Simon Brett - Böcker

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 Admiral.‘The Admiral’ is a pub in the Suffolk seaside village of Crabwell, The Admiral Byng. ‘The Admiral’ is also the nickname of its landlord, Geoffrey Horatio Fitzsimmons, as well as the name of the landlord’s dinghy. None of them are as buoyant as they should be, for the pub is threatened with closure due to falling takings.Tempers are already frayed due to the arrival of a television documentary team when Fitzsimmons is found dead in his tethered boat. The villagers assume a simple case of suicide and fear that their debt-ridden pub will now sink without trace. The journalists seem determined to finish the job by raking up old skeletons, but they weren’t banking on the fact that this story has been written by 14 extremely competitive crime writers – arch bamboozlers who will stop at nothing to save a good pub.The Sinking Admiral, edited by the Detection Club’s outgoing President – author and broadcaster Simon Brett, OBE – continues a tradition established by the Detection Club’s founders in 1931 when Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts and eleven other esteemed authors wrote The Floating Admiral, a ‘collaborative novel’ to challenge themselves, fox their readers and help to pay for the Club’s running costs. Now, 85 years later, 14 of today’s leading crime writers have repeated this unique game of literary consequences, producing an original, ebullient and archetypal whodunit that will keep readers guessing right up to what crime lovers insist on calling the dénouement…The contributors to The Sinking Admiral are:SIMON BRETTKATE CHARLESNATASHA COOPERSTELLA DUFFYMARTIN EDWARDSRUTH DUDLEY EDWARDSTIM HEALDMICHAEL JECKSJANET LAURENCEPETER LOVESEYMICHAEL RIDPATHDAVID ROBERTSL.C. TYLERLAURA WILSONall members of The Detection Club.

In Act I of this play, Detective Inspector Bruton questions Celia Wallis about her husband's murder. Celia is obviously in the clear, but the drunken journalist sleeping in her bed seems very shady. Act II, however, takes place before the murder, and turns all our expectations on their heads.

1902. The Bellingford Amateur Dramaticks' next production is to be A Midsummer Night's Dream - but it is a production with a difference, as it is being sponsored by (and therefore controlled by) a local entrepreneur and Henry Irving devotee, Sydney De Lainey. Rehearsals, under De Lainey's tyrranny, are awkward and many tensions arise within the company, culminating in De Lainey's brutal murder. The brand-new science of fingerprinting is used to solve the crime during a performance of the Dream and the culprit is arrested. A Bad Dream, charming and full of period detail, ws commissioned by the Sutton Amateur Dramatic Club in celebration of its 100th Anniversary in 2002.

Miggy is a "Sloane Ranger", who has been dumped by her boyfriend Roddy because she is "shallow" and does not care for the environment in the way his new love, Harmony, does. Here, Miggy tells us her story as she wrestles with environmental issues presented by the act of putting the kettle on.

An untraditional pantomime. The aristocratic Boronski family live in Siberia in the years before the Russian Revolution. Just as spring is about to begin, their lives are disrupted by the evil Fox, who condemns Siberia to eternal cold and despatches the Wolf to kill Babushka Boronski.

A pantomime script based around the "Sleeping Beauty" story. Princess Aurora suffers a curse from the evil Carabosse, and falls asleep for hundred years. With a kiss from Florizel, and a little help from the audience in solving a riddle, Carabosse is defeated and all ends happily.

Elderly Valerie Trevelyan has been murdered with an overdose of painkillers and there are suspicious bruises on her neck. Worse still is the fact that the two key suspects in the case are her sons, Gavin and Miles. Making no secret of their cold relationship with each other, both had a financial motive and the physical opportunity to have been the killer. As detectives interview the brothers, as well as their senile father, Lionel, secrets about the family are discovered as the clues mount up and clearly lead to one person. But is he actually the murderer? This can be performed with four men or as a one-man show.

'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. James'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 in the civil war-torn republic of Jalapeno, in Mexico. But how did they ever get to such a foreign and distant land in the first place?For Twinks it was an easy decision - to escape her mother's match-making attempts she sets out to visit her old friend, Begonia Guiteras, who lives in Jalapeno, which is fortuitously on the doorstep of an Aztec dig Twinks wants to work on. Unfortunately, her visit coincides with the War for Jalapeno Independence, headed by Colonel Henriquez Guiteras, Begonia's father.At the same time, Twinks's excavation of the Aztec site is revealing the exciting prospect of a hoard of Conquistadors' gold - but will taking it away from the burial ground unleash the dreaded Curse of Attatotalloss?Into this confusion stumbles Blotto, who only comes to Mexico as he's missing his sister. On being reunited with Twinks they then discover Begonia has been kidnapped by Mexican government forces and both set out to rescue her. This leads to many chases and challenges across the Mexican countryside, resulting in the capture of the twins where death by firing squad seems inevitable... but will trusty chauffeur Corky Froggett, as so very often in past adventures, be able to save the day?Praise for Simon Brett'One of British crime's most assured craftsmen . . . Crime writing just like in the good old days, and perfect entertainment' Guardian'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times

'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. James'Murder most enjoyable' Colin DexterThe latest hair-raising adventure featuring the aristocratic brother and sister sleuthing duo!Praise for Simon Brett'One of British crime's most assured craftsmen . . . Crime writing just like in the good old days, and perfect entertainment' Guardian'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories. I would recommend them to anyone' Jilly Cooper

'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. James'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, though someone seems determined to sabotage his chances.Twinks, on the other hand, is on a mission to rescue her friend's sister from the sinister finishing school she is trapped in - the Convent of the Sacred Icicle. Once inside, Twinks is threatened by an elderly nun who shows her a secret glacier in which the Phantom Skiers are entombed... awaiting resurrection so they can wreak vengeance on people who are too curious... like Blotto and Twinks.Meanwhile, up at Schloss Luzvimmen, the crazed Count von Strapp is set on global domination via a deadly arsenal of Swiss cheese hardware he's planning to unleash on the world...Yes, everything's much as usual in the world of Blotto and TwinksPraise for Simon Brett'One of British crime's most assured craftsmen . . . Crime writing just like in the good old days, and perfect entertainment' Guardian'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories. I would recommend them to anyone' Jilly Cooper

'A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans' P. D. James'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, though someone seems determined to sabotage his chances.Twinks, on the other hand, is on a mission to rescue her friend's sister from the sinister finishing school she is trapped in - the Convent of the Sacred Icicle. Once inside, Twinks is threatened by an elderly nun who shows her a secret glacier in which the Phantom Skiers are entombed... awaiting resurrection so they can wreak vengeance on people who are too curious... like Blotto and Twinks.Meanwhile, up at Schloss Luzvimmen, the crazed Count von Strapp is set on global domination via a deadly arsenal of Swiss cheese hardware he's planning to unleash on the world...Yes, everything's much as usual in the world of Blotto and TwinksPraise for Simon Brett'One of British crime's most assured craftsmen . . . Crime writing just like in the good old days, and perfect entertainment' Guardian'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories. I would recommend them to anyone' Jilly Cooper

'A new Simon Brett novel is an event for mystery fans!' P.D. James'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories. I would recommend them to anyone' Jilly CooperIntroducing a new, but not-so-amateur, sleuth from another peaceful English village with an alarmingly high death rate! The first mystery in a new cosy series from one of the world's favourite crime writers - perfect for fans of Richard Osmand, Janice Hallett, Robert Thorogood and M. C. Beaton._______________________Meet Major Bricket, an infrequent resident of Highfield House in Stunston Peveril, Suffolk. In the past the Major's work assignments, frequently in foreign countries, have prevented him from spending much time there and as a result, there is an air of mystery around him while everyone in the village speculates on the nature of his occupation.But now the Major has retired and has come home for good in his open-topped little red sports car... and what a homecoming it is, for lying spreadeagled on his lawn in the summer sunshine is the corpse of a clown.The circus is in Stunston Peveril for the annual village fair, yet none of their quota of clowns is missing - or at least, nobody is saying. Could the body be that of an unfortunate early guest at the village's highlight of the social calendar, the Fincham Abbey Costume Ball?Fortunately Major Bricket's past clandestine career means that he is now very well placed to solve the mystery of the dead clown on his camomile lawn . . ._______________________Praise for Simon Brett:'Murder most enjoyable' Colin Dexter'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times'Like a little malice in your mysteries? Some cynicism in your cozies? Simon Brett is happy to oblige' New York Times'A delightful, thoroughly English whodunnit' Daily Mail'The wittiest around' Antonia Fraser

Introducing a new, but not-so-amateur, sleuth from another peaceful English village with an alarmingly high death rate! The first mystery in a new cosy series from one of the world's favourite crime writers - perfect for fans of Richard Osmand, Janice Hallett, Robert Thorogood and M. C. Beaton._______________________Meet Major Bricket, an infrequent resident of Highfield House in Stunston Peveril, Suffolk. In the past the Major's work assignments, frequently in foreign countries, have prevented him from spending much time there and a result, there is an air of mystery around him while everyone in the village speculates on the nature of his occupation.But now the Major has retired and has come home for good in his open-topped little red sports car... and what a homecoming it is, for lying spreadeagled on his lawn in the summer sunshine is the corpse of a clown.The circus is in Stunston Peveril for the annual village fair, yet none of their quota of clowns is missing - or at least, nobody is saying. Could the body be that of an unfortunate early guest at the village's highlight of the social calendar, the Fincham Abbey Costume Ball?Fortunately Major Bricket's past clandestine career means that he is now very well placed to solve the mystery of the dead clown on his camomile lawn . . ._______________________Praise for Simon Brett:'Murder most enjoyable' Colin Dexter'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times'Like a little malice in your mysteries? Some cynicism in your cozies? Simon Brett is happy to oblige' New York Times'A delightful, thoroughly English whodunnit' Daily Mail'The wittiest around' Antonia Fraser'A new Simon Brett novel is an event for mystery fans!' P.D. James'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories. I would recommend them to anyone' Jilly Cooper

'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times'One of British crime's most assured craftsmen . . . Crime writing just like in the good old days, and perfect entertainment' Guardian_______________________For Major Bricket, attending church in his village of Stunston Peveril in Suffolk is a good way to keep up with the village gossip. Having only recently retired from a career where he was privy to many international secrets, the Major likes to stay in the know.Events take a turn one Sunday though when, after the morning service, Major Bricket notices the door to the bell tower open... and finds a body at the bottom of the stairs.The dead man is dressed in a suit and dog collar. But who is he? And could someone in Stunston Peveril have killed him?Perhaps predictably, most of the village residents seem more concerned with the Parish Council flower arranging rota than the mysterious corpse. Major Bricket will have to rely on his long-nurtured detection skills, and his trusted friends Nga Luong and Rod, to solve the case.A new cosy mystery series featuring a not-so-amateur sleuth in a peaceful English village with an alarmingly high death rate! Perfect for fans of Richard Osmand, Janice Hallett, Robert Thorogood and M. C. Beaton._______________________Praise for Simon Brett:'Murder most enjoyable' Colin Dexter'A delightful, thoroughly English whodunnit' Daily Mail'Like a little malice in your mysteries? Some cynicism in your cozies? Simon Brett is happy to oblige' New York Times'A new Simon Brett novel is an event for mystery fans!' P.D. James'Simon Brett writes stunning detective stories. I would recommend them to anyone' Jilly Cooper'The wittiest around' Antonia Fraser

'Few crime writers are so enchantingly gifted' Sunday Times'One of British crime's most assured craftsmen . . . Crime writing just like in the good old days,and perfect entertainment' Guardian_______________________For Major Bricket, attending church in his village of Stunston Peveril in Suffolk is a good way to keep up with the village gossip. Having only recently retired from a career where he was privy to many international secrets, the Major likes to stay in the know.Events take a turn one Sunday though when, after the morning service, Major Bricket notices the door to the bell tower open... and finds a body at the bottom of the stairs.The dead man is dressed in a suit and dog collar. But who is he? And could someone in Stunston Peveril have killed him?Perhaps predictably, most of the village residents seem more concerned with the Parish Council flower arranging rota than the mysterious corpse. Major Bricket will have to rely on his long-nurtured detection skills, and his trusted friends Nga Luong and Rod, to solve the case.

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