Want You Gone, Christopher Brookmyre

Well this is a disappointment. Not the book, but the fact that this another audio journey through a series that's gotten to the end. Jack Parlabane, book number 8, WANT YOU GONE. Here's hoping there are more on the way because I do so love this series (having read them all / now listened to them all).

This one is the story of nineteen year old Sam Morpeth. Left to care for her younger sister, who has Down's Syndrome, after their mother was sent to prison, she's an anxious, lonely and worried young woman. Not just because the constant pressure of a sister that doesn't quite get the precarious situation they are now in (and personal experience told me just how real that was), but also because her secret online identity means she's been blackmailed into an impossible position. A position that could endanger both the sisters. Enter Parlabane, fresh from his exploits in the previous book (BLACK WIDOW) he's struggling with the new fast-paced, online, news grab world of journalism. To say nothing of computers in general, so his being hacked and blackmailed as well is somewhat less surprising than when it happened to the savvy Sam.

Sam's point of view is told in her own voice, and she's a very unsure, unsophisticated, nervous young woman, who is real life scared and timid, yet online / in the world of computers, extremely clever and very tenacious.  Because of this viewpoint though, this is a very different Parlabane outing. There's less of the dry, dark humour, less of the self-deprecation of Parlabane. Sam's not that sort of character and she'll take a bit of adjusting to for fans of the earlier books, and Brookmyre's normally more breezy, in your face style. It's an interesting take on a young woman and the complications that she's dealing with. There's also plenty of time for the reader to consider the manipulation and mistakes of a parental generation somewhat less adept at stepping up when the going get's tough than Sam's, but bloody good at manipulation and mind games...