interesting. This is the pure entertainment of a whodunnit. Charles is smart and witty and the minor characters are very well drawn. You can picture each one of them as if you had seen them in person. An excellent entry in one of my favorite series. show less

the wit is as good as ever. The plot is horrible.

Classic "who dun it" fiction written by one of the betters writers, with the added bonus of the "old" Broadcasting House has a backdrop.