A Comedian Dies – Simon Brett

It was full of strange inconsistencies. Carla’s image of her husband seemed so at variance with everyone else’s. Still, marriage must involve a degree of blindness to the partner’s faults. Perhaps it was natural enough. So, come to think of it, was her initial fear that Charles was suspicious of her as her husband’s killer. However illogical, everyone’s first instinct is to feel guilty. And no doubt her poised sexy exterior was just a carefully built up bastion against uncontrollable emotion.

More important than the contradiction in Carla Pratt’s character was the illumination she had given into the character of Janine Bentley. He had had difficulty visualizing the girl as a calculating killer. Other descriptions had suggested a rather anonymous, quiet little thing. But a girl who sounded unbalanced, indeed a girl who would make the kind of phone-call described, was a much more disturbing proposition. And there was another important detail – a girl who had spent a lot of time trailing round after a rock group would pick up some sort of knowledge of how their equipment worked and might well know how to stage a fatal ‘accident’.

It was even more imperative that he should find Janine Bentley. 1kitap1.com/en COMIC: Did you hear about the Irish tap dancer? FEED: No. COMIC: He fell in the sink. Charles thought it would be tempting providence to approach Mr. Mike Green (he who conducted business under an assumed nose) in another disguise. The ‘raincoat débâcle’ had dealt a blow to his faith in his protean abilities.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly. First published in Great Britain in 1979 by Victor Gollancz eBook edition first published in 2012 by Severn Select an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited Copyright © 1979 Simon Brett.

All rights reserved. The moral right of the author has been asserted. A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-0004-4 (Epub) Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental. This ebook produced by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland. 1kitap1.com/en TO ALASTAIR who’s quite funny sometimes 1kitap1.com/en CHAPTER ONE FEED: Did you have a nice holiday?

COMIC: Oh yes, what a week it was. Only rained twice – once for three days, once for four. Sun ’n’ Funtime at the Winter Gardens, Hunstanton, was, according to the posters that faded on bus-shelter walls and the brochures that were shuffled onto boarding-house coffee tables, ‘A Summer Tonic, Music and Laughter for All the Family’. The queue that Charles Paris and his wife Frances joined that wet Tuesday afternoon in September looked as though they could do with a tonic. In most cases an oxygen mask would have been more appropriate.

Their average age was about seventy-nine and they had the washed-out look of torn bunting clinging to the grille of a drain. These were the dream- realizers, enjoying either a seaside holiday or, in some cases, the life sentence of retirement by the sea. The Winter Gardens reflected their air of bewildered decay. Maybe once the iron framework had boasted brighter colours than the local council’s chlorine blue paint, which fought a losing battle against the encrustations of salt and the eruptions of rust. Maybe once the white planks which filled in the lower parts of the frame had not been pitted and scratched and aerosoled with lewd invitations.

Maybe once the windows had not been mended with flapping strips of polythene and none had rattled, puttyless, like old teeth in shrunken gums. But in 1977 the Winter Gardens was a building which had given up the will to live. Perversely, Charles felt quite cheerful.

The depressing nature of his surroundings seemed, by counterpoint, to enhance his sunny mood.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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