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Where the Bodies Are Buried (Sharp Investigations #1)

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 547 ratings · 93 reviews

Detective Catherine McLeod was always taught that in Glasgow, they don't do whodunit. They do score-settling. They do vendettas. They do petty revenge. They do can't-miss-whodunit. It's a lesson that has served her well, but Glasgow is also a dangerous place to make assumptions. Either way she looks at it, she recognises that the discovery of a dead drug-dealer in a back a...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published 2011 by Little Brown and Company

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Jan 04, 2013 Jason Speck rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read a few offerings of what some would call the 'old' Brookmyre--the crime novels liberally mixed with humor and a touch of the madcap. This crime novel set in Glasgow has almost none of that humor, and while it's very different in tone from previous books, it's all the more powerful.

Brookmyre ratchets the pace to locomotive levels and never slackens it as he juggles a myriad of disappearances & deaths: a missing veteran PI, a hitman long presumed dead, and a young family that vanished...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Rachael Hewison rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime

After my first superb taste of Christopher Brookmyre in ‘All fun and games until someone loses an eye’, I decided to go back for more and try a sampling of his more serious, latest work. There seems to be some debate from regular Brookmyre fans as to whether his latest work has lost his original spark and hilarity that makes him such a unique author. I for one thought this was a great and clever book.
Crime novels have the danger of falling into the boring bracket. If there is no attachment to th...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, fiction, mystery, nanolomo

I really enjoyed Brookmyre's earlier books, with their interesting characters, fast-paced suspense, and wacky humor. I picked this up without reading any reviews, and before I'd started reading it I saw a blurb about how he wasn't doing the funny stuff anymore. I was alarmed, because I loved the satire and humor in his earlier books. Well, I needn't have worried. This book has all his virtues of interesting characters and headlong action and suspense, and it still has humor. The man can't not wr...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Ian Mapp rated it 3 of 5 stars

The dropping of the "topher" from the first name heralds a bit of a change in direction for the author. The over the top, deliberately wacky plots have been replaced by what can only be desribed as a standard crime novel.

It still has splatterings of Brookmyre wit and comments on the state of glasgow but it is all very toned down and serious.

Looks like a repeating character in Jasmine the would be PI who is investigating the disappearance of her uncle with another sub plot of the murder of a loca...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Mallory Anne-Marie Forbes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Mallory Anne-Marie by: Great Minds Think Aloud

Shelves: october-2012-reads, october-reading-challenge-ntoyab

Review of Where the Bodies Are Buried

A gritty, realistic, down-to-earth and very vivid portrayal of contemporary Glasgow-both the “underside” of crime and the “topside” of crime-hunting and investigation, “Where the Bodies Are Buried” is violent and brutal, yet I found the novel very compelling. Author Christopher Brookmyre delves deeply into his characterisations whilst simultaneously juggling eras some twenty-five years apart, and does so masterfully. Pitting the crime lords against the “polis...more

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Apr 17, 2012 Lainy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2.5 days

Blurb From Goodreads

Detective Catherine McLeod was always taught that in Glasgow, they don't do whodunit. They do score-settling. They do vendettas. They do petty revenge. They do can't-miss-whodunit. It's a lesson that has served her well, but Glasgow is also a dangerous place to make assumptions. Either way she looks at it, she recognises that the discovery of a dead drug-dealer in a back alley is merely a portent of further deaths to come. Elsewhere in the city, a...more Time taken to read - 2.5 days

Blurb From Goodreads

Detective Catherine McLeod was always taught that in Glasgow, they don't do whodunit. They do score-settling. They do vendettas. They do petty revenge. They do can't-miss-whodunit. It's a lesson that has served her well, but Glasgow is also a dangerous place to make assumptions. Either way she looks at it, she recognises that the discovery of a dead drug-dealer in a back alley is merely a portent of further deaths to come. Elsewhere in the city, aspiring actress Jasmine Sharp is reluctantly - and incompetently - earning a crust working for her uncle Jim's private investigation business. When Jim goes missing, Jasmine has to take on the investigator mantle for real, and her only lead points to Glen Fallan, a gangland enforcer and professional assassin whose reputation is rendered only slightly less terrifying by having been dead for twenty years. Cautiously tracing an accomplished killer's footsteps, Jasmine stumbles into a web of corruption and decades-hidden secrets that could tear apart an entire police force - if she can stay alive long enough to tell the tale.

My Review

To be honest I have struggled between a 2 or a 3 star rating, I decided on a 3 for two reasons. One it is ok for a crime novel and not the worst I have read by any stretch of the imagination and secondly I have loved all his previous books so that has got to count for something, right?

The story is split really in two, with the police investigating (mainly Detective Catherine McLeod and associates) and Jasmin. Jasmine is a want to be actress working for her uncle at his private detective agency since her mum died and in between her few and none call backs. When a local known criminal is found assassinated Detective Catherine is called in, meanwhile Jasmines uncle is investigating something from way back and goes missing. The story goes chapter to chapter switching from each one.

Most notably from the opening of the book it is now Chris Brookmyre not Christopher, a show of out with the old and in with the new. Gone is the hilarious, outrageous, bizarre and captivating characters and story lines. In it's place we have a crime story with very little of the signature Brookmyre we know, now I like crime stories anyway and as far as that goes it was ok. I did find myself slogging through it and bored at times although the last quarter did pick up and save it from a definite two star review. I can't say I liked any of the characters much, Jasmine was very weak and out of place - detective Catherine had a few moments of potential for liking but really none of them had a patch on Jack Parlabane who you couldn't help but love (or hate) - I didn't feel any draw towards these characters. However that said it is the first in the series and it did give a good introduction to the characters that will no doubt be in the next installment which I will be getting. I just hope we see Brookmyre in it and not this new echoing of Rankin as I always loved his unique style and not sure I would be as loyal to this new style. A respectable 3/5 for me and hopeful for the next one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove/Atlantic Inc for providing me with a copy of this to review.(less)

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Apr 22, 2013 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries

A woman police detective and a woman P.I. investigate interconnected murders in modern-day Glasgow in this mystery. As one detective describes solving crimes in this city with her staff,
'Anytime you're confused, take a wee minute to remind yourself of that inescapable fact, this is Glesca. We don't do subtle, we don't do nuanced, we don't do conspiracy....We do straightforward. When you hear hoofbeats on Sauchiehall Street, it's guanny be a horse, no' a zebra, because?'
'This is Glesca, she answe...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Helen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Read chapter one this morning, two phrases really jump out and are typical of Brookmyre's style.

'If conceit was consumption, Wee Sacks there would be dead'

'It wasn't a healthy sign that it took his initial surprise to remind him that most normal people still found this kind of thing shocking'

Love them, if this is just the first chapter then the whole book should be fantastic.

Finished!!!!!

Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Spoi...more

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Oct 14, 2011 Malcolm rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

Brookmyre is best noted as a satirist and as a crime writer who verges between the surreally improbable (demons entering earth through rupture to Hell in a secret military base in the Scottish highlands, maniacal plots to destroy the west coast of the USA, and evil manipulative capitalists and shyster mediums who will con the gullible – not that all of those are necessarily improbable). He’s kind f like Carl Hiassen for the digital gaming world. In this he has turned his hand to the straight, ge...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Danny Gillan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Normally with a new Brookmyre novel, the controversy comes via whatever is the latest target for his generally hilarious satire – he’s had a go at religion, politics, privatisation, bigotry, the polis, devolution, reality TV, the privatisation of the NHS, Glesga gangsters, primary school and even aliens in the past, and his aim has never been less than scathingly accurate.
This time though, the talking point is something different – it’s that there is, very deliberately, no talking point (apart...more Normally with a new Brookmyre novel, the controversy comes via whatever is the latest target for his generally hilarious satire – he’s had a go at religion, politics, privatisation, bigotry, the polis, devolution, reality TV, the privatisation of the NHS, Glesga gangsters, primary school and even aliens in the past, and his aim has never been less than scathingly accurate.
This time though, the talking point is something different – it’s that there is, very deliberately, no talking point (apart from changing his name from Christopher to Chris, obviously). He’s given up the satire if not the sarcasm this time round, in an effort to write a more ‘pure’ form of crime fiction. Gone are the rants and digressions, he’s said cheerio to the overtly comic set pieces and global terrorism, there are no incomprehensible (to some) neds or apparently super-powered computer geeks. This one’s just a crime story. A Mystery. A whothefuckdunnitthen, if you will.
But surely, you may say, those were all the things that made him, well, him. That’s what made him different, special, what lifted him above all those other writers who just kill people at the start then let some detective work out who did it for the next three hundred pages.
Well, no, as it happens. Because, beneath the humour and the pokey finger, what Brookmyre has always been is a damned good crime writer. His plotting, pacing and twisty-turniness have always been there. More than that, though, his characters have always been there. He’s a master of creating people we care about – often flawed, usually making dumb choices and always folk we’d be happy to share a pint with once the dust has settled and the baddies have gone to whichever hell they deserve.
In Where The Bodies Are Buried, these are the things he’s focused on – a top rate mystery/thriller populated by characters with lives and histories that explain their actions, forward the plot and, now and them, make us want to give them a wee hug.
It’s about a dead drug dealer and Detective Catherine McLeod’s efforts to find the killers. McLeod doesn’t have a drink or drug problem and is happily (most of time) married. She has kids who wake her up in the middle of the night and worries about the same stuff the rest of us do, while trying to do her job. Oh, and she hates gangsters. Really hates them.
And it’s about Jasmine Sharp, drama student dropout and fledgling private investigator, whose fledges get even more inged when her mentor, boss and uncle, Jim Sharp, disappears. No one else is looking into it, so she has to. Jim’s the guy who pays the wages and if he doesn’t turn up soon she’s going to be in bother with her landlord.
And it’s about the mysterious Tron Ingrams, whoever the hell he is. Then there’s the Ramsay family, who disappeared years ago. Plus it’s about quite a few other people, many of whom don’t last very long.
It’s a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, disguised as a fish supper, as Catherine and Jasmine’s separate inquiries slowly lace together.
Where The Bodies Are Buried works on pretty much every level Brookmyre strives for – the plot keeps you guessing and leads to a fair few unexpected revelations, and he establishes a core group of characters we’ll be more than happy to follow into their next adventure. Plus, and he may not want to hear this, it’s still funny! His mastery of natural, sarcasm-laced dialogue is as evident as ever and he can’t quite manage to keep his ‘old’ self out of the prose and descriptions completely. We should be glad about that.
Brookmyre has made no secret that this novel marks a new chapter in his writing career. Just as should be expected from an author of his talent, this first chapter does its job superbly – we want to keep reading.
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Jul 06, 2011 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Christopher Brookmyre has shortened his name to 'Chris' and the blurb on the back says this book "marks a new departure for his writing".

I'm intrigued and hoping that the "new departure" doesn't mean the loss of all the things I love about his writing. Can't wait to find out.

Finished it and really enjoyed it. This is a departure from Brookmyre's previous work in that is a much more conventional police procedural novel. And hopefully it's the first in a planned series. It's still set in Glasgow w...more

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Oct 17, 2012 F.R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

‘Where the Bodies are Buried’ shows Christopher Brookmyre as a thriller writer almost in complete control of his material. Beginning with a gangland murder and swiftly adding in the mysterious tale of the long lost disappearance of some middle class parents and their child, this book keeps piling on the crimes and red-herrings with a dazzling sureness. Most mystery tales – let’s be honest – would be happy to follow just those two strands through to their denouement. But Brookmyre adds in further...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Len Wanner has a lot to answer for, not least the fact that I need to buy another new bookcase, only a twelvemonth after giving the piano away to make room for more.
I read 'One fine day in the middle of the night' last year and wasn't especially enamoured, but then read the interview Brookmyre gave in 'Dead Sharp' which had so much of good sense and interest that I thought it time to try another.
'Where the Bodies are buried' is superb, merits four and a half stars and only didn't get five beca...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Jo at Jaffareadstoo rated it 4 of 5 stars

This introduction to a new Scottish crime series gets off to a good start with an interesting array of characters, and fine attention to detail. The mean and moody streets of Glasgow are portrayed with the confidence of someone who knows the city well, and even though there is an apparent fondness for the place, there is also a realisation that an underworld of criminal activity skulks beneath the surface. There are some clever twists and turns in the plot, which together with a few red herrings...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Big Shell rated it 4 of 5 stars

While Brookmyre made a bit deal about how Where The Bodies Are Buried is the point he reinvent his style, to me the only noticeable change is that the cover is under "Chris" rather than "Christopher". The book itself felt relative similar to A Tale Itched in Blood and Hard Black Pencils. Not quite as outrageous as some of his other works, but not one to be noticeably different either. If anything, it reminds me of some of his earlier work, which is not a bad thing as I am not a fan of his past t...more While Brookmyre made a bit deal about how Where The Bodies Are Buried is the point he reinvent his style, to me the only noticeable change is that the cover is under "Chris" rather than "Christopher". The book itself felt relative similar to A Tale Itched in Blood and Hard Black Pencils. Not quite as outrageous as some of his other works, but not one to be noticeably different either. If anything, it reminds me of some of his earlier work, which is not a bad thing as I am not a fan of his past three books.

The enjoyment I got from this book would be a 5 star affair, even though there are some Brookmyre trademark elements that nags me, I have read enough of his work to expect those flaws while had a thrilling ride with the book.

The plot is somewhat predictable. Catherine's ending is brilliant, Jasmine's ending is second-hand embarrassment worthy. The characters are interesting enough to hold their own but not quite up the level of memorably lovably like Lex White. Brookmyre does have a tendency of becoming too fond of one of his characters and starts to take over the book. It's not as bad as some of the other books, certainly no one as overbearing as Jack Parlabane or Zal Innez, but can be disruptive rather than constructive to the book.

I usually have this borderline irrational hatred for phonetic spelling, however Brookmyre don't bother me at all as he uses the dialect of his own tongue with affection, rather than trying to mock the "otherness" of another accent. Some might find this difficult to read, though.

Lastly, the main reason I had to take a star off even though I enjoyed this book - in every Brookmyre there has to be at least one complete disregard of earth logic. I have reached the point that I have to just pretend that the world I live in don't function and just roll with it, but in here a major plot point is based on an utter lapse of common sense that still baffles me. It's something I won't be able to get off my mind, and the worst part is that this specific element can be easily written out of the book. Just why. WHY. (less)

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Feb 08, 2013 Melinda rated it 2 of 5 stars

Oh dear.

This was the last book in my collection of Christopher Brookmyre's that I had to read (well in my case listen to the audio version).

I wanted to love it like I have all of his other books - but sadly - I found this one disappointing. Maybe it was having to listen to the nasally-voiced narrator try to be "Jasmine" (an equally insipid and depressed character) that, try as I might, I could not warm too - in fact I spent most of the book wanting to slap the girl into growing a backbone and...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book and it was a real page-turner - once I got into it I couldn't put it down. It appears like a slightly darker novel from Brookmyre than his previous ones and possibley differentiated by the 'Chris' rather than 'Christopher' and sleeve notes commenting on "a new departure". I say appears slightly darker but I don't think it really is. The subject matter has the usual ingredients (crime, Scotland, mystery) and there's nothing gruesome in it that hasn't been out-gruesomed...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Naomi rated it 1 of 5 stars

I have to say that I REALLY did not enjoy this book. I forced myself to push through it so I could write the review. I don't know if this writing style is common for this author, as is reflected by comments by reviewers who have given it higher ratings, but I found it to be discombobulated, simple and felt I had to dig for a deeper story line.

I was attracted to this book because Mark Billinghamcalled this "Val McDermid style of writing". Well, Mr. Billingham..I have read every Val McDermid book...more

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May 09, 2013 Gordon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not surprised that Where The Bodies Are Buried has divided readers, as it's anything but pure Brookmyre. In fact, the clue might be on the front: he's now just "Chris" having dropped the "topher". This ISN'T a laugh-a-minute load of nonsense in which one outrageous event follows another, this is a much more credible gangster-style tale set in Glasgow.

As such, it might best be described as a "debut novel", as I'm not sure Brookmyre has quite yet mastered the style - indeed it would hardly be...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, united-kingdom, review-books

You hear these rumours, and they can panic a person. "Christopher Brookmyre has gone straight with his latest book." I was twitchy. How could he (either to his readers or to himself)? Surely the man cannot possibly have lost his acute sense of the bizarre, his sly, dry and clever sense of humour. Could he? Of course not. Daft idea. WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED might be a police procedural, crime fiction based book, but it's classic Chris(topher) Brookmyre from the start to the end. How could it n...more You hear these rumours, and they can panic a person. "Christopher Brookmyre has gone straight with his latest book." I was twitchy. How could he (either to his readers or to himself)? Surely the man cannot possibly have lost his acute sense of the bizarre, his sly, dry and clever sense of humour. Could he? Of course not. Daft idea. WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED might be a police procedural, crime fiction based book, but it's classic Chris(topher) Brookmyre from the start to the end. How could it not be! Glasgow Policing 101 - as explained to one of the main characters Detective Catherine McLeod, when a rookie cop:

'This is Glesca.'... 'Any time you're confused, take a wee minute to remind yourself of that inescapable fact: this is Glesca. We don't do subtle, we don't do nuanced, we don't do conspiracy. We do pish-heid bampot bludgeoning his girlfriend to death in a fit of paranoid rage induced by forty-eight hours straight on the batter. We do coked-up neds jumping on a guy's heid outside a nightclub because he looked at them funny. We do drug-dealing gangster rockets shooting other drug-dealing gangster rockets as comeback for something almost identical a fortnight ago. We do bam-on-bam. We do tit-for-tat, score-settling, feuds, jealousy, petty revenge. We do straightforward. We do obvious. We do cannaemisswhodunit. When you hear hoofbeats on Sauchiehall Street, it's gaunny be a horse, no' a zebra...'.

Phew. Brookmyre without a rant ... well ... I'd have to double check that the earth's rotation was still in alignment.

But is this good crime fiction? Yes. In a nutshell. It's very good crime fiction. It's a nice, complicated, and very believable plot. It's full of the sorts of cunning and stupidity that you expect from the cops and crooks. There's dedication, there's a bit of the past coming forward to screw with the present, the interlacing of worlds over many generations. There's also more than enough twists and turns, and even a couple of lovely poignant moments. There's some hugely funny moments, there's some poignant ones as well. One of Brookmyre's talents has always been to create very believable, human characters. McLeod is a marvellous combination of a dedicated, clever senior cop with a home life and all the doubts and insecurities that lots of people with rotten jobs have about hanging onto everything they hold dear. Another main character - Jasmine Sharp, niece of a missing ex-cop, private detective - recently bereaved when her mother and sole parent died, Jasmine's a bit of a mess, to put it mildly. She's not the world's greatest trainee private detective, but she gets points for being a very dedicated workmate and friend to her boss. Two excellent female characters, different from each other, but the same in many ways, Brookmyre's also created a supporting cast who work with these two extremely well. Okay there's one scenario that's a bit hard to swallow at the start of the book - but the end of the book explains it all - and besides that, it wasn't until I was well into the action that the lightbulb went off and this reader suddenly went... what the?

That's the other thing that works in WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED, as it does in any Brookmyre book. The pace is fantastic. The action rolls on, the people do their thing, the tension rises, the reader loses sleep.

There's nothing worse than a panic over where one of your favourite authors is going. Dismiss it from your minds. Chris / Christopher / Mr Brookmyre, whatever he and his publishers want to call him knows how to write books. Very good books. WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED is one of them.
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Jun 07, 2011 Lilias Bennie rated it 5 of 5 stars

His "topherectomy" hasn't made any difference to the excellence of his writing or his ability to develop a tale that keeps you gripped to the end. Chris made the comment at a recent book launch that "he wasn't funny anymore" but that's not true. His dialogue is as humourous as ever just more subtle rather than in your face, laugh a minute funny. This is grown-up writing with an eye on a tv series I think but whatever happens, he's left enough dangling for the follow-up which hopefully will make...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Godzilla rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, crime

A change of moniker has brought a change of approach from Mr Brookmyre: the wisecracking is turned way down and the "messages" from previous books are gone.

This is a much more straightforward crime tale, no real twist in the tail (in the style of Christopher Brookmyre), played with a relatively straight bat.

The dialogue still crackles, and the characters feel nicely rounded, so why am I only giving this 3 stars?

I guess it's because I missed the things I've mentioned above. He has written much st...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: scottish, crime

Not one of the best Brookmyre's but still and enjoyable read. Jasmine is working temporarily for her uncle Jim, an ex-cop. When he suddenly disappears, Jasmine decides to investigate and this draws her into the Glaswegian underworld of drug deals, murder, bent cops and two missing persons cases 20 years old. With the help of a mysterious tough guy, of dubious background, she helps solve several crimes, including the murder of her uncle. And the twist in the tale reveals the identity of Jasmine's...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Maddy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

PROTAGONIST: Detec. Supt. Catherine McLeod; PI Jasmine Sharp
SETTING: Glasgow
SERIES: #1
RATING: 3.0

Glasgow Detective Superintendent Catherine McLeod has been assigned to investigate the death of a drug dealer and quickly finds herself in the middle of a turf war between two local gangs. She is also thwarted at every turn by her colleague Abercorn, who beat her out of a promotion.

At the same time, fledgling actress Jasmine Sharp has been helping her uncle, Jim, with his private investigation agenc...more PROTAGONIST: Detec. Supt. Catherine McLeod; PI Jasmine Sharp
SETTING: Glasgow
SERIES: #1
RATING: 3.0

Glasgow Detective Superintendent Catherine McLeod has been assigned to investigate the death of a drug dealer and quickly finds herself in the middle of a turf war between two local gangs. She is also thwarted at every turn by her colleague Abercorn, who beat her out of a promotion.

At the same time, fledgling actress Jasmine Sharp has been helping her uncle, Jim, with his private investigation agency. “Helping” may not exactly be the right word for it; it seems that Jasmine blunders with every assignment she undertakes. However, when her uncle disappears, she finds she has to summon up everything that she’s learned from him in order to locate him. As she searches through Jim’s open files, she hooks up with a man named Tron Ingrams who has mysteries of his own. He definitely has his own agenda, and it’s difficult to know whether or not he is trustworthy.

The two cases are intertwined, involving the largest organized crime group in Glasgow. Brookmyre did a good job of connecting all the pieces, but at times, things became quite muddled when establishing present-day happenings with events that occurred more than twenty years earlier.

Brookmyre has written several other works of crime fiction, most of which exhibit a very twisted sense of humor. In BODIES, he has opted for a straightforward approach, which wasn’t entirely successful. Both Catherine and Jasmine struggle with their emotional lives, Catherine with putting her job over her marriage and Jasmine with the death of her beloved mother. I didn’t see enough in either of these characters to build a series around. In particular, Catherine is a bit of a cliché—fighting for respect in a male-dominated organization while neglecting her family.

WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED wasn’t a bad book; rather, I’d classify it as average. The book is supposed to be the first in a series, but I don’t feel compelled to read any future entries.

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Jul 18, 2012 Janette Fleming rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-books, reading-rewards

Detective Catherine McLeod was always taught that in Glasgow, they don’t do whodunit. They do score-settling. They do vendettas. They do petty revenge. They do can’t-miss-whodunit. It’s a lesson that has served her well, but Glasgow is also a dangerous place to make assumptions. Either way she looks at it, she recognises that the discovery of a dead drug-dealer in a back alley is merely a portent of further deaths to come.

Elsewhere in the city, aspiring actress Jasmine Sharp is reluctantly – and...more Detective Catherine McLeod was always taught that in Glasgow, they don’t do whodunit. They do score-settling. They do vendettas. They do petty revenge. They do can’t-miss-whodunit. It’s a lesson that has served her well, but Glasgow is also a dangerous place to make assumptions. Either way she looks at it, she recognises that the discovery of a dead drug-dealer in a back alley is merely a portent of further deaths to come.

Elsewhere in the city, aspiring actress Jasmine Sharp is reluctantly – and incompetently – earning a crust working for her Uncle Jim’s private investigation business. When Jim goes missing, Jasmine has to take on the investigator mantle for real and her only lead points to Glen Fallan, a gangland enforcer and professional assassin whose reputation is rendered only slightly less terrifying by having been dead for twenty years. Cautiously tracing an accomplished killer’s footsteps, Jasmine stumbles into a web of corruption and decades-hidden secrets that could tear apart an entire police force – if she can stay alive long enough to tell the tale.

Having not read any of Christopher/Chris Brookmyre previous novels so cannot comment on how this ‘off piste’ novel compares but I loved it!
The two female leads were especially well drawn, the contrast between middle aged, married, world weary Catherine and innocent, fragile teenager Jasmine. I love it when a male author ‘gets’ the female psyche .

The writing is fast paced with enough twists, turns and red herrings to satisfy the most demanding of crime readers. It is only as you finish the book that the reader can appreciate how tightly y the story was woven. The sardonic, dark wit is pitch-perfect and made me smile far too often considering the subject matter. This is very, very good crime fiction.

'This is Glesca.'... 'Any time you're confused, take a wee minute to remind yourself of that inescapable fact: this is Glesca. We don't do subtle, we don't do nuanced, we don't do conspiracy. We do pish-heid bampot bludgeoning his girlfriend to death in a fit of paranoid rage induced by forty-eight hours straight on the batter. We do coked-up neds jumping on a guy's heid outside a nightclub because he looked at them funny. We do drug-dealing gangster rockets shooting other drug-dealing gangster rockets as comeback for something almost identical a fortnight ago. We do bam-on-bam. We do tit-for-tat, score-settling, feuds, jealousy, petty revenge. We do straightforward. We do obvious. We do cannaemisswhodunit. When you hear hoofbeats on Sauchiehall Street, it's gaunny be a horse, no' a zebra...'..

"It didn't really seem like Glasgow at all. Apart from the guy lying on the deck in the advanced stages of a severe kicking. That was as authentically local as haggis suppers and lung cancer."
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Dec 14, 2012 Peter Carroll rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have enjoyed, admired or outright loved every one of Brookmyre's novels so far. I went into this one with a small amount of trepidation because lots of negative reviews were circulating regarding a radical departure in style.

I am pleased to say that the naysayers were being overly critical and exaggerating.

This is a really good police procedural in tandem with a quirky PI investigation. The blurb does a pretty good job of summing up the plot without revealing too much, so refer to that if you...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-and-or-evil

When I heard that Christopher Brookmyre's new book was a straight ahead crime novel, a departure from his usual manic satiric approach to crime, I was a little worried. Silly me - this is a really good straight ahead crime novel with a complex plot full of great twists and turns, and characters that are complex and really likable.

The main characters are two women: Catherine McLeod, a Glasgow police detective, happily married, with 2 young sons, a relentlessly honest workaholic, and Jasmine Sharp...more When I heard that Christopher Brookmyre's new book was a straight ahead crime novel, a departure from his usual manic satiric approach to crime, I was a little worried. Silly me - this is a really good straight ahead crime novel with a complex plot full of great twists and turns, and characters that are complex and really likable.

The main characters are two women: Catherine McLeod, a Glasgow police detective, happily married, with 2 young sons, a relentlessly honest workaholic, and Jasmine Sharp, a 20 year old who left her last year of drama school to care for her dying mother and is now struggling to put her life together, working for her uncle, an ex-cop with a small PI business. Catherine gets lumbered with the case of a murdered mid-level drug dealer that seems to be leading into a serious mess. Jasmine's uncle disappears, and she has to put her trainee level investigative skills to work trying to find out what has happened to him.

And then there are the polis - Cairns, McDade and Raeside, the good old boys on the force, and Abercorn, the political animal who heads the Organized Crime Task Force, and whom they all loathe.

Naturally the two situations converge, cross over and double back. Nothing and nobody it what it seems. It's very satisfying.

And there is enough of the wonderful Brookmyre outrage to season the mix, as Catherine's mentor Moira tells her when she is just starting on the job:

'This is Glesca.... Any time you're confused, take a wee minute to remind yourself of that inescapable fact: this is Glesca. We don't do subtle, we don't do nuanced, we don't do conspiracy. We do pish-heid bampot bludgeoning his girlfriend to death in a fit of paranoid rage induced by forty-eight hours straight on the batter. We do coked-up neds jumping on a guy's heid outside a nightclub because he looked at them funny. We do drug-dealing gangster rockets shooting other drug-dealing gangster rockets as comeback for something almost identical a fortnight ago. We do bam-on-bam. We do tit-for-tat, score-settling, feuds, jealousy, petty revenge. We do straightforward. We do obvious. We do cannaemisswhodunit. When you hear hoofbeats on Sauchiehall Street, it's gaunny be a horse, no' a zebra...'.
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May 19, 2013 Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library-books, read-in-2013

I normally associate Christopher Brookmyre with black humour, with plenty of blood and guts and severed body parts flying everywhere. This is the most serious crime book of his that I have read and none the worst for it.
The characters and plot are engaging and interesting and he is a great writer. I really liked the split focus between the police and private investigator.
I would recommend this to existing Brookmyre fans and fans of ingenious modern crime fiction.

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Apr 06, 2013 Deborah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Described as a "Scottish noir" detective story, the book has two parallel stories that come together towards the end: Police detectives on a mobster murder and a very green, don't-wanna-be private detective searching for her missing boss/uncle. The latter story and its characters are a little more interesting that the police side of it. The writing is okay, but it's a very predictable book with a way-too-neat wrap up. May try some of the author's other books.

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Feb 04, 2013 Amy Rhodes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Don't know what it is about the Scottish mystery writers but I'm clearly a fan; just heard about Brookmyre and started with the first of a series featuring Jasmine Smart...know there's at least one more already out and think Brookmyre has at least two earlier series that I haven't tried. Anyway, this book was great; intriguing characters; terrific dialogue; fast-paced story (only a little hampered by lots of incidental bad guys that were hard to keep track of.)

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About Christopher Brookmyre

Christopher Brookmyre is a Scottish novelist whose novels mix politics, social comment and action with a strong narrative. He has been referred to as a Tartan Noir author. His debut novel was Quite Ugly One Morning, and subsequent works have included One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, which he said "was just the sort of book he needed to write before he turned 30", and All Fun and Games unti...more

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“This is Glesca.... Any time you're confused, take a wee minute to remind yourself of that inescapable fact: this is Glesca. We don't do subtle, we don't do nuanced, we don't do conspiracy. We do pish-heid bampot bludgeoning his girlfriend to death in a fit of paranoid rage induced by forty-eight hours straight on the batter. We do coked-up neds jumping on a guy's heid outside a nightclub because he looked at them funny. We do drug-dealing gangster rockets shooting other drug-dealing gangster rockets as comeback for something almost identical a fortnight ago. We do bam-on-bam. We do tit-for-tat, score-settling, feuds, jealousy, petty revenge. We do straightforward. We do obvious. We do cannaemisswhodunit. When you hear hoofbeats on Sauchiehall Street, it's gaunny be a horse, no' a zebra...'.” — 2 people liked it

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Where the Bodies Are Buried (Sharp Investigations #1)

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