A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away

What a fabulous fun it has been! I am obviously a fan, but there is little to criticize if at all, as the story is extremely well written, with tons of Glaswegian speech that just makes me think of Frankie Boyle and laugh :)
It's the first book where Angelique, wee but lethal police officer, gets to meet Simon Darcourt (both I met for the first time in the sequel to this book, so if you want to start in order, read this, and then the other two...). Her sidekick this time is a gaming expert, now teacher and brand new father, Ray, who proves out to be a great team player.
Loved the book. I am very tempted to dive into the third in series, but I will wait a while, finish some of the other books already started, and then work on "A Snowball show more In Hell". show less

entertaining, especially the university settings, and Simon Darcourt's rants on SSC's. It felt very familiar in tone, with similarities to another of Brookmyre's I read recently (high school kids locked in a mountain something or other); and to Charles Stross's Halting State.
The often brilliant turns of phrase really enlivened what was otherwise a pedestrian story about catching an assassin

Another treat from Mr Brookmyre. I'm not sure the back cover did it justice, or at least I liked it more than I thought I would from reading the blurb. The usual cast of good guys, bad guys and the normal guys stuck in the middle. Laugh out loud, and thrillingly tense - great!

This has got to be the funniest book I've read for a very long time. Even better than Three Bags Full. Brookmyre's descriptive powers are extremely good, particularly regarding schoolboys, teachers and aspirations. As in all his books, belief will need to be suspended in respect of the plotline but this doesn't do the book any harm at all, rather the opposite in fact.

This book disappointed me. I enjoyed the other Brookmyre's I've read a lot, but this one failed to charm me. This is an action book, but there are too many flashbacks that stop all the action and that are really annoying. The reader needs the information in the flashbacks, but having a victim who has just escaped after an abduction and a mock execution thinking about his youth for some 10 pages while he is driving a stolen car and while he is supposed to have no idea of where he is, just does not ring true. And while the flashbacks are well-written enough, you can see what's coming from pages and pages away, and that does not help either.
If you want to read a really enjoyable Brookmyre, go for All Fun and Games until Someone Loses an Eye

Let's start by saying I really enjoyed this book. I'm in two minds on how to review it though. For once the cover doesn't give the story away, so I don't think I should either. And I really enjoyed the cultural references, but again I think it would be unfair to give them away, although I think it's fair to say if you were born around 1970 and were into music and computer games you'll really enjoy the references.

So I've not really said enough have I? I'll just add that it was superbly written, great fun and a real page turner, and Brookmyre's back catalogue is now on my reading list.

This was the first Christopher Brookmyre book I read and I loved it. It's because of this book I started reading all his others, and i've lent them all to anyone I can force to read them - all saying again that they loved it. You have a real goodie versus baddie vibe with this one, it's pretty hollywood to be honest (nothing wrong with that) and I could totally see it being made into a movie.