BBC Radio Crimes: A Charles Paris Mystery: The Dead Side of the Mic

I will never know why Simon Brett stopped writing his wonderful books starring Charles Paris. I find his other books unreadable. The plots of this series are reasonable, but the world of theatre and the comedy element are wonderfully realised, especially when voiced by Bill Nighy who was born to play Charles Paris.

If Simon Brett's name appears as author or producer I will buy it without hesitation. He is a master at creating good thrillers, full of suspense and good twists in the tale. He manages to do this too with a great deal of dark humour. This is a light world of crime - one can listen to this in bed at night without having nightmares! Thouroughly enjoyable and the main actor gives a splendid performance as the half-sloshed Charles Paris.

Never having read or listened to any of Simon Brett's work, I took a chance on this based on someone else's positive review. I am very glad that I did so. It introduced me to a new amateur 'sleuth', Charles Paris, splendidly portrayed by Bill Nighy. Enjoyed the whole experience and have to say, I've since treated myself to several early nights, with the naughty but sublimely sexy voice of Bill Nighy, (sorry, Charles Paris) murmuring in my ear!

I love Paris in the Springtime - anytime - as long as he's performed by Bill Nighy. He is so listenable that I can't put him down. Entertaining; I'll say!

The 25% off this audio-book was a real attraction, as it is less than two hours long. I'm guessing that it was originally a BBC broadcast as it is divided into four episodes, with an annoying cast list at the end of each one. The storyline is not bad, but I found the domestic intrusions to be tiresome verging on irritating, and soon lost interest in Charles Parris' shrill daughter - small wonder he left home!

The performance seemed crowded with noise of one kind or another, and that, coupled with the actors' tendency to speak their lines really fast, rather spoiled it for me, even though all the cast gave good performances. The plotline was fair to middling; not one of Simon Brett's best in my opinion, but maybe that was due to changes made during the adaptation (one particular scene with Bill Nighy had me cringing).

All in all, not one of my better buys from Audible.

This is superb. Laconically brilliant. It may be short .. but well worth spending a credit on.