I remember staying over at a friends house and finding myself in that rather uusal situation where I ddnt have a book. So, I decided to see what was on my hosts shelves. A book called Quite Ugly One Morning jumped out at me, a mystery/thriller anout some guy called Jack Parlabane. It sounded promising so I gave it a go. Next thing I knew I was working my way through all of Brookmyres books – and completely loving them all. I liked that even when the stories were standalone they referenced characters form others. It made it a whole big world that I was learning about. Plus, anyone that loves Buffy is always going to be someone I ‘ll like.
Id been looking out for his nect book for a while, when I saw that The Cut was on my Kindle I immediatlly put my out of office on and settled down to read. This is a whole new suite of characters but the language and style is still the same (Phew!).
Millicient Spark is an ex con. Shes done some time for killing her boyfirend. woke up and he was dead (Similar to the Air Hostess if you ve read it). No memory of what happened and completly believes she wasnt the murdered. Now in her older ange having been released he lives with two other OAPs.
Jerry promised his nan that he’d make the best of his life, that he’d get a good education and be soemthing. She brought him up while running a video store, so hes got a love of old school real horror films. Ones that they tried to ban, one theat are weird, and the ones with urban myths in them. he feels out of place at uni, hates living in halls and then spoAfterts an advert with a room to rent, with three old women.
Jerry ends up moving in with the women, creating my favourite character description of all time, by saying he thought Millie looked like slendermans mum. If there were awads for descrptions this would be the winner. hands down!
Then a not so old friends tracks him down and wants him to steal from his new landladies, as he comes home and saves Millie from an assailant. This changes everything. The werid woman he lved with becomes his bestfridn and new nan all in one. They have to ditch the body, they travel to europe, and try to work out what really happened to Millies boyfirend all those years ago.
This book is about crime, the world of fame and making movies, money and poverty. The grit of Glasgow compared to the beauty of some Italian cities ( for the record, I love Glasgow. Its always my favourite place in scotland to visit, and not just becasue of Cup/Gin71). Theres the nod to the politics that always comes out in a Brookmyre book and that reference to Buffy that I alsmost thought was going to be missing at about 90% in.
The Cut is out in March, but Id get preordering if youre a kindle reader so you can wake up, make a coffee and settle down with a book that will take you on a whirlwhind murder investigation through europe with an OAP and a young’un.
One More Chapter 