Brookmyre, Christopher 1968-

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Brookmyre, Christopher 1968-

PERSONAL:

Born September 6, 1968, in Glasgow, Scotland; son of Jack (an electrician) and Grace (a teacher) Brookmyre; married Marisa Haetzman (an anesthetist), December 2, 1991; children: Jack. Ethnicity: "Scottish." Education: University of Glasgow, M.A. (with honors), 1989. Religion: "Atheist." Hobbies and other interests: Playing and watching football.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Glasgow, Scotland. Agent—Caroline Dawnay, Peters, Fraser & Dunlop, 34-43 Russell St., London WC2B 5HA, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Screen International, London, England, sub-editor, 1989-93; Scotsman, Edinburgh, Scotland, sub-editor, 1993-96; writer, 1996—. Edinburgh Evening News, sub-editor, 1993-96.

AWARDS, HONORS:

First Blood Award, best first crime novel, 1996, for Quite Ugly One Morning; Sherlock Award, best comic detective novel, 2000, for Boiling a Frog, and 2004, for Be My Enemy; Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Writing, 2006, for All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye.

WRITINGS:

DETECTIVE NOVELS

Quite Ugly One Morning, Grove Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Country of the Blind, Little, Brown (London, England), 1997.

Not the End of the World, Little, Brown (London, England), 1998, Grove Press (New York, NY), 2002.

One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, Little, Brown (London, England), 1999.

Boiling a Frog, Little, Brown (London, England), 1999.

A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away, Little, Brown (London, England), 2001.

The Sacred Art of Stealing, Little, Brown (London, England), 2002.

Be My Enemy, Little, Brown (London, England), 2004.

All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye, Little, Brown (London, England), 2005.

A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil, Little, Brown (London, England), 2006.

Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, Little, Brown (London, England), 2007.

ADAPTATIONS:

Quite Ugly One Morning was adapted for television in 2004; Boiling A Frog was adapted for the stage in 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Christopher Brookmyre's first novel, Quite Ugly One Morning begins with a postman discovering a corpse hanging from a door with a cut throat and a mostly chewed-off nose into which have been placed two of the victim's fingers. A suspect in the murder, Jack Parlabane, is also the novel's protagonist; he ultimately solves the crime and, in doing so, clears his name and uncovers a plot to defraud the National Health Service. Parlabane is a journalist by trade, not a detective. But a Times Literary Supplement reviewer stated that his "sharp tongue … cynical mind … range of investigative skills, and the ability to wisecrack when a gun is pointing at him" all make Parlabane a formidable crime solver. The novel is full of graphic images of violence and mutilation, but the Times Literary Supplement critic reported that "thanks to the author's deadpan extravagance, all this mayhem makes for an entertaining read."

Brookmyre's next novel, Country of the Blind, continues the detecting career of Jack Parlabane, this time in the murder of a media mogul named Voss, his wife, and two body guards. A crew of four burglars is suspected of the crime and incarcerated while their solicitor, Nicole, a young Englishwoman working in Glasgow, tries to defend their innocence. "The body count increases dramatically when the burglar/murderers are encouraged to escape into desolate countryside, with a view to killing them before they can tell what little they know of the truth about the massive conspiracy which has framed them," observed Observer contributor Frances Fyfield. After seeing the attractive and (given the powers that conspire against the burglars) overmatched Nicole making a statement on television, Parlabane is drawn into the case.

Reviews of Country of the Blind were generally positive. A Books reviewer called the novel "fast-moving" and "credible" and plotted with "gusto and intelligence." Other critics differed somewhat. A Times Literary Supplement contributor found that "the right-wing conspiracy at [the novel's] heart is too wild to be credible" and also mentioned that the in-depth descriptions and backgrounds offered on each character stymied the forward movement of the narrative. But the same reviewer noted that "Brookmyre can write action sequences as well as he can create character. He can also be very funny, and touching, too." Fyfield similarly observed that "every character has an exhaustive life history taking several pages and getting in the way, sheaves of thudding curriculum vitae which rarely give the character flesh, sympathy or resonance." Despite such reservations about Country of the Blind, Fyfield acknowledged Brookmyre's writing talent and predicted that the author's next effort "should be excellent."

Not the End of the World was Brookmyre's first novel to be set in the United States. Barry Didcock reflected in the Scotsman: "A Scottish writer broaching the political and ideological complexities of the New World and doing it in style is a rare thing in the current climate of literary navel-gazing." In the novel, Brookmyre relates the story of the clash of two elements at the end of the millennium: the first, a group of horror filmmakers holding convention in a hotel; the second, a billionaire televangelist espousing religious conservatism. Stir into this the love story of Steff, the central character, and Maddy, an actress in pornography trying to make her way into Hollywood film, and no less, the daughter of a prominent politician, and the resulting story is an "impressively thorough pastiche of a Carl Hiaasen satirical black comedy," according to a reviewer for the Sunday Times.

Phil Daoust, writing in the Guardian, called the book "tremendous fun. Partly it's the black humour and snappy, streetwise style, worthy of Carl Hiaasen or Elmore Leonard; partly the author's ability to make us empathize with almost anyone." Peter Millar for the Times observed, "The whole thing is thrown together splendidly with all the sardonic wit, pointed insights and unrelenting posturing we have come to expect from Brookmyre." A reviewer for the Sunday Times described Brookmyre's novel as "witty, well-organized and vividly peopled." Critics also felt the novel might become a film, as Didcock related, "the overwhelming feeling in Not the End of the World is that it is a film rather than a novel." Fiona McCann wrote in the Sunday Tribune that "what Brookmyre has created is a fast paced and timely thriller pointing none too subtly at the mass of contradictions that make up American life." Millar ended his review by reporting that "[the novel] combines a gripping plot laced with humour and a high-octane sense of the absurd."