Christopher Brookmyre is a Scottish author who deserves to be as well known amongst readers as Ian Rankin, but for some reason he isn’t. I was thinking that it might be because his books are definitely not ones which you would recommend to a maiden aunt but I think maiden aunts have probably changed a lot over the years. Anyway, there’s quite a lot of swearing in this book but it wouldn’t be realistic without it.
Nicole Carrow is a young English lawyer who has just moved to take up a post in a firm of Glasgow solicitors. It has all been a bit of a culture shock for her but worse is to follow when she is given the job of defending the alleged murderers of Roland Voss, a conservative tabloid media mogul, with fingers in many pies. Voss’s wife and two bodyguards have also been murdered and it looks like an open and shut case but all is not as it seems and it isn’t long before an attempt is made on Nicole’s life.
The journalist, Jack Parlabane becomes involved in the investigation and the book becomes quite a page turner with the action moving around Scotland from Glasgow to Edinburgh and Perthshire with brief forays into the wilds.
It’s Brookmyre’s second novel, first published in 1997, it doesn’t have an awful lot in the way of humour compared with some of his others but I did enjoy it. Just remember that his books are authentically nitty gritty!
I don’t know why Christopher Brookmyre isn’t more well known, I suppose he hasn’t had the same exposure?? I’ve been to talks by both him and Ian Rankin and both are very good speakers as well as good writers, but there were more people at Rankin’s evening.
I’ve only read one of Brookmyre’s books whereas I’ve read all of Rankin’s Rebus books. Maybe others have done the same. The book I read – Quite Ugly One Morning – begins with a graphic description of a particularly nasty murder scene, which is normally guaranteed to make me stop reading. But it would have been a great shame if I’d let it put me off this book, because I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve got more of his books to read (borrowed from my son, who told me about Brookmyre) and I’m hoping to read them next year.
It’s a mystery, I hope Brookmyre does become more widely read. I think his books would transfer well to TV. I think this must be about the fifth book I’ve read by him and there have been a couple of stomach churning bits along the way, but Jack recommended the books so I knew they would be worthwhile reads. It’s one of the reasons I read more vintage crime than modern, because I’m not so keen on the graphic details which tend to be in contemporary crime.