Synopsis
Quite Ugly One Morning is the book that made Christopher Brookmyre a star in his native Britain, establishing his distinctive, scabrously humorous style and breakneck, hell-for-leather narrative pacing. The novel that won the inaugural First Blood Award for the best debut crime novel in the United Kingdom is now available in America for the first time, and comic crime writing on this side of the Atlantic may never be the same. Quite Ugly One Morning introduces Brookmyre's signature protagonist, the hard-partying, wisecracking investigative journalist Jack Parlabane, who is not afraid to bend the laws of the land (or even the laws of gravity) to get to the truth. Parlabane is nursing a horrific hangover when he stumbles across the corpse of the scion of a wealthy Edinburgh medical family. Determined to get to the bottom of the murder himself, he quickly becomes enmeshed in a wild adventure that will take him through all the strata of Edinburgh society and into some dangerous (and hysterical) situations. Laced with acerbic wit and crackling dialogue, Quite Ugly One Morning is a wickedly entertaining and vivacious thriller. "Very violent, very funny. A comedy with a political edge, which you take gleefully in one gulp." -- Literary Review "The plot crackles along with confident gusto and intelligence.... An assured debut by a talented writer." -- The Times (London)
Publishers Weekly
In Christopher Brookmyre's wild and wildly funny debut crime novel, Quite Ugly One Morning, which won Britain's First Blood Award, journalist and hedonist Jack Parlabane ("different day... same hangover") investigates the murder of a young, well-to-do citizen of Edinburgh. Crooked cops, guns-for-hire and cheating spouses complicate matters as does Jack's growing affection for the dead man's wife. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.