Ten very obnoxious contestants. One house and about a million cameras. Let the voyeurism begin!

This was published in 2002 when shows like this were still in their crib... I sorta wonder what the author thought after the popularity of this kind of show exploded only a few years later and scandals regarding editing came out. It's like he predicted the whole thing.

The first 220 pages of this are pure fluff. I almost gave up on the book.

All you get for the first two third of the book is this =

There was a murder in the house. The police are reviewing the tapes, including the extra unaired footage, to find the killer. You watch the footage of trashy people being trashy on reality TV with running commentary from the detectives and editor of the show... that is all for over two thirds of the book!

It doesn't even get to the identity of the murder victim till the last third. It really is just documenting a reality TV show of this sorts right up until the last 100 pages... when it remembers that it's a murder mystery.

Here's the thing. The last hundred pages or so... they're the book. You could have honestly just have that be the book and it would be an easy 5 stars for how interesting and well written it was.

Sadly though that was way too much fluff to be ignored. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that only the last 100 pages are the book. You don't even know anything about the ten contestants until then, just snaps of made up drama for the show.

Може да си известен, но скоро ще си мъртъв: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/i...

За да се издаде трилър на над 15 години, трябва да е наистина добър – и препоръката за “Известен и мъртъв” на Бен Елтън се оказа абсолютно точна. Рядко се среща книга, която сме��ва добро криминално разследване с такъв убийствено саркастичен стил, който те кара да се хилиш с глас и да мяташ подозрения във всички посоки. Елтън прави на пух и прах обсесията по реалитата и тяхната лъжлива аура на леко забавление и показва истинската им същност на хищническо воайорство, движено от низки страсти – и ако в реалния живот като цяло те имат някаква граница (нали?), то в романа му едно убийство, извършено пред камерите, довежда до истинска истерия и задълбочаване в ненаситната кръвожадност на човешката природа.

CIELA Books
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/i...

The first third of the book is the least gripping thing I have ever read. I only carried on due to the acclaim Ben Elton has received from my friends and parents. Every time I thought the book started to get better, it just seemed to drag on for more time than it should have. I thought the lead up to the end was tense and I genuinely wanted to know what happened. The ending would have worked for me if Elton hadn't thrown in some weird way in which it was possible for the killer to commit the murder. On top of myself not being able to enjoy the plot, the dialogue in which Elton is trying to portray the younger generation could not be further from how people actually talked. It made the whole book feel even more fake and tacky and showed that the book was just an attempt for Elton to show his own opinions of the young people who would do anything for fame.

This is a book about people in a reality show. 10 people (airheads) are locked into a house filled with cameras and one of them is murdered there, and still no one sees the identity of the killer. I'll admit it's a good plot. I'll admit I really like everything negative this gives Ben Elton an opportunity to say about reality shows. I'll even admit I like his way of writing. And though I do enjoy ironic books and films where silly, egotistical people are knocked out of their inflated opinion of themselves, I have to confess that this book was almost as boring as the TV-programs it's ridiculing. Try as I might I have not been able to point to a specific thing and say: "this is what did it, this is why it's boring" but there are a few things.

First, The detective in charge of the investigation is hardly familiar with modern television and has to be told things that frankly are part of everyone's frame of reference. Secondly, we are not told until halfway through the book WHO was killed, and that makes it difficult to keep track of who the other airheads are. I wanted to be able to write off at least one of them as the possible killer because who can keep track of ten uninteresting airheads? And finally, there is too much slang in the book, at least to a non-native speaker. I suspect that there is too much slang even for people outside a certain British social group, but maybe it's an acquired taste.

All in all it's not a bad book, but it's not a good book either. It's definitely good enough for one read, especially if you don't like reality shows but do enjoy irony, but it's not one I would recommend to spend a day with.

It took me 30 odd pages to fully get into the story as there are so many characters that I had to keep referring to the list of who was who so it took a bit of work!
However, once I got to grips with all the characters, I could not put the book down.
I started having suspicions as to who may have done it (and I was right!) yet there were so many elements to the story that it could totally have gone another way.
I must admit I am not a fan of Big Brother and don't watch it but the fact that this was told more from the view of the police officer in charge of the case, this made it a really good read for me.
This was my first Ben Elton book so unsure this is his usual writing style so I may just have to go read another book of his just to find out!

“Известен и мъртъв” беше интересно риалити, но в книжен формат. Все едно гледаш “Биг Бродър”, но събран между страниците на книга + елемент на убийство, което е заснето от всички камери вътре в къщата, но не се знае кой е извършителят.

Firstly, Ben Elton has provided another excellent satire on a modern phenomenon, this time the Big Brother formula. It's witty and insightful as all his books are. However, this is also one of the best whodunnits I've read. Kept me guessing until the end. Brilliant.

I think you really have to have seen the early years of Big Brother (and perhaps the British version) to enjoy this. There's a lot of sex, slang and over-the-top satire of the cult of celebrity, reality shows and the TV companies that produce them. It's dated already (the word of the day is still "wicked", not "awesome" or even "cool") but it really brought back those early Big Brother series and I found it very funny in a dreadful sort of way.

This is a real page turner about a murder in a reality show similar to Big Brother. You never really know who died until 50% of the book and you will find the killer at the end of the book. It's a good read during a small vacation, which will pass your time as well as make you question about things which are considered norms in the TV business.

On one level, Dead Famous is a largely forgettable attempt to capitalize on a pop cultural fad. Ben Elton's acid observations about the exploitative, cynical nature of reality television are more or less true, but reality TV is an incredibly easy target and I doubt anything Dead Famous says was a new insight even in 2001. As a social commentary, it's not wrong, but it's also not all that valuable. As a murder mystery though, it's pretty good. The writing is fast and funny, the structure of the mystery (wherein the victim is not revealed until halfway through) is unusual and effective, and the crime itself is appropriately dramatic, even chilling. Still, probably not worth reading unless you care about or passionately hate Big Brother.

This was another book my father recommended to me, and along with 'Porterhouse Blue' it has made me realise that our taste in novels really is quite different.

Evidently, Dad has a taste for the satirical. 'Dead Famous' is a comedic, over-the-top rebuke to the 'five minutes of fame' culture, clearly satirising 'Big Brother' and its reality show ilk (the novel was published a year after 'Big Brother''s inception). A number of contestants, placed together in a house for a period of time, with weekly evictions determined by the baying public...and then a murder happens. We see the build up to this event, and its aftermath, both through the eyes of the stoic inspector, Coleridge, and the contestants in the house, giving us multiple different perspectives on what has happened.

It is a relatively quick, easy read. Ben Elton's prose is very to-the-point and simple, with the plot evidently of far more import than flowery phrasing, and I think for this sort of novel that is entirely fine. I did enjoy the claustrophobic dynamic of the house and the insights into the minds of the contestants, though the 'hip' language Elton has them use feels extremely jarring (I don't recall anyone in the early 2000s using phrases like 'Unreal!' or 'Big it up!' all in one sentence...).

All in all, a small dose of entertainment packaged in an easy read.

Fun intelligent read. A murder happens unnoticed in a sealed Big Brother style house broadcast live. He really delves into the psyhces of the characters, those who hate reality shows, those who love them & those who sign up to be on them.