Winner of Britain’s First Blood Award for the best debut crime novel, Christopher Brookmyre’s Quite Ugly One Morning is the raucous comic thriller that established the author’s reputation for a scabrously humorous style and breakneck, hell-for-leather narrative pacing. When hard-partying, wisecracking investigative journalist Jack Parlabane stumbles across the corpse of the scion of a wealthy … wealthy Edinburgh medical family, he’s determined to get to the bottom of things on his own. He quickly becomes enmeshed in a rousing adventure that will take him through all the strata of contemporary Scottish society—and into some dangerous (and hysterical) situations.
Laced with acerbic wit and crackling dialogue, Quite Ugly One Morning is a wildly entertaining and vivacious thriller.
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While our default view of British detective stories tends to focus south of the Tweed, it’s well worth remembering that Scotland is (at least nominally) part of the United Kingdom and has its own share of sick puppies to track down. One of them writes berserk crime novels — Tartan Noir in Braveheart mode — and this book made Christopher …
The only thing wrong with this book and this series is that nothing quite matches up to the first, painfully funny chapter. It seems unfair to knock a star off for that, because the writing is excellent and Jack Parlabane is a brilliant character. Don’t read if you’re sensitive to bad language or mention of bodily functions, but if you’re not …