A DECENT INTERVAL
Simon Brett
Creme de la Crime
July 2013
It has been nearly fifteen years since the last Charles Paris mystery from Simon Brett and I was delighted have him return in A Decent Interval. Charles Paris is a mediocre actor, unfaithful husband, terrible father and alcoholic. Just about the only thing he really seems to be good at is amateur sleuthing, or is it just plain snooping?
Charles has been out of work for eight months so he is delighted to get a dual role in a new production of Hamlet to start out in Marlborough and travel to the West End. He will be playing both Hamlet's Ghost and The First Gravedigger.The play is being produced by one of those bottom-line companies that are so prevalent everywhere, and feature two young "stars"- winners of two different reality talent shows. Our Hamlet refuses to do read throughs and thinks that rather than learn to project to the back of the house, he should just be mic'ed. Ophelia thinks that she should sing something from her upcoming pop album in the mad scene. The objective of the production is to get "bums in the seats" after all. The set design is meant to represent Hamlet's cranium. When part of the set collapses one actor is injured, and another is found dead in a dressing room a few days later. Charles of course begins to snoop.
The first hundred pages or so of A Decent Interval are vintage Charles Paris. Despite his shortcomings, Charles has always been oddly appealing and lovable. Watching him try to navigate the brave new world of Twitter, Facebook, celebrity culture and reality shows is simply hilarious. His quoted reviews, such as "With Charles Paris as Julius Caesar, I was surprised that Brutus and his cronies didn't take action earlier" are as funny as ever. After those first pages the cracks begin to appear. Charles is barely on the sunny side of 60 but still looking for action with younger actresses. His drinking is worse than ever and despite multiple vows, it is obvious that he can't quit. His estranged wife, who decamped long ago and raised their daughter on her own, is showing strong signs of not even wanting to tolerate even their limited communications. In short, Charles is isolated, lonely, and has no real career any more. At the book's end I thought this would surely be the last Charles Paris. However, there is another forthcoming. The series has always been a mixture of comedy and tragedy, but I hope there is some light dawning in the next as I just felt sad when I finished A Decent Interval.
A Decent Interval is a difficult book to rate. The first hundred pages are a solid four and the remainder two, so I will average it out to three.
RATING- 3 Craniums
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