21st July 2024

Chris Brookmyre subverts the genre with a bewildering opening to this complex novel, where we open in a Scottish village, following a cosy crime story about an elderly Marplesque detective. But after three chapters suddenly another novel starts - now we’re in LA, the present tense, and a gritty thriller about a reckless cop.

As the plots develop in parallel, the novel becomes more and more complex, gradually peeling back layers for the reader so we can learn more and more about this bizarre world, until finally…

It’s a totally original approach to storytelling while also feeling so very Brookmyre. I absolutely raced through it, totally hooked on the mystery within the mystery within the mystery.

Another really good adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed all the way through.

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3rd September 2022

Chris Brookmyre’s latest novel is a bit overwhelming at first - introducing a lot of characters very quickly, who make up the party going for a hen weekend on a remote Scottish island.

Once I’d got my head around the cast though the plot moves at a fantastic pace and the intrigue flows throughout the rest of the text, which I devoured very quickly.

The classic Brookmyre feel is here, though the structure is a bit different. Finding out the characters’ backstories is key, but that’s dripped throughout, rather than taking half the book to get through before the action kicks in.

I had so many thoughts and ideas of what the secrets might be, and am glad not to have been totally caught out by the end. A really great fun modern mystery.

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2nd May 2021

The latest Chris Brookmyre crime novel is another genius blend of cultural references, commentary on society, mystery, history, and comedy.

The plot considers the life of a former horror-movie make-up artist, released after a 25-year prison sentence for a crime she denies committing, and that of an 18-year-old film student. Both make for intriguing reading, and help explore both our world and the fiction that Brookmyre weaves on top of it.

The classic Brookmyre style is there, with a mix of storytelling in the present day and in flashback, which combine to reveal information at exactly the right pace. This gives quite a few of the classic gasp out loud moments as the plot meanders, though not quite to the throw down the book in delighted surprise level of one of his previous works.

I was particularly pleased when I identified an early and obscure reference, as my exposure to the horror film genre is limited just to the most mainstream - so there is something for everyone regardless of your own viewing habits.

A really good, enjoyable and engrossing novel.

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23rd June 2019

Chris Brookmyre’s latest stand-alone novel is a surprisingly dark exploration of a family’s secrets, which gradually emerge over the course of a holiday in Portugal following the death of the patriarch.

The narrative is incredibly compelling, and Brookmyre has produced a text that’s so filled with mystery and intrigue that it was hard to put down. However it’s also got some pretty horrific moments, which are spread throughout, and make for quite difficult reading when you realise what’s being said.

There are multiple twists throughout, including one which had me throw down the book in delighted exasperation that it had managed to keep me going for so long.

I really enjoyed reading this and would totally recommend it, although it should probably come with appropriate trigger warnings.

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23rd March 2018

Christopher Brookmyre, known for earlier comedic and latterly serious crime novels takes a second step into science fiction with this tale of a future space station, its new head of law enforcement and a local cop who knows the place like the back of her hand.

Brookmyre presents a future which is a rounded blend of positive and negative. The people of his world are socially liberal but fiscally conservative, which isn’t quite what their government want them to be. Things really kick off when there's a brutal murder aboard the space station, and some people really want to cover it up.

While the graphic storytelling, humour, characters and society are reminiscent of Brookmyre's usual output, the narrative felt like it had quite a different structure. It's told in the present tense (which as always takes me a while to get used to) but this also means the narrative is pretty much chronological, whereas a lot of Brookmyre's books tell a large part of the plot in flashback.

While not unenjoyable, I didn't feel the book sparked for me as much as his earlier works.

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25th May 2017

After a few quite hard crime novels, it feels like Chris Brookmyre has relaxed a little back towards his earlier more comedic style with this book. While it's still a solid crime type novel, it is slightly lighter in tone and focussed on a less horrific type of crime.

This time out, disgraced journalist Jack Parlabane has a new gig, and is telling fascinating stories about hackers, when one of his sources decides it's time to cash in a favour. And it's a complicated one.

The issues dealt with in the story are really contemporary, and I loved how a room YRS has used elements he's slowly been introducing to pull together a story that takes current affairs from a number of different perspectives, and weaves them into a story that is not only action-packed, but also character-driven and that makes you think.

Another really great story that distracted me well from goings-on in the real world and got me back into reading much more regularly than I have recently.

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25th March 2016

Brookmyre's original hero, now-disgraced journalist Jack Parlabane, returns in the next of the author's serious crime novels, when he's asked to look into the apparently accidental death of a hospital IT worker. As usual there's a lot going on and a fantastically dark set of characters to keep the reader guessing where things are going.

Like most of the author's novels, much of the story is presented retrospectively, in the form of flashbacks interspersed with contemporary events. This time there are multiple points of view thrown into the mix as well as multiple timeframes, but Brookmyre manages to bring each scene together into a beautifuly flowing narrative that reveals just the right amount of information to the reader at every turn. I picked up on some of the twists well in advance, but on reflection I suspect that was by design and they were telegraphed partly to distract me from everything else that was going on.

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