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What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Original poster

Christopher Brookmyre

38 replies

havalina · 18/03/2008 01:38

Hi I have only discovered this author in the previous year, got one of his books from the library and quickly hunted down the rest.

Just wondering if there were any other fans? Which other books would you recommend for fans of Brookmyre? I have found him quite patchy, there were a couple I really dragged my heals through and didn't really enjoy at all (Country of the blind and Boiling a frog). Looking forward to his newest, the synopsis on Amazon looks great!

OP posts:

spub · 18/03/2008 10:56

I loved "One Fine day in the Middle of the Night" and ooh, the one about the Dada bank robbers; it has a slight romance that I liked. The new one, "attack of the Unsinkable Rubber ducks" is good and "A tale etched in blood and HB pencil" was laugh out loud funny.
I agree that some are better paced and grip you more than others but I generally like his stuff and have read most of it.
Have you tried any Denise Mina? She's not madcap at all but her books are also very well plotted and keep you gripped.

squilly · 18/03/2008 19:05

I love them all. They're hard, fast paced and totally gripping. I think my fave was the one on the oil rig (I'm not great with book titles!) though I loved the one with the computer game guy too...

I can't think of who else I'd recommend as I haven't found anyone like him and I read like a drain.

I'm currently reading Boris Akunin, which is detective based and quite interesting. His books are set in Tsarist Russia, so they're a bit oldy-worldy, but they're clever little books that hook you in and paint beautiful pictures of people and circumstances that you can really relate to.

I'll be keeping an eye on the thread, though, just in case anyone has any alternatives!

spub · 19/03/2008 06:52

Squilly,
The oil rig one is "one fine day in the middle of the night" - where the school reunion is infiltrated by terrorists and it all goes a bit Rambo meets Friends Reunited!!
Honestly, "A tale etched in Blood" made me laugh so much - the going to B&Q for acid to disssolve the bodies.....
Haven't read any Boris Akunin; sounds intriguing though. What one would you start with?
Carl Hiassen is often mentioned in the same lists as Brookmyre but I tried one and just couldn't get into it.

GentleOtter · 19/03/2008 07:56

"One fine day" is set in the area I grew up in and it also came out just before our school reunion (which I was dreading)...
The chapter where the policeman arrives on the rig in his pyjamas and slippers had me in hysterical laughter - the can't- breathe- any -more type.
Has anyone read "Boiling a Frog"? or "A big boy did it and ran away' ?
"Quite ugly one morning" is excellent.

squilly · 19/03/2008 20:51

The Boris Akunin thing is new to me too, I'm afraid, so I'm not sure which book the first one is.

The Guardian absolutely raved about them though.....www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/19/russia.books

Here's teh link.

I was trying to think of Hiassen's name as I heard him mentioned in the same breath as Brookmyre. I bought two of his and can't get into either one of them.

The only problem I have with Brookmyre books now is that I always see the heroe as James Nesbitt and hear him speaking with a soft Irish burr! Completely the wrong nationality, but hey ho!

And I always laugh out loud at Brookmyre books. They're so darned clever!

MsHighwater · 19/03/2008 21:04

I, too, am a huge fan of Christopher Brookmyre - and I also really like Carl Hiaasen. I've often suggested him to others who like Brookmyre because it seems to me that I like them both for similar reasons.

"The Sacred Art of Stealing" is the bank robber one. My dh loves it because of the references to the Sensational Alex Harvey Band (the robbers are all dressed in the sort of Pierrot style of the band's guitarist Zal Cleminson). Another real favourite of mine was "All fun and games until somebody loses an eye". It also has a bit of romance in it as well as a kick-ass housewife-turned-international vigilante.

Brilliant titles.

pruners · 19/03/2008 21:17

Message withdrawn

squeaver · 19/03/2008 21:21

I went to university with Chris Brookmyre. Sadly, I haven't stayed in touch with him. All my uni firends and I are now, of course, furious at his success!

But I do love the books esp Sacred Art of Stealing.

purplegiraffe · 19/03/2008 21:30

I'm another fan although I only discovered him a couple of years ago.

There was one I really couldn't get into, think it was the one mainly set in the school. I have just read A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away (if that's the one about the guy whose old uni friend becomes an international terrorist -sorry, nappy brain means I can't remember very much!).

Will hunt down The Sacred Art of Stealing" next time I'm in town.

I have read a couple of Carl Hiassen books, found them good, quite funny but a bit samey.

Aitch · 19/03/2008 21:32

i went to uni with him and DID keep in touch, har har har... a lovely bloke imo.

pruners · 19/03/2008 21:34

Message withdrawn

Aitch · 19/03/2008 21:39

let's never, ever find out, eh, pruneface?

squeaver · 19/03/2008 21:41

Well, no one I know from uni has kids, so I doubt they're hanging around these parts. Aitch, I sometimes see him on Scotsport (or whatever the hell they call it these days) when I'm home. I always think, he's just the same...

littlelapin · 19/03/2008 21:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Aitch · 19/03/2008 21:45

he's very good on the iniquities of the old firm, imo. dh sees him at st mirren a lot. he is a nice bloke, very clever and funny and introspective and dark. but kind, ime. also married to a kinda cousin of mine so am regularly updated when the mothers all get together.

ThinWhiteDuchess · 19/03/2008 21:47

Ha! Saw this when the OP first posted and thought the same as several other posters; Carl Hiassen is very similar to Christopher Brookmyer. Hiassen wrote Striptease (which was a surprisingly good read). Agree with pruners though that Lucky You is probably his best.

Brookmyer is fab and I have loved every single book of his I have read (which was every one up until a couple of years ago -- don't know what he's had published since then).

Brookmyer and Hiassen both write with a wicked sense of (very) black humour. They are both very anti-establishment within their respective environments (Brookmyer obviously dislikes Scottish politics -- who could blame him?? Similarly, Hiassen hates the politicians and developers hell bent on destroying the Florida environment).

dizzychixies · 19/03/2008 21:47

I too am huge fan and tried to impress upon irish dh how wonderful he was - not so impressed am afraid, wondered if it was a scottish patter thing that put him off?!?

purplegiraffe · 19/03/2008 21:47

Meant to add, my favourite so far is Not the End of The World. All about the stupid things people can do in the name of religion.

squeaver · 19/03/2008 21:51

I've often wondered if non-Scottish people really get him. Obviously they do, judging by his sales (and I'm glad that they do, it's just very specifically Scottish humour iyswim)

lackaDAISYcal · 19/03/2008 21:53

One fine day is hysterical. I've never laughed so much at saomeone getting their arm ripped off by a chainsaw

and i'm a nice gentle person at heart, honest I am!

another vote for Carl Hiassen as an alternative writer. His books are similar, but very different if that makes sense.

Ben Elton is good too, if not even remotely similar.

squeaver · 19/03/2008 21:54

Nice to see he's still going to the footie, btw Aitch. (and obviously it's dh - not me! - watching Scotsport. I can't bear to watch without Arthur Montford)

littlelapin · 19/03/2008 21:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

dizzychixies · 19/03/2008 21:55

squeaver, I agree completely, I think dh is just lazy, he's lived over here for 13yrs now ffs, what hasn't he had time to pick up?!?

one of the funniest lines have ever read in a book am sure was from brookemyre - about baggin and tagging a jobby that was left at a house break in - am I right or completely wrong? it has been known to happen

ara · 19/03/2008 21:57

I haven't read any of his books but we were staying on Tiree last year and DP was reading 'one fine day' before bed - it must have been one of the rambo-esque bits as i woke up at three in the morning as he SANK HIS TEETH INTO MY ARM in his sleep. Eek!

squeaver · 19/03/2008 21:57

yes it's right at the start of one the books - absolutely brilliant opening to a book.

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