Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre

Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 6 hours I think it was

Pages - ?

Publisher - Hachette books audio

Source - Audible

Blurb from Goodreads

Yeah, yeah, the usual. A crime. A corpse. A killer. Heard it. Except this stiff happens to be a Ponsonby, scion of a venerable Edinburgh medical clan, and the manner of his death speaks of unspeakable things. Why is the body displayed like a slice of beef? How come his hands are digitally challenged? And if it's not the corpse, what is that awful smell? A post-Thatcherite nightmare of frightening plausibility, Quite Ugly One Morning is a wickedly entertaining and vivacious thriller, full of acerbic wit, cracking dialogue, and villains both reputed and shell-suited.



My Review

Book one of Jack Parlabane, the journalist with a knack for being in the wrong place and the wrong time, or the right place for a story? This is my first ever audiobook, my o/h got this for us driving home (signal often cuts out on the radio). We have both read this book, years ago so knew we liked it and when we saw David Tennant was the narrator, win win.

If you aren't familiar with Brookmyre, especially these earlier books - they are laced with Glasweigan style humour, swearing, shade, cheek, murder and Parlabane is right in the thick of it all. There is so much banter, we laughed out loud despite knowing some of what was coming.

If you are easily offended this book is so not for you. If you don't mind the darker side of Scots banter and potty mouth, with a murder and dodgy characters you will love this. I think I want to reacquaint with the Parlabane books, I have read most but not all of them, 4.5/5 for us this time. I am not a convert to audio books as I listened to samplers of a few others and hated the narrator voices. I would absolutely read/listen to more by Tennant for sure!

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The Last Hack by Christopher Brookmyre

The Last Hack: A Jack Parlabane Thriller by Christopher Brookmyre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Publisher - Atlantic Monthly Press

Pages - 432

Blurb from Goodreads

Sam Morpeth has had to grow up way too fast, left to fend for a younger sister with learning difficulties when their mother goes to prison and watching her dreams of university evaporate. But Sam learns what it is to be truly powerless when a stranger begins to blackmail her online, drawing her into a trap she may not escape alive. Meanwhile, reporter Jack Parlabane has finally got his career back on track, working for a flashy online news start-up, but his success has left him indebted to a volatile source on the wrong side of the law. Now that debt is being called in, and it could cost him everything.

Thrown together by a common enemy, Sam and Jack are about to discover they have more in common than they realize—and might be each other’s only hope.



My Review

It has been a while since I caught up with Parlabane and I have missed a few books inbetween, my o/h lied and told me a main character died and I stopped reading lol. Jack is up to his usual, trying to stay out of trouble but landing right in the middle of it, or rather being sought out for it. Sam Morpeth is a young woman trying to pick up the pieces her mother has left behind when she went to jail. Looking after her wee sister, trying to keep an education, avoid the drug dealers her mum owes her and local bullies shy Sam has her hands full. Sam has a secret, she is a hacker and forceful online rep lands her in a heap of trouble. With no option but to force Jack to help her, they both must come together to tackle one of the biggest hacks yet, violence and mayhem lies ahead for both.

This book is about hacking, hacking for initially the "right" reasons, not for financial gain and showing that even the best laid intentions can go awry. That consequences have actions and the old adage the world is a really small place, never knowing when your past may come back upon you. Sam I found to be a frustrating character, online a force to be reckoned with, offline in her own words "a victim". She also grated because she is such an intelligent girl who makes some very questionable choices and falls prey to many things she should be able to spot a mile away. Jack is Jack, in trouble, cheeky, likable rogue whose heart is in the right place, I forgot how much I liked him.

Split two fold, we have the whole hacking side of it and the personal life and struggles of Sam which helped break up the computer stuff. Whilst a good chunk of it was really interesting and highlights just how vulnerable we are with our online activities it was nice to have a human emotional aspect of the story. The book doesn't have the earlier grit, dark unpc humour the very first Parlabane books do, maybe because Jack (and Brookmyre) has ages but there are still wee flashes of it. 4/5 for me this time, thanks to Netgalley for sending me a copy to review. Available to buy under the title Want You Gone, not sure why they changed it, I think I preferred The Last Hack.

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