Down at heel actor Charles Paris is surprised, and gratified, to be selected for a role in a new television detective series. He is play Sergeant Clump, a rather ponderous country policeman who acts as the slow-witted foil to Stanislas Braid, a charismatic amateur sleuth in the mould of Sherlock Holmes. It is not a taxing role, and not one that will significantly enhance Charles’s CV, but it is paid work, and likely to run for quite a while, with an initial run of six episodes.

The programmes are based on the works of W T Wintergreen, a now elderly novelist who had ceased writing several decades ago. The books are all set in that period beloved of the so-called cosy mysteries, in a rather anodyne version of the 1930. Rather than simply accepting the fee for the rights to the stories and leaving the television production company to get on with things, Miss Wintergreen and her sister regularly attend the set. Unfortunately, rather than being happy to see her characters brought to life on the screen, miss Wintergreen is appalled at how the tone of the stories is tweaked beyond recognition to accommodate the more mundane tastes of a contemporary television audience. There are significant tensions in the cast, too. The star of the show is Russell Bentley, a man with a vastly inflated sense of his own abilities and importance, which extends to an apparent inability to remember the names of his fellow actors.

All too soon a real murder occurs, with the actor playing Christina, Stanislas Braid’s beloved daughter, being crushed in what initially appears to be a dreadful accident on the set. As other mishaps befall the production, Charles begins to suspect foul play, and commences his own investigation.

As always in this very entertaining series, Simon Brett deftly mixes humour with a robust and plausible plot, while also taking the opportunity to demonstrate much of the fatuousness that underlies a lot of commercial television programming. Charles is an endearing character – far from perfect, he is a heavy drinker and incurable philanderer, although his crushing self-awareness of these faults renders him very empathetic. ( )

I think that this one is the best yet. We still get a jolly, slightly cynical look at the life of an actor and the story maintains a light touch but, this one faces some pretty unpleasant social situations.

It would have been easy for this to become crass. It takes a certain skill to write a book that can amuse and challenge. This one succeeds. I am sorry, that this review is couched in such general terms, but I do not want to give too much away and spoil the denouement.

I strongly recommend this tome and will certainly re-read it in a few years time (always assuming the good Lord gives me that time!) ( )