QUITE UGLY ONE MORNING

COUNTRY OF THE BLIND

NOT THE END OF THE WORLD

ONE FINE DAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

BOILING A FROG

THE SACRED ART
OF STEALING

BE MY ENEMY

ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL SOMEBODY LOSES AN EYE

A TALE ETCHED IN BLOOD AND HARD BLACK PENCIL

ATTACK OF THE UNSINKABLE RUBBER DUCKS

A BIG BOY DID IT AND RAN AWAY

Real Life™ blows. Just ask Raymond Ash. As a student, he and his friend Simon thought their futures would be paved with gold discs, gigs and groupies. Instead he's found himself in his thirties, a nervous new father and an even more nervous new English teacher, facing the fact that responsibility has no escape key.

Small wonder that he takes refuge living a virtual existence online. Everybody has to find their own way of coping. For some it's affairs, for others it's the bottle, while for his old mate Simon, it's serial murder, mass slaughter and professional assasination.

It's a lifestyle not a million miles from those rock-star dreams: international travel, seven-figure pay cheques, adrenalin rushes and, of course, world-wide notoriety. Simon may have sucked as a lead singer, but as 'the Black Spirit' he's number one with a bullet. More hits than Lennon and McCartney.
A performer guaranteed to blow you away.

The last thing on Ray's troubled mind is a band reunion. For one thing, theirs wasn't exactly an amicable split, but a slightly larger obstacle is that Simon has been dead for three years. So when Ray glimpses him walking through Glasgow Airport, he assumes he's seeing things, until Real Life™ starts getting weirder and more violent than any computer game...

Read an extract.

What the papers thought of A BIG BOY DID IT AND RAN AWAY:

Pre September 11th

Good: The Melbourne Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday Star (New Zealand), The Dominion (Auckland), Book Bulletin (Australia), Daily Telegraph (Australia)

Awright:

Shite:

Post September 11th

Good: Sunday Times, Time Out, Daily Express, The Herald, The Mirror, Punch, Education Today

Awright: The Scotsman, The Guardian

Shite: Sunday Herald (but of course), Scotland on Sunday

She really got it: "The point is that [Simon Darcourt's] scything obervations are seductive, but too easy and essentially cruel." Stephanie Bunbury, The Melbourne Age

She really didn't: "…unpleasantly sneering rants... [Brookmyre's] sentiments towards his fellow humans seem largely blended from superiority and contempt." Sue Wilson, Scotland on Sunday

It's all about opinions: "The key to good genre writing is plotting and pace. Brookmyre achieves neither... bulking out the page count are Brookmyre's attempts at humour... " Colin Waters, Sunday Herald

"Violent and amusing mayhem, excellent action" Peter Temple, Melbourne Age

"exhilarating sixth novel... customary verve and energy." John Dugdale, Sunday Times

"Sharply satirical... poignantly funny... gripping and highly entertaining." Penny Austin, Time Out

"Hilarious, exhilarating entertainment." Dorothy Johnston, The Herald

We heard you the first time: "Brookmyre's terrible novel...plot weighed down by terrible jokes" Colin Waters, Sunday Herald, reviewing paperback release. We'll give him a shout when the audiobook appears too.

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