What Bloody Man Is That?

Text for Author Bio: Simon Brett is a former radio and television comedy producer, who has been writing full-time for more than twenty years. Creator of the Charles Parks, Mrs. Pargeter and Feathering series of mysteries, his psychological thriller, A Shock to the System was filmed, starring Michael Caine. Married, with three children, he lives in an Agatha Christie-style village in West Sussex, England. Text for Book Description: Charles Paris is on his way up again, career-wise. No longer resting and no longer just a corpse in a cupboard, he blossoms in the play dreaded by superstitious theatre folk, who will not even speak its name: the Scottish play Macbeth. Its only in the provincial rep, but you have to start (or re-start) somewhere. And his agent has promised that though whats offered is not much of a part, other good parts are in the offing. By which perhaps is not meant precisely what happens: that Charles finds himself doubling almost every role in the play that isnt held by the three principals. And as for the principals, they could hardly be more ill-sorted. Macbeth is played by George Birkitt, the TV game-show personality whom we met in Dead Giveaway. Lady Macbeth comes straight from Stratford: an intense young woman with Method in her madness. And Duncan is that notorious old ham, Warnock Belvedere, who feels that hes in the tradition of great acto-managers. With such a cast, sparks are bound to fly. Its not long before death strikes in the night. And Charles Pa