Cast, in Order of Reappearance, by Simon Brett

"Cast, in Order of Reappearance," by Simon Brett, in Playing Dead, edited by Martin Edwards, Severn House, 2025.

 This book is in honor of Simon Brett, a festschrift to get fancy, so it is nice that his own contribution stood out.  This is his second appearance on this blog, by the way. 

Brett's most famous character is Charles Paris, a not very successful actor (the story features a few painful one-line reviews of his work from newspaper critics). And then there is his hobby: "His amateur investigations had been a sequence of wrong trees barked up and wrong suspects accused."

Now he is starting a tour with a dreadful whodunit.  He plays "The Suspect Whose Work As A Doctor Gave Him Access To The Medication An Overdose Of Which Caused The First Murder Victom To Die."  I hope that isn't how he was listed in the program. 

And speaking of murder, there is a lot of bad blood in the acting company and things seem to be getting worse...

But the story remains a treat.

The Luncheon, by Christopher Fowler

 

"The Luncheon," by Christopher Fowler, in Playing Dead, edited by Martin Edwards, Severn House, 2025.

Something the English do better than us Yanks: portrayals of oh-so-sophisticated folks being oh-so-genteelly nasty to each other.

Amanda and Madeline are meeting for lunch for the first time in three years.  The obvious question is why are they meeting at all since they obviously despise each other. 

 Madeline owns a cosmetics company.  She fired Amanda who sued for wrongful dismissal and won a lot of money and used it to start her own company.  Madeline, in fine twisted form, says that means "I was able to give you the opportunity to get started."

Amanda is plotting revenge.  Madeline has a counter-strategy.  I won't go into detail here but it is a treat to watch these two masters sparring.