Be My Enemy, Christopher Brookmyre
Number 4 in the Jack Parlabane series and silly me thought this would be an excellent audio book to have burbling away in the background whilst I got on with some work around the house. Kept having to stop and listen hard, or lean against a wall because I was laughing so much.
Then there was the meal they served just after the cook left in a huff, and I'm standing in the kitchen thinking about dinner (we had salad). It took me a while.
This is such a funny, clever, ranty series, filled with human and political observation that just seems to stay apt no matter how many times government's change. And the stuff that Jack Parlabane gets up to is enough to make your eyes water.
I've read all these books in the past, but the listening is going really really well. Angus King is an excellent choice of narrator even if it means I'm increasingly of the view that I'm just going to have to listen and bugger the work around the house.
It was a junket, a freebie. A 'team-building' weekend in the highlands for lawyers, advertising execs, businessmen, even the head of a charity. Oh, and a journalist, specially solicited for his renowned and voluble scepticism - Jack Parlabane.
Amid the flying paintballs and flowing Shiraz even the most cynical admit the organisers have pulled some surprises - stalkers in the forest, power cuts in the night, mass mobile phone thefts, disappearing staff, disappearing guests: there's nothing can bring out people's hidden strengths or break down interpersonal barriers quite like not having a clue what's going on and being scared out of your wits.
However, when the only vehicular access for thirty miles is cut off, it seems that events are being orchestrated not just for pleasure....
And that's before they find the first body. Thereafter, 'finding out who your colleagues really are' is not so much an end product as the key to reaching Monday morning alive.
Review | Be My Enemy, Christopher Brookmyre | Karen Chisholm
|
Wednesday, November 2, 2022 |