Dead Famous - Softcover

Elton, Ben

3.67

11,395 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552999458 ISBN 13: 9780552999458

Publisher: Black Swan, 2002

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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 television cameras? Why did they do it? And who will be next?

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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

Review:

"Big up to Ben Elton and respect, big time. Top, top book" (Mail on Sunday)

"Wry, fast and fiendishly clever" (The Times)

"A book with pace and wit, real tension, a dark background theme and a big on-screen climax" (Independent)

"The perfect modern-day whodunit. A cracking read full of hilarious insights into the Big Brother phenomenon" (Mirror)

"One of the best whodunits I have ever read...a funny, gripping, hugely entertaining thriller, but also a persuasive, dyspeptic account of the way we live now, with our insane, inane cult of the celebrity" (Sunday Telegraph)

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PublisherBlack Swan
Publication date2002
ISBN 10 0552999458
ISBN 13 9780552999458
BindingPaperback
Number of pages384
Rating
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Dead Famous (Paperback)

Ben Elton

Published by Transworld Publishers Ltd, London (2002)

ISBN 10: 0552999458 ISBN 13: 9780552999458

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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The new killer read from the author of Popcorn and InconceivableOne 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 television cameras? Why did they do it? And who will be next? One house, 10 contestants, 30 cameras. Another group of people submit themselves to the exposure of the televised real-life soap opera. But this time it's different. Who is the murderer? How did they manage to kill under the constant gaze of 30 cameras? How did they do it? And who will be next? Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780552999458

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Published by Transworld 2002-07-01, London (2002)

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