Christopher Brookmyre Books

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Chris Brookmyre is a Scottish author and former journalist best known for the Jack Parlabane books. Brookmyre was born in 1968 in Glasgow, Scotland. A former student at St. Luke’s High School and St. Mark’s Primary School, not to mention the University of Glasgow, Brookmyre fell in love with Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix books.

Author Christopher Brookmyre was born on the sixth of September in the year 1968 in Glasgow, Scotland. He was raised and went to school in Barrhead, and would later attend the University of Glasgow. He has a wife (who works as a anesthetist) and son. He supports St Mirren F. C.; during football season, he makes regular appearances on BBC Scotland’s Sportscene Results show. He calls Scottish football (or fitba) regularly in his books. His debut novel was published in the year 1996 and was called “Quite Ugly One Morning”.

He has written these series: the “Jack Parlabane” series, the “Angelique de Xavia”, the “Jasmine Sharp and Catherine McLeod” series. The novels mix action, comedy, social comment, and politics and have a strong narrative. His work has been called Tartan Noir.

He was attracted to the mischievous humor in the stories. But as a teen, he showed no interest in the YA fiction other kids his age liked. Instead, he turned his attention to the likes of Ian Fleming and Douglas Adams, taking note of their outlandish plots and absurd humor.

The author’s stories have plenty of darkness. And yet, Brookmyre’s goal is to give his readers an escape, which is why the author’s heroes always win in the end. This is also the reason why his stories are filled with so much humor.

The author includes humor in his work because it comes naturally to him. The former journalist is just as irreverent as his protagonists. Though, people that have followed his career since he wrote his first novel will tell you that Brookmyre’s books have matured over time.
The first dozen or so novels in his bibliography are the most satirical. He is obsessed with Jack Parlabane, his most popular creation because the character is a former journalist, just like Brookmyre.

When he created the character, the author wanted a hero that could prod suspects and witnesses in ways the police could not. He could have created another police officer.

But after working in journalism for six years, it made sense for Brookmyre to make Jack a journalist. Interestingly enough, when he first introduced the character, Jack was the least important component of any given story.

He was just a tool for Brookmyre, an instrument that he could use to explore various social and political topics. The protagonist was a skeptic, an outsider that could see things others could not. But he did not matter in the grand scheme of things.

After writing about him for so long, Jack gained a life of his own. Brookmyre started dissecting the character and using the various plots in the series to show readers who Jack Parlabane was and what made him tick. Brookmyre keeps writing about Jack because he is just as curious as his readers to see what will happen to the character and how he will develop. It should be noted that Brookmyre based Jack on Douglas Adams’ Ford Prefect.

CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE AWARDS

Christopher Brookmyre has won quite a few awards (and even been nominated or shortlisted for more). “Quite Ugly One Morning” won Critics’ First Blood Award for the best first crime novel of the year (1996). “Black Widow” won the McIlvanney Prize (which used to be called the Scottish Crime Book of the Year) in 2016. “Boiling a Frog” won the Sherlock Award for best comic detective in the year 2000, and won the same award in the year 2004 for the novel “Be My Enemy”. He is the only author to win this award twice. In the year 2006, “All Fun and Games until Someone Loses an Eye” won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction; a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig was named for this novel (it is the tradition to name one after the winning novel). University of Glasgow named him Young Alumus of the Year in the year 2005. In the year 2007, he won the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for writing.

CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE BOOKS INTO MOVIES

In the year 2003, “Quite Ugly One Morning” was adapted by ITV with the lead part of Jack Parlabane being played by James Nesbitt.

BEST CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE BOOKS

For those readers looking to get into novels by Christopher Brookmyre, this section will help with that. It will go over the novels “Quite Ugly One Morning”, “Country of the Blind”, and “Boiling a Frog”.

Quite Ugly One Morning: This is the first novel in the “Jack Parlabane” series and was released in the year 1996. This series stars the wise cracking and hard-partying investigative journalist named Jack Parlabane. He is a man that is not at all afraid to bend the laws of the land, sometimes the laws of gravity to get at the truth of the matter.

Parlabane is getting over his latest hangover when he finds the corpse of a descendant of a wealthy Edinburgh medical family. He wants to get to the bottom of things all by himself, and finds that he is in the middle of quite a wild adventure. It is going to take him through the strata of Edinburgh’s society; it will also see him get into some hysterical and dangerous spots.

Country of the Blind: This is the second novel in the “Jack Parlabane” series and was released in the year 1997. A media mogul is killed in his country mansion and it looks like he was killed due to the fact he disturbed the would be robbers in the act. The thieves are apprehended quickly, but are moved unexpectedly to another prison. They escape.

Meanwhile in Edinburgh, a young lawyer tells the media that one of gang left her a letter from before the break in that serves to prove him innocent. Jack Parlabane is intrigued by this, and when he tries to talk to the lawyer, he finds that someone wants near her, too. They have an evil intent, not to mention strong political connections and a corrupt agenda.

Boiling a Frog: This is the third novel in the “Jack Parlabane” series and was released in the year 2000. Jack Parlabane is in prison, due to his own self confidence. An inexperienced Scottish parliament is in shock after experiencing their first experience of sleaze in Westminster. Scotland’s Catholic Church takes advantage of the discomfort that the politicians are feeling and ride high in polls; they serve as the voice of morality.

Behind it all, truth gets muddied by spin doctors. Parlabane is in prison, and knows that he is missing out on a great story. He finds that having a great way with words and contacts are a lousy defense against people that he has put away in the past.

A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away: Ray Ash and Simon Darcout live dull lives, or so it seems. As kids, they dreamed of pursuing the sort of glamorous lifestyle they associated with rockstars.

But Ray is fast approaching his mid-thirties and his life couldn’t be any less glamorous. Like most people, Ray has been forced to accept his mundane existence.

To extinguish the nerves that come with fatherhood, he spends his days playing video games. Online games provide an escape from his responsibilities. Ray thought that Simon, his former classmate was walking the same ordinary path. He had no idea that Simon was living a double life as the Black Spirit, a professional assassin and serial murderer.

When Does The Next Christopher Brookmyre book come out?

Christopher Brookmyre doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is The Cracked Mirror and was released on July, 18th 2024.

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