Author Information
Simon Brett's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    86 Books (5 Series)
  • First Book:
    January 1975
  • Latest Book:
    January 2024
  • Author Rating:
  • Share:

Full Series List in Order

Blotto and Twinks

1 - Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter (Jun-2009)
2 - Blotto, Twinks and the Dead Dowager Duchess (Aug-2010)
3 - Blotto, Twinks and the Rodents of the Riviera (Aug-2011)
4 - Blotto, Twinks and the Bootlegger's Moll (Jul-2012)
5 - Blotto, Twinks and the Riddle of the Sphinx (Jul-2013)
6 - Blotto, Twinks and the Heir to the Tsar (Oct-2015)
7 - Blotto, Twinks and the Stars of the Silver Screen (Jul-2017)
8 - Blotto, Twinks and the Intimate Revue (Jan-2019)
9 - Blotto, Twinks and the Great Road Race (Dec-2019)
10 - Blotto, Twinks and the Maharajah's Jewel (Jan-2021)
11 - Blotto, Twinks and the Suspicious Guests (Jan-2022)
12 - Blotto, Twinks and the Conquistadors Gold (May-2023)
13 - Blotto, Twinks and the Phantom Skiers (Jan-2024)

A Charles Paris Mystery

1 - Cast, in Order of Disappearance (1975)
2 - So Much Blood (1977)
3 - Star Trap (1978)
4 - An Amateur Corpse (1978)
5 - A Comedian Dies (1979)
6 - The Dead Side of the Mike (Oct-1980)
7 - Situation Tragedy (Oct-1981)
8 - Murder Unprompted (Sep-1982)
9 - Murder in the Title (Jul-1983)
10 - Not Dead, Only Resting (Sep-1984)
11 - Dead Giveaway (1985)
12 - What Bloody Man Is That? (Aug-1987)
13 - A Series of Murders (Aug-1989)
14 - Corporate Bodies (Apr-1992)
15 - A Reconstructed Corpse (May-1994)
16 - Sicken and So Die (Jan-1997)
17 - Dead Room Farce (Oct-1997)
18 - A Decent Interval (Jul-2013)
19 - The Cinderella Killer (Sep-2014)
20 - A Deadly Habit (Sep-2018)

A Decluttering Mystery

1 - The Clutter Corpse (Jun-2020)
2 - An Untidy Death (Sep-2021)
3 - Waste of a Life (Dec-2022)

A Fethering Mystery

1 - The Body on the Beach (Aug-2000)
2 - Death on the Downs (Aug-2001)
3 - The Torso in the Town (Aug-2002)
5 - Murder in the Museum (Aug-2003)
6 - The Hanging in the Hotel (Aug-2004)
7 - The Witness at the Wedding (Aug-2005)
8 - The Stabbing In The Stables (Aug-2006)
9 - Death Under the Dryer (Aug-2007)
10 - Blood at the Bookies (Mar-2008)
11 - The Poisoning in the Pub (Nov-2009)
12 - The Shooting in the Shop (Mar-2010)
13 - Bones Under the Beach Hut (Nov-2011)
14 - Guns in the Gallery (Feb-2012)
15 - The Corpse on the Court (Jan-2013)
16 - The Strangling on the Stage (Feb-2014)
17 - The Tomb in Turkey (Mar-2015)
18 - The Killing in the Cafe (Mar-2016)
19 - The Liar in the Library (Jan-2018)
20 - The Killer in the Choir (Sep-2019)
21 - Guilt at the Garage (Feb-2021)
22 - Death and the Decorator (Jul-2022)

A Mrs. Pargeter Mystery

1 - A Nice Class of Corpse (Feb-1987)
2 - Mrs., Presumed Dead (Mar-1989)
3 - Mrs. Pargeter's Package (May-1991)
4 - Mrs. Pargeter's Pound of Flesh (Apr-1993)
5 - Mrs. Pargeter's Plot (Oct-1996)
6 - Mrs. Pargeter's Point of Honour (Oct-1999)
7 - Mrs Pargeter's Principle (Aug-2015)
8 - Mrs Pargeter's Public Relations (Apr-2017)
9 - Mrs. Pargeter's Patio (Oct-2023)

Multi-Author Series List

Bibliomysteries

Bibliotheca Classica (Feb-2020)

Book List in Order: 86 titles



    • / Amateur Sleuth
    • Buy Buy

    A middle-aged actor with a taste for wine and women takes to detection to uncover the connection between the murder of a wealthy theatrical tycoon and the killing of a blackmailer with a supply of compromising photographs...



    • / Amateur Sleuth
    • Buy Buy

    Appearing in his own one-man show on Thomas Hood at the Edinburgh Festival, middle-aged actor Charles Paris finds himself falling for a gorgeous young girl with navy-blue eyes. He also finds himself being dragged into a complex murder investigation ...



    • / Amateur Sleuth
    • Buy Buy

    Charles Paris is a part-time detective and professional actor, drawn into the affairs of an amateur theater company. Charles's friend Hugo's wife is murdered, and Hugo is charged with the crime. Now, Paris takes on the case personally. The solution t...



    • / Amateur Sleuth
    • Buy Buy

    Hired for a small part in a London musical, actor and amateur sleuth Charles Paris tries to determine the connections between the accidents and other suspicious occurrences that befall cast members and the musical director...



    • / Amateur Sleuth
    • Buy Buy

    A rising young stage comedian, who is about to receive his profession’s award as Most Promising Newcomer, dies sensationally on stage at the start of his act; as he picks up the mike, he is electrocuted. Faulty wiring seems to be the cause; no one ...



  • 1991, mass market paperback reprint edition, Warner, NY. 199 pages. A Charles Paris mystery novel. Our continuing character is employed this time as a radio actor for the BBC. He comes upon a murder almost immediately and is forced to solve that crim...



  • West End Television are planning a new situation-comedy series, to be called The Struttters. From the outset, things go horribly wrong with the new series. Odd accidentsif they are accidentsremove, one by one, the sharp-tongued Production Assistant, ...



  • Here is another of Simon Bretts fascinating blends of crime and backstage drama. This time he provides what might be described as the biography of a playfrom the cradle to the grave. Murder Unprompted takes you from the author, to an unscrupulous pro...








  • Charles Paris is his own worst enemy, a louche lush who can resist anything except temptation â€" especially in the form of women and alcohol. He’s been out of work so long now he feels he may never get a job and he’s driving Frances, his semi...



  • When plotting a murder (figuratively speaking), the mystery writer has at hand any number of M.O.'s including such tried and true conventions as the locked room, the unbreakable alibi, the double bluff, the mistaken identity, and many others. Indeed,...



  • During a period of 'resting', actor Charles Paris takes on a job as a house painter. Arriving for work at the flat above a fashionable Holland Park restaurant, he discovers the mutilated body of chef Yves Lafeu. It would appear to be an open-and-shut...



    • / Amateur Sleuth
    • Buy Buy

    A brief appearance on a TV game show, 'If the Cap Fits', means a day's pay, a few interesting contacts and a chance to visit the West End Television bar - not the least of incentives for a man of Charles Paris's thirst. But murder? Even for game sho...



  • An ambitious executive is motivated by malice and murder in this darkly comic Edgar Awardâ€"nominated thriller by the author of the Charles Paris mysteries.   Graham Marshall is a respectable husband and father and dedicated London businessman. ...




  • Madeleine Severn is a tutor at the Garrettway School of Languages, she has a young outlook on life and is proud of her looks. Eighteen-year-old student Paul Grigson idolises Madeleine and during a date of his own he sees Madeleine with the married Be...




  • The Devereux is a nice residential hotel which caters for a nice class of guest. But the arrival of Mrs Pargeter, an attractive widow, seems to act as a catalyst of disaster for everyone connected with the hotel. On the morning after her arrival, t...



  • In What Bloody Man Is That?, 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: &#...








  • "Living in a house where a murder had taken place did give a certain social cachet..." Intrepid detective Mrs Pargeter, sixty something (and a little bit more), has risked almost everything with a daring move to the well-to-do housing estate of Sm...



  • A SERIES OF MURDERS "AS AN ACTRESS, SIPPY STOKES WAS ABSOLUTE DEATH." From the vain leading man to the rock star making his acting debut to the aging writer whose books were being chopped to death on the set of the "Stanislas Braid" TV series, every...



  • With the help of some unsavory associates, Mrs. Pargeter investigates the bizarre death of the recently widowed Joyce Dover, tracing Joyce's supposedly dead husband from South America, to England, to Corfu. Reprint....



  • CURTAINS Surviving thirty years of an actor's fluctuating fortunes, Charles Paris had played many roles. But until now, a starring role as a forklift driver in a corporate - video had yet to grace his resume. Costumed in de rigueur coveralls, he r...



  • Invited to the country hotel, Puzzel Manor, for Christmas weekend, Jack Tarrant and his lover, Maria, soon find themselves embroiled in a case of double murder in a work that encourages readers to follow the clues and solve the case...



  • Although she's never felt the need to change her own ample form, Mrs Pargeter could see nothing wrong with joining her weight conscious friend at Brotherton Hall Spa. While Kim strained to lose her excess inches, Mrs P would enjoy a luxurious rest...



  • A STIFF ACT TO FOLLOW... If playing a dead man could be called a role, Charles Paris has sunk to new lows when he agrees to play missing Martin Earnshaw on the true crime TV series "Public Enemies." The show has all the hallmarks of a hit: a vu...



  • TV producer Laura Fisher sets out to have a baby before her 30th birthday. But on the day of her son's birth, she discovers something about her child's father that shocks her to the core. Twenty years later, Laura's past begins to close in on her and...






  • THE PLOT THICKENS Construction on Mrs. Pargeter's new country home comes to an unfortunate halt when a corpse is discovered in the wine cellar. The accused is Concrete Jacket, a mate of Mrs. P's late, lamented husband, who made a living in disc...



  • Things are going suspiciously well for Charles Paris. He's moved back in with his wife, Frances, and although he's not yet a permanent fixture in her bed, he has hopes. What's more, he's got a proper part in a proper play: Sir Toby Belch in a festiva...



  • Esteemed mystery writer Anne Perry, author of twenty-five novels and two acclaimed detective series, heads up a delectable cast of contemporary writers, the very best from both sides of the Atlantic. In the tradition of Britain's honored crime writer...



  • Delighted to land a role in an acting company touring the provinces, struggling actor Charles Paris finds himself embroiled with two very different women and becomes a suspect in the death of an old drinking buddy, forcing him to turn sleuth to clear...



  • The gang that couldn't shoot straight While the activities of her dearly departed husband often took place beyond the confines of the law, the genteel Mrs. Pargeter wears the diamonds and other spoils of the late Mr. P's nefarious career with impe...



  • In the seaside hamlet of Fethering (located next to the town of Tarring), Carole Seddon maintains a quiet and sensible life. She doesn't have the time or the tolerance to deal with her new bohemian neighbor, Jude, whose outgoing personality contrasts...



  • Exploring the South Downs of the well-to-do town of Weldisham, Carole Seddon is caught in a sudden rainstorm. She finds refuge in an old barn--but relief turns to revulsion when she discovers the bones of a human skeleton packed inside two bags. S...



  • In the historical village of Fedborough, Jude attends a dinner party for the new homeowners of Pelling House. But an uninvited guest--in the form of a mummified, armless and legless torso has crashed the party. There's no telling how long the dead bo...



  • The life of noted man of letters Esmond Chadleigh is celebrated in the halls of Bracketts House. However, most of Chadleigh's work remains of print--leaving the once-famous literary figure out of sight and out o mind...and Bracketts out of funds. ...



  • Fourteen masters of the mystery and suspense genre--including Jan Burke, Carolyn Hart, Simon Brett, and Edward Marston--each contribute an individual chapter to a round robin mystery about a weekend house party in a small English village that is turn...






  • For a gathering of the Pillars of Sussex -- an elitist, hard-drinking group of local businessmen Jude is recruited by the owner of a hotel to help keep the spirits flowing. But the next morning, she discovers that one spirit has flown away for good, ...



  • Carole Seddon's estranged relationship with her son Stephen has improved since he started seeing Gaby Martin, and she cannot be more pleased that they've decided to marry in Fethering. She does find it a bit odd, though, that Gaby's parents have no i...



  • Soul searching was an unfamiliar exercise to Bill Stratton, and he found it intriguing as well as painful. He hadn't had much occasion for it in his life, given that he was fairly shallow, but then, on the verge of his sixtieth birthday, his wife tol...



  • The Detection Club is the oldest and most exclusive crime writing organization and it has always represented the cream of British crime writing talent. The founding and early members were amongst the most famous and best loved figures in the golden a...



  • Carole Seddon accompanies Jude to Long Bamber Stables so her friend can apply her healing touch to a lame horse, only to stumble upon the body of a man beyond medical help -- alternative or otherwise. The victim, former equestrian champion Walter Fle...



  • Carole had never had such a bad hair day! The last thing she expected when she went for a trim at 'Connie's Clip Joint' was to find the body of Kyra, Connie's assistant, in the back room, strangled. Immediately involving her friend and neighbour Ju...



  • The bets are on whodunnit when body is found at the bookies... Jude has never been averse to a bit of a flutter. Her friend Carole, on the other hand, thinks that the local betting shop is a den of iniquit But when Jude stumbles upon the body of P...



  • A duke’s halfwit son and brainy daughter search for a kidnapped princess and a dangerous killer in this hilarious historical mystery series debut.It’s that glorious period between the two World Wars, and the exiled king of Mitteleuropa is celebra...



  • Welcome to Fethering! Carole and Jude spring into amateur detective action when their favourite pub is targeted by a killer in this quirky, cozy, British village mystery. Jude and Carole get more than they bargained for when a lunchtime meal in thei...



  • When Carole Seddon's best friend, Jude, drags her along to go shopping at a local store called Gallimaufry, she agrees only reluctantly. The sales are on and even Carole can't resist a bargain. Then, a few days later, Gallimaufry is burnt down and a...






  • Hurrah for the return of that intrepid duo: Blotto (handsome, honorable, not the sharpest knife in the drawer), and his sister Twinks (just a bit brainier than a girl should be)! As this is the 1920s, they are of course attending a weekend house part...



  • Someone has stolen valuable paintings from Tawcester Towers, ancestral home of Blotto and his sister, Twinks. Twinks tracks the thieves to France and she and Blotto go zipping off to Paris -- where they have rather a jolly time with the Left Bank boh...



  • The affluent seaside resort of Smalting is unaccustomed to crime. So when human remains are found beneath the floorboards of one of its beach huts, the community is awash with suspicion and fear. Amateur sleuths Carole Seddon and best friend Jude ...



  • Invited to a Private View of the work of controversial artist Denzil Willoughby, the good citizens of Fethering are not quite sure what to expect. And it turns out to be a lively affair, culminating in several embarrassing confrontations. But what no...



  • Hard times send a pair of aristocratic English siblings to Prohibition era-Chicago where a bride, gangsters, and trouble await.It’s almost too ghastly to say, darlings, but Blotto and la famille are facing . . . call it an embarrassm...



  • In this collection of ten short stories, each with a surprising twist, Simon Brett covers all seven of the deadly sins, with supremely entertaining results. In THE MAN WHO GOT THE DIRT, two Angry Young Men have become Angry Old Men - and one of them ...



  • Ranging from stark psychological suspense to frothy frolic, this stunning collection of twelve short stories demonstrates Simon Brett's astonishing versatility. In TICKLED TO DEATH, a lover of practical jokes is smothered to death in a custard pie. D...



  • The genteel game of Real Tennis takes a murderous twist in Simon Brett’s witty and entertaining new Fethering mystery. Jude’s life has been turned upside-down thanks her new mant, Piers Targett, who’s keen to get her involved in his hobby o...



  • The curse of Pharaoh Sinus Nefertop is upon Blotto so it's up to Twinks to banish it!Yet another financial crisis at Tawcester Towers! So this time the Dowager Duchess decides to sell off the less important family possessions, which have, for a long ...



  • After a long period of ‘resting’, life is looking up for Charles Paris, who has been cast as the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father and First Gravedigger in a new production of Hamlet. But rehearsals are fraught. Ophelia is played by Katrina Selsey, who...



  • When Jude agrees to lend her vintage chaise longue for the local Amateur Dramatics Society's production of George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple, little does she realize she'll end up in a starring role. It's an ambitious play, culminating in a ...



  • A Christmas production of Cinderella is marred by a series of killings in the waspishly funny new Charles Paris mystery Landing a minor part in the Empire Theatre Eastbourne’s Christmas production of Cinderella, Charles Paris soon discovers tha...



  • Carole and Jude’s Turkish holiday takes a murderous turn in the new Fethering mystery Carole Seddon has never enjoyed holidays much. Nevertheless, she has allowed herself to be persuaded by her friend Jude to accept a fortnight’s free accomm...



  • For Mrs Pargeter, it is a matter of principle that she should complete any of her late husband’s unfinished business. Amongst the many bequests he made to her, perhaps the most valuable is his little black book, in which he listed all the people wh...



  • Tawcester Towers, the family seat of the Lyminster family, has suffered an unwelcome injection of distant cousins, so distant that they aren't even British! Count Igor and Count Lyudmilla Bashusky had to flee Russia after the Revolution and have spen...



  • Polly’s Cake Shop has been a feature of the shopping parade for many years, but when its owner announces her retirement, the Fethering residents start to worry about the loss of this popular amenity. Alarmed by rumours that the café might become a...



  • A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatization of Simon Brett's entertaining crime novel, starring Bill Nighy. Charles Paris has been "resting" for quite a while, so he's relieved when he is cast as the Ghost of Hamlet’s Father and First Gravedigger in a...



  • The Floating Admiral was the first of the Detection Club’s collaborative novels, in which twelve of its members wrote a single novel. Eighty-five years later, fourteen members of the club have once again collaborated to produce The Sinking Admir...



  • Mrs Pargeter discovers the skills by which Public Relations can make evil look good in the latest wickedly entertaining mystery. It is her characteristic generosity -- rather than her love of animals -- that finds Mrs Pargeter supporting her frie...



  • Another hair-raising adventure featuring the aristocratic brother and sister sleuthing duo! The end of the cricket season spells gloom for Blotto, until he is invited to bat against the Hollywood cricket team out in sunny LA, where rain never stop...



  • When an author event at the local library ends in murder, Jude finds herself a suspect in the waspishly witty new Fethering mystery. Having been booked to give a talk at Fethering Library, successful author Burton St Clair invites his old friend J...



  • Rehearsals in a new West End play are disrupted by sudden, violent death in the intriguing new Charles Paris mystery Having landed a small part in a new West End play, The Habit of Faith, Charles Paris is dismayed to discover that his good fortune...



  • A quick trip to the capital goes horribly wrong when Blotto and Twinks get accidentally involved in London's criminal underworld... It starts innocently enough at the intimate review 'absolutely everyone is talking about', Light and Frothy, where ...



  • When Jude joins the Fethering community choir, she discovers that at least one of her fellow choristers is hiding a deadly secret. Although she hadn’t known Leonard Mallett very well, nor liked him particularly, Carole Seddon feels duty bound to...



  • Once again, the plumbing at Tawcester Towers is causing consternation for the Dowager Duchess, so - unusually for her - she gives her blessing for Blotto to take part in the 'Great Road Race' in his beloved Lagonda ... so long as he wins. The...



  • A rare eighteenth-century encyclopedia reveals a murderous secret in this short story by the CWA Diamond Daggerâ€"winning author of A Shock to the System.   For Professor Derrick Rounsevell, antique books can bring the past into the present, thr...



  • Introducing an engaging new amateur sleuth, declutterer Ellen Curtis, in the first of a brilliant new mystery series. Ellen Curtis runs her own business helping people who are running out of space. As a declutterer, she is used to encountering all...



  • Bill Nighy returns as the loveably louche actor-cum-amateur detective Charles Paris

    Charles Paris is in Oxford, appearing in a re-imagining of Hamlet by a high-concept drama company. No fan of immersive theatre, he’s unimpressed with the di...



  • 'Murder most enjoyable' Colin DexterAnyone for cricket - and a spot of burglary? An idle conversation on the merits of the glorious game with an old Etonian chum is just the excuse Blotto needs to put himself forward for a cricket tour to foreign cli...



  • When Carole Seddon's car is vandalised, it heralds the start of a disturbing series of events in the witty and entertaining new Fethering mystery. Carole Seddon's trusty Renault is one of her most treasured possessions. So when it is vandalised, th...



  • When the body of a prospective client is discovered in her burned-out home, declutterer Ellen Curtis is drawn into a baffling investigation where nothing is as it first appears. “My mother’s going to kill herself . . . That is, if I don’t kill...



  • 'Murder most enjoyable' Colin Dexter'What? You mean the earl does it for money? That's way beyond the barbed wire!' This explosion of disgust from Blotto is provoked when Twinks informs him of the activities of the Earl of Woking. The gentleman in...



  • Neighbours Carole and Jude uncover more than they bargained for when Jude decides to redecorate her cottage in this lighthearted cosy mystery."An edgy cozy, filled with dry wit and deft plot twists"- Booklist Starred ReviewHaving decided to...



  • Ellen Curtis is about to have her own life thrown into chaos in this third light-hearted decluttering mystery! Declutterer Ellen Curtis has been working to bring order into the life of Cedric Waites, a recluse in his eighties who hasn't left h...



  • 'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories. I would recommend them to anyone' Jilly Cooper'Murder most enjoyable' Colin DexterThe two aristocratic siblings Blotto and Twinks are once again launched into another death-defying adventure, this time ...



  • A bizarre discovery right under Mrs Pargeter's patio turns a quiet and sunny June morning into a thrilling hunt for answers in this new instalment of the light-hearted and entertaining Mrs Pargeter mystery series.When widow Mrs Pargeter decides to ha...



  • 'Murder most enjoyable' Colin DexterBlotto and Twinks are off on another adventure - and this time they're bound for the Alpine village of Luzvimmen in Switzerland, where Blotto participates in racing the prestigious and very fast Croissant Run, thou...


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Simon Brett has published 86 books.

Simon Brett does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Blotto, Twinks and the Phantom Skiers, was published in January 2024.

The first book by Simon Brett, Cast, in Order of Disappearance, was published in January 1975.

Yes. Simon Brett has 5 series.