Mr F was right ...

Christopher Brookmyre is a wonderful author! His work has been referred to as "tartan noir" but it has a healthy dose of humour too. I finished "A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away" last night (500 pages, so it took me 2 evenings). Fortunately Mr F has a nearly-complete collection of this author's books, so I can start on my next one straight away.

How to describe this author? Well, he's funny, both in his throwaway lines and in the situations he sets up. He can write dialect: compare the cringe-making efforts of Sir Walter Scott to Brookmyre's fabulous, witty use of Scots, particularly Glaswegian. His characters are original, although obviously based on reality (see his teachers or his first-year students) but they also develop throughout the book. Scottish readers will smile with recognition at the speech but also at the locations (surely he makes the first-ever literary reference to the Whirlies roundabout in East Kilbride). This book was also an exciting thriller, but it was the other qualities that appealed to me most (not being a bloke).

Read this book! Particularly if you are Scottish, male and young (-ish).

Day 174; Book 174