Book Blog

Dead Famous
by Ben Elton
Paperback: 382 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.03 x 7.92 x 5.02
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Limited; (July 2002)
ISBN: 0552999458
Book Description
From a celebrity performer, bestselling author of Popcorn and Inconceivable, a stunning satire on the modern obsession with fame.

One house. Ten contestants. Thirty cameras. Forty microphones.

Yet again the public gorges its voyeuristic appetite as another group of unknown and unremarkable people submit themselves to the brutal exposure of the televised real-life soap opera, House Arrest.

Everybody knows the rules: total strangers are forced to live together while the rest of the country watches them do it. Who will crack first? Who will have sex with whom? Who will the public love and who will they hate? All the usual questions. And then suddenly, there are some new ones.

Who is the murderer? How did he or she manage to kill under the constant gaze of the thirty cameras? Why did they do it? And who will be next? --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher
One house, ten contestants, thirty cameras, forty microphones, one murder… and no evidence. A Number–One Bestseller in Britain, Dead Famous is a killer of a read from Ben Elton—Reality TV as you’ ve never seen it before. Ben Elton’s television credits include The Young Ones, Blackadder, and The Thin Blue Line. He is also the author of a string of best–selling novels, including Popcorn, which won the Crime Writers’ Association Golden Dagger Award, Blast from the Past, and Inconceivable.

From AudioFile
Chief Inspector Coleridge is called in to investigate a murder that occurs among the cast of "House Arrest," a reality TV show on the BBC. Thorpe reads Elton's funny parody of this medium and its vain, ambitious contestants in an enthusiastic, rapid-fire style. He makes crusty, crotchety Coleridge even more so and characterizes the 10 house members as ridiculous by emphasizing their vapid slang and bad grammar. Thorpe shifts tone deftly to make Jazz, Layla, Hamish, Dervla, Moon, et al. unique and identifiable. Pacing and diction are impeccable. This popular entertainment should appeal to Generation X. S.C.A. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.