Peter Helton
has written seven amusing books about a painter turned inept private
investigator. Chris Honeysett lives in Bath in a rundown house with an
unlimited need for repairs. His girlfriend Annis is a more successful artist
who also lives with him sometimes but sometimes with their mutual friend Tim.
Hence Honeysett refers to her as his half girlfriend. While Honeysett has sold
a number of paintings, he doesn’t sell enough to keep his roof in repair so he
launched Aquia Investigations to help fill the funding gap.
In Worthless
Remains (Crème de la Crime, 2013),
the fifth book of the series, Honeysett accepts an assignment from an insurance
company to monitor the payee of a large sum for injuries acquired in a
motorcycle accident. The company wants confirmation that the victim is indeed
confined to a wheelchair. Honeysett is happy for the potential revenue when he
learns that Annis has accepted another assignment for him: minder for the
presenter of a popular BBC archaeology program while they film in Bath.
Convinced he’d have plenty of time to watch the motorcycle victim for signs of
malfeasance as well, Honeysett goes blithely to meet his famous charge.
It turns out that Guy Middleton is anything but easy.
Offensive to almost everyone, chronically drunk, Middleton is subject to death
threats and near misses the duration of the shoot. The ancient Roman weapon
brought in to demonstrate onscreen launches unexpectedly and pinions the leg of
the person sitting next to Middleton, an urn slips off the roof of the old
country manor where they are digging and nearly crowns him, and on and on. Honeysett
is fully consumed with getting the increasingly paranoid Middleton up and on
the set in time for shooting every day.
The book is an entertaining look at behind-the-scenes
television. Honeysett is a droll narrator with a witty spin on nearly
everything. Middleton is an arrogant prima donna and his producer is looking
for a way to get rid of him. Needless to say, they despise each other. The
location is the current home of an aging rocker who now loathes the music that
made him a millionaire several times over. The program brought an expert in on
Roman food who cooked on-screen and in a nod to reality everyone developed food
poisoning.
There is no lack of suspects. But both cases are neatly
wrapped up despite Honeysett’s failure to pay attention to the motorcycle
injury claim. The resolution to the potential insurance scam is especially well
done.
·
Publisher: Crème de la Crime
(September 1, 2013)
·
Language: English
·
Hardcover: 240 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1780290470
·
ISBN-13: 978-1780290478
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3zeMQcT
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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