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Amazon.co.uk Review
Ben Elton's Dead Famous brings together his talents in comedy and crime writing to produce a hilarious and devastating novel on the gruesome world of reality TV. Peeping Tom productions invent the perfect TV programme: House Arrest. Its slogan is: "One house. Ten contestants. Thirty cameras. Forty microphones. One survivor." This is all a clever parody of the massive TV hit Big Brother, with its vain, ambitious contestants with their:
tattoos and their nipple rings, their mutual interest in star signs, their endless hugging and touching, and above all their complete lack of genuine intellectual curiosity about one single thing on this planet that was not directly connected with themselves.However, Elton adds a clever twist to this very funny send-up. On Day 27 of the programme, one of the housemates is killed live on TV. Everyone in the country has a theory about the killer, "indeed the only person who seemed to have absolutely no idea whatsoever of the killer's identity was Inspector Stanley Spencer Coleridge, the police officer in charge of the investigation". Coleridge is an old fogey from the 1950s, who has to learn quickly about lesbians, piercings, blow jobs and the seductions of TV fame before he can crack the case. Elton's wicked parody of the housemates is brilliant, the murder fiendish in its ingenuity, and the ending wonderfully over the top. Dead Famous is great fun, and even has some social comment thrown in for good measure. --Jerry Brotton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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"A book with pace and wit, real tension...and a big on-screen climax."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Detective fiction revisited,
By A Customer
This review is from: Dead Famous (Paperback)
There are many cliches in fiction, but perhaps none as familiar as the murder mystery where a group of strangers is gathered together, one is murdered, and after an eventful investigation, the detective gathers them all together to explain who did it. So much of a cliche, in fact, that few mainstream writers dare produce such a hackneyed plot any more. But Elton proves that there is life in old dog yet, as he realised the obvious ... the seeds of the cliche are being played out daily on our screen in the form of Big Brother. Merge these two together, and throw in a healthy dose of Elton's cyncism for the world of popular media, and we have a heady mixture. The plotting and timing of the tale is flawless - with multiple flashbacks and points of view never interfering with a damn good yarn in which the reader yearns not only to find out whodunnit, but also who it was done to. The characters are caricatures, but none the worse for that. They perfectly match the sort of view we are given of the Big Brother housemates, and that is one of Elton's more serious points in a page turner which is clever, thought-provoking and above all entertaining.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Satirical, witty, and murderous fun. Ben does it again.,
By
This review is from: Dead Famous (Paperback)
One house. Ten contestants. Thirty cameras. Forty microphones. I bought this book, just to find out how the hell someone could get murdered in the "House Arrest" house, without anyone knowing about it.
When you peel away the wrappings, this book is a classic whodunnit. Ten people are in a house, and one of them is dead. One of the survivors must be the killer. But who is it, what's the motive, and why oh why wasn't it Woggle who was killed? But whatever you do, don't simply peel away the wrappings. This is book is more than that. Ben Elton has stripped down the "Big Brother" phenomenon, and given it his treatement. The result is a satrical look at the whole state of affairs, through the eyes of those who love, hate, or take part in it. This book is not just for "Big Brother" fans, detractors will be able to sympathise with Chief Inspector Coleridge, but it would help if you are at least familiar with it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
enthralling and scathing murder mystery,
This review is from: Dead Famous (Paperback)
I have read a number of Ben Elton's novels and have always enjoyed them. Often, though, they are a little on the rambling side and could do with a bit of a trim. Not this one, though. It is a brilliantly plotted whodunnit and a wonderfully caustic dig at the reality tv boom, in which there is not an ounce of spare fat. I was still thinking about the ins and outs of the story days after I finished reading it, and heartily congratulate Mr Elton - I didn't think he had it in him.
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