Charles Paris Books in Order

Actor Charles Paris investigates the deaths of theatrical tycoon Marius Steen and blackmailer Bill Sweet. Adopting disguises, including that of a Scotland Yard detective, draws him into a world of compromising photographs, show-business secrets, and increasingly dangerous performances.

Charles Paris takes his one-man show to the Edinburgh Festival and becomes entangled in a murder investigation. A fading pop star’s death, a bomb scare, and theatrical rivalries complicate a week already filled with performances, drink, and romantic distractions.

Charles Paris joins a musical whose rehearsals are disrupted by a pianist’s shooting and an actor’s suspicious fall. Investigating the backstage mishaps leads him toward the show’s difficult star, raising an awkward question: why sabotage a production built around himself?

Charles Paris becomes involved with an amateur theatre company when his friend Hugo’s wife is murdered. With Hugo accused of the crime, Charles investigates rivalries and backstage relationships, hoping to uncover the truth behind a carefully constructed alibi.

On a seaside holiday with his estranged wife, Charles Paris watches a rising comedian collapse after taking hold of his guitar and microphone. The apparently electrifying accident gives the actor a fresh mystery among the entertainers and their competing interests.

After recording a BBC radio drama, Charles Paris learns that studio manager Andrea Gower has been found dead in an editing suite. A second death undermines the apparent suicide and leads him into a dangerous investigation of institutional secrets and scandal.

A minor role in a sitcom promises Charles Paris steady work, until disturbing accidents and deaths disrupt the production. The cast’s peculiar behavior draws the actor into another investigation, as his television comedy becomes a much darker drama.

Charles Paris is demoted to understudy when a television star takes over a new play. The replacement is shot on opening night, leaving Charles to investigate the resentful cast and clear a fellow actor who had openly refused to accept the change.

Charles Paris reaches a professional low playing a corpse in an unsuccessful provincial thriller. Nearly becoming a real victim is worse: mounting backstage accidents suggest sabotage, and he must find the person turning the theatre company’s troubles into murder.

Taking work as a house painter, unemployed actor Charles Paris discovers the mutilated body of a fashionable restaurant’s chef. The victim’s missing partner seems the obvious suspect, but Charles finds enough enemies and inconsistencies to launch his own investigation.

Charles Paris appears on a television quiz show, hoping for publicity after months without work. When the host dies after drinking poisoned gin, Charles investigates the studio’s rivalries and hidden grievances to help clear a young assistant accused of murder.

Charles Paris returns to Shakespeare in a troubled provincial production of Macbeth, juggling numerous parts and a difficult cast. After a disastrous rehearsal, he finds an unpopular actor dead inside the locked theatre and must investigate a very real theatrical curse.

Charles Paris finds steady work as a policeman in a television detective series. Discovering an actress dead in the prop room disrupts the production, and further supposed accidents convince him to investigate the real crimes unfolding behind the fictional ones.

Charles Paris plays a forklift driver in a company’s promotional video, only for a secretary to be found crushed by the machine. Suspicion falls on Charles, forcing him to examine the corporation’s secrets and determine whether the apparent accident was murder.

Charles Paris portrays missing property developer Martin Earnshaw in a television crime reconstruction. When body parts begin turning up, his role expands, and he starts questioning the program’s sensational coverage and the motives of those closest to the missing man.

Playing Sir Toby Belch and living with Frances again, Charles Paris finally feels his fortunes improving. Then illness removes the director of Twelfth Night, an experimental replacement takes charge, and further poisoning incidents suggest someone is targeting the company.

Charles Paris combines a touring farce with audiobook work at a recording studio. When producer Mark Lear is found dead in a locked room after threatening a revealing book about the BBC, Charles investigates whether old grievances have become murderous.

Charles Paris lands two small roles in a Hamlet production led by television talent-show stars. After a rehearsal injury and an opening-night death, the actor investigates whether backstage tensions have escalated into a connected series of attacks.

Acting in an Eastbourne pantomime, Charles Paris befriends its troubled American sitcom star and gets drawn into his complicated affairs. Finding a murdered cast member beneath the pier brings press attention, chaotic rehearsals, and suspicion directed at Charles.

Charles Paris wins a role as a monk in a West End play but drinks himself into another personal disaster. Waking to find a body at the theatre, he compounds his difficulties by lying to the police.