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Not Dead, Only Resting
- Narrated by: Simon Brett
- Series: Charles Paris, Book 10
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery
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Overall
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Charles Paris returns again, in a fringe show at the Edinburgh Festival, with another nubile girl to provoke him, his accommodating wife to console him and a gory murder to challenge him. Edinburgh and the Festival are both background and foreground with Charles flitting between a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a ‘mixed-media’ satire, a late-night revue and his own one-man show on Thomas Hood. Then a fading pop star is murdered, there’s a bomb scare in Holyrood Palace and someone makes a suicide leap from the top of the Rock….
-
-
Edinburgh in the festival - all the world's a stage
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-
Charles Paris: The Dead Side of the Mic
- A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation
- By: Simon Brett, Jeremy Front
- Narrated by: Bill Nighy, Suzanne Burden, Charlotte Green, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Actor and reluctant sleuth Charles Paris is facing chaos on the domestic front. He’s lodging with his ex-wife Frances, and now their pregnant daughter has moved in as well. It’s all a bit much.... So he is over the moon when he lands a job on the BBC Radio Rep - but the ink is barely dry on his contract when a murder takes place in Broadcasting House. A young female studio manager is found dead in an editing suite, and Charles steps in to investigate....
-
-
Great fun
- By Helen on 07-10-11
-
The Body on the Beach
- By: Simon Brett
- Narrated by: Simon Brett
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Very little disturbs the ordered calm of Fethering, a pleasingly self-contained retirement town on England's southern coast. Which is precisely why Carole Seddon, who has outlived both her husband and her career at the Home Office, has chosen to reside there. So the last thing Carole expects to encounter in Fethering is a new neighbour with but one name and an obviously colourful past.
-
-
A great read
- By Ms on 15-05-19
-
The Clutter Corpse
- By: Simon Brett
- Narrated by: Simon Brett
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ellen Curtis runs her own business helping people who are running out of space. As a declutterer, she is used to encountering all sorts of weird and wonderful objects in the course of her work. What she has never before encountered is a dead body. When Ellen stumbles across the body of a young woman in an over-cluttered flat, suspicion immediately falls on the deceased homeowner's son. No doubt Nate Ogden is guilty of many things - but is he really the killer? Discovering a link between the victim and her own past, Ellen sets out to uncover the truth.
-
-
Excellent as always
- By K. J. Beanlands on 26-01-21
-
Mrs Pargeter's Principle
- By: Simon Brett
- Narrated by: Simon Brett
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Mrs Pargeter, it is a matter of principle that she should complete any of her late husband's unfinished business. Amongst his many bequests, perhaps the most valuable is his little black book, in which he listed all the people who ever worked for him, with details of their particular skill sets. This means that whenever Mrs P has a crime to solve, she can readily contact someone with the relevant expertise.
-
-
Please make more available!
- By Bookshake on 28-09-16
-
Corporate Bodies
- By: Simon Brett
- Narrated by: Simon Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 37 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charles Paris, an out-of-work actor, takes a star gig is as a forklift driver in a Delmoleen Company corporate video. Something about Delmoleen is deeply troubling to Charles. That "happy family" facade may be just that. Mockery, jealousy, lust, envy, they all seem to be pervasive. Still, the work is easy and the money is good; it's even fun learning to manipulate a forklift. But it's a responsibility too, as Charles soon discovers: a forklift can be made into a potent murder weapon
Summary
Charles Paris is, as ever, waiting for a phone call from his agent, and is driven to painting and decorating to make ends meet.
A rare evening out at a high-profile restaurant among stars of stage and screen promises a break in the depressing routine. But when the restaurant’s handsome, temperamental chef is brutally murdered, Charles finds himself drawn into the ensuing investigation.
At first it seems an open and shut case: the chef’s partner is in France within hours of having a spectacular quarrel with him over a pretty youth. Yet as Charles’ inquiries take him into the feuds and jealousies of his own profession, both murder and motive are anything but obvious.
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What listeners say about Not Dead, Only Resting
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sue
- 05-02-19
My Favourite So Far
I'm having a bit of a Charles Paris binge just now, buying all the books and radio performances I didn't have.
With only a handful left to listen to this has been my favourite. It's a bit of a departure for Charles, with no 'work' at all, and a little more serious but I really enjoyed it.
As always, loved Simon Vance's narration of his work. The characters come to life!
Back to some acting for my next one! Maybe a Bill Nighy outing.
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- Nicolas Dawson
- 14-10-18
Mystery in exotic locale
Charles Paris discovers another world, foreign but not unfamiliar. Good holiday with old friends.
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- Mary Carnegie
- 28-08-16
So dated, but amusing in parts.
Just this side of unpleasantly anti-LGBT mockery, ridiculously stereotypical; Charles is not biased against "gays", apparently; the archaic terminology proves he is - but the transposition of Edwards and Mac Liammóir from Dublin to London is effective and amusing; a famous theatrical gay marriage of longstanding, portrayed with more understanding than any other relationship in this novel.
Otherwise the primitive attitudes of Monique and Ives's parents now seem merely silly in 2016; stereotypes of "camp" gay men are about as acceptable as "n" jokes - only as self mockery within the community.
There is however a classic amateur detective novel with our less than competent Charles Paris, generally out of his head on cooking whisky, stuff I wouldn't even put in a black bun, overestimating his sex appeal as usual. Women are rated by physical attractiveness- so maybe gay men do better on the measure of humanity.
This was a guilty pleasure- some characters enjoyable, most not. Stereotypes if not overdone are reassuring in a bedtime story. I like the updated Paris on Radio 4 much more - times have changed and women and LGBT people cannot be described in such throwaway lines.
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- Francie
- 31-10-18
Vivre Simon Brett!
This is a terrific book but my comments are really on the whole epic body of work (I've just finally been pushed to the point of having to say something). Brett's people --finely drawn, funny, sharp, poignant, real--.are simply brilliant, effortless creations--every one of of them (from the 'howon earthcan he possiblybesuch asympatheticcharacter Charles Paris", to the goddess Mrs. Pargetter, the Feathering girls, and every bit player in his sphere. However celebrated or widely -read he may be, Brett is under-rated. One of the greats!