Tangled Web UK Review February 2008
Murder Most Fab by
Julian Clary
pbk out July 08
(Ebury Press)
at £6.99
I am certain Julian Clary needs no introduction, and indeed reading this novel becomes an intriguing exercise in extracting his own truth from his fiction. Is Johnny Debonair (the main character) Julian Clary in some aspects? Clary himself has suggested that "all the characters are me, actually." Though he is also clear that he is least like JD – " I could never murder anyone." That's a relief.
But, in the context of the story, life couldn't be better for smooth TV presenter Johnny Debonair. He's at the top of the pile: Mr Saturday Night on prime time, with his recent memoir "Gentleman's Relish" riding high in the bestsellers. Over lunch at La Mirabelle with his editor Pip Hardback, he announces that next he'd like to write a novel: the story of a young man, similar to himself in many ways, until he becomes involved in a series of murders. 'It's a great idea,' says Pip, licking his lips, 'a comedy thriller,' and a handsome advance is handed over. The one thing Johnny, or JD as he prefers it, fails to tell his editor is that this isn't fiction. The story JD is about to unleash is the dark truth of his life that could never have been revealed in his memoir.
We learn of his early years, when he emerges from under the wing of his mother, who is largely away with the fairies, and enters Lewisham School of Musical Theatre. The fresh input of talent would outdo the worst candidates on Big Brother, but are all convinced of their inevitable superstardom. At his digs, JD falls in with nurse Catherine, who supplements her income with agency work satisfying the needs of hungry males. Soon, she has recruited JD into her world, and his life of male prostitution has begun. Things can only get bigger.
With a scant regard for conventional morality, Clary mixes clever double- entendre with raw and explicit detail, but is never less than disarmingly amusing. Drawing no doubt on his own drugged fall from favour, and insider view of modern celebrity, he creates an outrageous character, and a new spin on the murder mystery.
(
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger)
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