If you are already a Brookmyre fan then this will tick the boxes for you. Investigative journalist Jack Parlabane is in prison for breaking and entering into the headquarters of the Scottish Catholic Church. Why has the church hired PR man Ian Beadie? A Member of the Scottish Parliament (a new body at the time the book was published) with a reputation as a lothario proves not to be what he appears, and is then implicated in a sex scandal. Fellow MSP and strict Catholic Elspeth Doyle is called in to clean up. Brookmyre skilfully brings these threads together in this funny, entertaining thriller.

However, it is almost buried by Brookmyre's ranting, which slows the pace of the book, but not fatally. Entertaining, and recommended to those who need a Scottish variation on Carl Hiaasen in their reading lives. This would be a decent place to start with Brookmyre, although "Quite Ugly One Morning", the first Parlabane novel, would probably be better. ( )

Not his best, The usual tirades against the usual hate figures and much tooing and froing between times and places whilst he
sets up the plot for the delayed violence. Yes I know Christopher Brookmyre delaying violence does sound odd. ( )

Competent, instructive about shady goings-on in the Scottish Executive; will come as less of a surprise to anyone who has encountered the accusations of the group "Scotland against crooked lawyers". The only obvious defect is the author's patent pleasure in his own cleverness, of which the title is a good example. If you have to explain the relevance of a title, it's not good enough. ( )