Welcome to my official website

I am Simon Brett, the writer responsible for the Charles Paris, Mrs Pargeter, Fethering and Blotto & Twinks series of crime novels. I was very honoured to be awarded an OBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours ‘for services to literature’. Round the same time I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, thus providing me with some more letters to put after my name. Then back in 2014 I was presented with The CWA Diamond Dagger, one of the highest accolades in the crime writing world. My writing also includes comedy in radio and television series such as No Commitments and After Henry. I am very fortunate to make a living (most of the time) from something I would do anyway. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to write. I still do, and I want to do it better.

I am, incidentally, not to be confused with Simon Brett, the wood engraver. I occasionally meet people who say how fortunate I am to be able not only to write but also to create such skilful and beautiful wood engravings. Sadly, I have no aptitude at all for the visual arts. Should you wish to find the other, artistic Simon Brett, his website is:
www.simonbrett-woodengraver.co.uk.

But here on mine, by clicking on the relevant links, you will be able to find out more about me and my writing.

Waste of a Life

Declutterer Ellen Curtis has been working to bring order into the life of Cedric Waites, a recluse in his eighties who hasn't left his house or let anyone inside it since his wife died. On one of her regular visits, Ellen finds the old man dead.

Sad but, given his age, perhaps not unexpected. Nothing to get worked up about . . . until the police raise the suspicion that Cedric might have been poisoned! The cause seems be something he ate, and as Ellen cleared away the old man's food containers, she is under suspicion. As is Dodge, who works for Ellen and has unhelpfully done a runner . . .

Meanwhile, a rival declutterer is out to sabotage Ellen's reputable business, her two grown-up children are back home and in crisis, and she has a potential love interest. Ellen's life has taken on a chaotic turn of its own! Can she uncover the killer and bring order back to her own life?