This was a well planned book with an original plot and unique characters. The film references were perhaps too many for me who is not such a fan of horror films. It galloped to its twisty ending.

Well, where to start...

Things I loved about this book... the Scottish characters and their colloquialisms (this is always an added bonus of relatability for me), the huge character clash between the two main characters, Millicent and Jerry, and how they become unlikely allies, the suspense, the drama, the need to understand what really happened, the ending, the humour (in a thriller)!!

If I’m being absolutely picky, there were a lot of characters and I sometimes felt like it was a challenge keeping up with who was who, but the important characters are easy to remember and there is plenty of context provided to the others that even if they’ve been mentioned before and you’ve forgotten, you can deduce their role from that.

Still a five star read, and I really enjoyed the story line and the relationship between the two main characters throughout and how it develops! This is the first book by Chris Brookmyre I’ve read but it certainly won’t be the last!! This is out tomorrow (the 4th!) and I would definitely recommend it!!

The Cut by Chris Brookmyre
I have long been a fan of Chris Brookmyre having read Black Widow, Fallen Angel and a few of his other books. I really gripped by his latest offering. It is a fascinating thriller which concerns two people between whom an unlikely friendship develops. Millie is 72 years old and has recently been released from prison. She was jailed at the age of 45 for the savage murder of her lover whilst she was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Jerome is a student of film at Glasgow University with a fascination for horror movies having been brought up by his grandmother who made a living renting out video “nasties”.
The past and the present are interestingly woven together as we gradually unveil the truth of what happened in Millie’s past. The characters are charismatic and believable and you are drawn in by their story. I found myself turning the pages with increasing speed in my desperation to unravel this enthralling story. Many thanks to the author, the publishers and to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group for an advance copy of The Cut, a stand-alone thriller mainly set in Glasgow.

Millicent Spark is out of prison after serving 24 years for murdering her boyfriend, Markus. Jerome “Jerry” Kelly is a film student with a less than reputable past. Circumstances throw them together and a chance discovery sets them on an investigation into what really happened the night Markus died.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Cut, which is a tremendous adventure through the 1990s horror film genre, European capitals and murder with a big conspiracy theory at its heart. I loved it. What’s not to love about a conspiracy theory? Especially when it involves spooks and big money - there have been enough scandals over the years to make this one less implausible than it might sound.

The novel has two timelines, Millicent and Jerry’s present day investigation and the filming in 1993 of a horror movie that never saw a release and was Millicent’s last job. Both are equally intriguing for different reasons. The present day offers a grand adventure, complete with murder and mayhem, 1993 offers a glimpse of the sleaziness of the budget movie business. I found the switching complementary with the past illuminating the discoveries of the present as they are culled from Millicent’s memories and coloured by her interpretation. The present day events are seen from both Jerry and Millicent’s point of view. It should be weird, a pensioner and a teenager teaming up to solve a mystery, but it’s fun with both showing the trademark Brookmyre dark sarcasm and trenchant wit. This novel is perhaps not as laugh out loud funny as some of the previous offerings but it still has some absurd situations and clever manoeuvrings and the reason for it all still came as a surprise.

The novel is chock full of cultural references, some of which I got, I know what Assassin’s Creed is (and thought that its use was very clever) but many of the movie references went straight over my head. I swithered between 4 and 5 stars but went with 5 because it held my attention throughout and made me laugh but also because it is a smart, clever novel that seems in tune with times. I have no hesitation, therefore, in recommending it as a good read.

I love Brookmyre's irreverent noir style of mystery thrillers and this newest example is one of his best.

The two protagonists - septuagenarian convicted murderer and makeup artist Millie Spark and teenage film student and sometime burglar Jerome Kelly - are brilliant, both separately and together. I enjoyed the way their friendship and trust in each other grew throughout the book.

The story was fast-paced and action-packed, twisting and turning towards a satisfying conclusion.

A recommended read for fans of Scottish comedy thrillers everywhere.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Chris Brookmyre has been publishing novels for 25 years, in various series as well as stand alone. His latest, The Cut, is a stand alone – one might even say stands out because it is head and shoulders above the normal run of murder mystery thrillers and one of the best books of any genre I have read since lockdown began.
From the opening hook we know the two main characters are Millicent (Millie) and Jerry (Jerome), and we know that death features strongly in their relationship.
Millicent has been recently released from prison after spending over 20 years for a murder she has always claimed she did not do. She had been a very successful make-up artist, Millie Spark, specialising in the blood and gore of horror and slasher movies, primarily in Italy, until 1994 when she had woken up in London to find her boyfriend lying as a blood corpse next to her. Her background in such films had helped to convince the jury of her guilt. Now she is living in a shared house in the West end of Glasgow with her sister-in-law and her friend, scared of the world, deep in depression, baffled by new technology.
Jerry is a poor kid, mixed race, from the backwaters of Ayrshire. In his earlier teens he had been involved in a series of burglaries , small stuff mostly, but a traumatic event had turned him away from that. Deeply interested in Metal music and horror films, he has just started at Glasgow Uni on a Film Studies degree and is suffering from imposter syndrome in encounters, in Halls, with ex-public-school student types. When the chance comes up to move into digs with the three old ladies he leaps at it.
And then a chance discovery gives Millicent a clue as to what really happened when, but not yet to why, her boyfriend was murdered, nor who actually killed him and framed her. Circumstances force them together and this unlikely duo set off on a long trip, retracing her contacts and recalling her history from that time, in order to answer these questions.
The writing is tight while feeling loose, the plotting is tight but so light that the reader is led through without feeling that a master shepherd is running the show. Reviewers often say “I read it in one sitting” and the prose is so smooth here that that would be believable. But it would be a great disservice to the quality of the writing which deserves attention.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Millie Spark has been released after serving a quarter of a century in prison for the murder of her boyfriend. She still protests her innocence, at least to herself. She is in her seventies now, still physically fit but emotionally battered by her experience, struggling to undertake even minor errands. Her former life as a special effects make-up artist in low budget horror films is something she can’t even think about.

Then Jerry, a young student who is struggling with some issues of his own, answers an ad to move in with Millie and the two other older women she lives with. Vivian, the homeowner, wants to do one of those intergenerational shares, where he gets cheap rent in return for helping out with chores and engaging with his housemates. Jerry is studying Film and is obsessed with the last film Millie ever worked on, a film which is alleged to be cursed and which was never released.

A chance event gives Millie a new lead on the events that led to her conviction. When she begins to dig, she puts herself and Jerry in danger. They go on the run, on a journey that takes them across Europe, determined to protect themselves and to solve the mystery of what really happened.

The Cut bears a superficial resemblance to Denise Mina’s Conviction – a woman investigating her own past life among the super-rich, an odd couple on the road in glamorous foreign locations. Both books even have a yacht in them. The Cut, though, is less exuberant, given all that Millie has already lost. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that she and Jerry are both damaged in their way.

The story about Millie’s past takes in a political element, recalling the ‘video nasties’ moral panic of the 80s and 90s and featuring a Murdoch-type family, whose story is interwoven with Millie’s both on a cultural and a personal level. It is also chastening to learn that for Jerry, the Leveson Inquiry is a historical event, something he has only learnt about at university, rather than a recent memory!

The novel is steeped in cinematic references. It illustrates the powerful shared experience of fandom, particularly for those who feel isolated in ‘real’ life, and the way niche interests are sustained and shared in the online space, in contrast with the era of video.

The flashbacks to the filming of the lost classic didn’t quite come to life so well for me. The characters and events on the film set felt quite generic (coke, arrogant men, underage girls). The present-day incarnations of those who survived felt more nuanced, offering an insight into what becomes of the people who don’t quite make it, and are on the fringes of a fiercely competitive and profit-driven industry.

In The Cut, nothing is quite as it seems. Even those who create illusions for a living aren’t immune to the power of myth and deception. Millie and Jerry’s journey challenges them to unravel lies and find redemption. And have a few adventures along the way.
*
I received a copy of The Cut from the publisher via Netgalley.

This is a terrific read. An excellent fast-paced crime novel with lots of personality, oodles of humour and some stand out, sheer brilliance. Part crime caper, part serious murder mystery, this book left me smiling at the most unlikely detective pairing this side of Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu.

Millie Sparks is 72 and depressed. She’s spent the last 25 years in prison for the murder of her lover Markus – a murder she doesn’t remember committing. Now she’s on parole and living on the charity and company of Vivian and Carla, two old friends in Glasgow. She’s had enough and is ready to take her farewells but she hasn’t reckoned on meeting Jerome.

Jerome or Jerry as he prefers to be known, is a young man whose troubled past should be behind him, but he can’t seem to shake it off. He’s taking a film course at university but he feels a bit unsettled. He doesn’t really fit in, even though he knows his subject very well, and he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders leading to occasional rebellion and bouts of poor behaviour.

Millie and Jerry share one thing in common. Millie used to be a special effects make-up artist working on horror films and Jerry’s specialist film subject is horror movies, a passion fuelled by his grandmother’s video business. When Jerry finds lodgings with Vivien and Carla, he’s happy enough to be in decent digs at a low rent and the company of old women is fine for him, a boy brought up by his grandmother.

But when the household go out for a ‘welcome and getting to know you’ meal one evening at a local hotel, Millie wanders off intending not to return. Looking for her, Jerry finds staring at a photograph on the walls of the hotel. Realising that this photograph contains the possibility of answers to what happened to her that night 25 years ago, Millie becomes animated and a determination to find the truth flares up in her.

Told in a dual timeline, the present and flashbacks to 25 years ago we learn of the film that Millie was working on; a film that Jerry is also a bit obsessed with. Mancipium was a horror film that never made it to release, so beset by problems that it acquired a legend all of its own. It is said that evil lurked in the film and many who worked on Mancipium met a grisly end and Millie, of course, knows only too well that at least one person died.

Now though, Jerry and Millie find themselves in certain danger and have to get out of the country to escape and so that they can begin to track down those who might be able to offer some answers as to what happened to Millie and Markus all those years ago.

These two characters are genius. They spark off each other and their dialogue is sparkling, funny and peppered with film references. Brookmyre’s trademark black humour gets free range here and it is glorious.

Milie and Jerry travel through Europe in a flash car mingling with the rich and famous; film stars, artists and politicians as well as heavy metal movie sets and horror sets that owe more to sleaze than shock. Pursued by killers, they have to stay one step ahead if they are to remain alive long enough to solve the case. As they work together, they both realise that they have reasons to keep on living.

Verdict: The Cut is a delicious read, full of wit and dry observation, with great, honestly drawn characters you can’t help but like. The writing is crisp and sharp and Brookmyre isn’t afraid to skewer his targets. I really laughed out loud as much as I was drawn into the crime elements of this sometimes dark and twisted rollercoaster of a redemptive crime story. This is peak Brookmyre and I loved it.

When Millie Spark wakes up to find her boyfriend stabbed to death in the bed beside her, their last night of drugs and booze - plus a locked door - paints her as the only suspect. The press takes delight in decrying her career as a special effects make up artist for the goriest of horror movies as further proof that she's a degenerate, twisted by her love of fake blood and gore into perpetrating the real thing.

Almost a quarter of a century later, Millicent, as she now goes by, is trying to readjust to normal life outside of prison. Taken in by her late brother's sister in law, she struggles with pretty much everything. Then she meets film student, Jerry. Jerry has his own issues, but he's trying - maybe not quite hard enough! - to put his teenage years of crime behind him and make something of his life by following his passion for film. Horror films, of course - including an infamous title that no one has ever viewed, lost to time, and said to be cursed after cast and crew members started dying. A movie that Millie remembers rather well....

It's been a long while since I read Christopher Brookmyre's Jack Parlabane series, but with the shortening of the author's first name comes a more serious and grown up kind of a tone. There are still moments of humour here, but it's between the characters rather than in the narration, making for a much more taut and edgy thriller.

And oh, but I loved it! I wolfed the whole thing down almost as quickly as I could, caught up in the twisty mysteries and loving the glimpse behind the scenes of a movie-making world. The narrative is split between Millicent's and Jerry's stories, including regular flashbacks. Some of those mid-90s scenes of the B-movie excesses were just wonderful, so richly told without feeling like they were pulling you out of the main narrative at all. It helps that the characters are great. Millicent's story is so tragic, there's such value in seeing the broken 70-something and then a glimpse of her working in her heyday. Jerry on the other hand shouldn't be likeable, really, and yet his underlying decency and friendship with Millicent have you caring about him, too. I could have done without the Scottish dialect though - and I am Scottish! - but the whole 'disnae' and 'oor' and what have you stuff leaves me cold.

The story gets a little wild - I won't spoil a thing about the escalating events! - but never shoved me out of my suspension of disbelief. It did keep me guessing pretty much to the end, too. And oh, but would I love to see that movie!

Very recommended - it's a great mystery, with interesting characters, and a fascinating setting. And I don't just mean Glasgow (although so many moments of "I've been there!"), but the very real-seeming glimpse into the world of low-budget horror movie making, which I just loved.

I was really pleased to get this book, as I’m a huge fan of Christopher Brookmyre, and this didn’t disappoint.

The Cut tells the story of Millicent Spark, a former special effects make up artist who is recently released from prison, after serving over 20 years for murdering her boyfriend. She has always maintained her innocence of this crime, but was drunk on the night it happened and she can’t remember what actually happened. She’s all alone in the world apart from the people she lives with, which now includes Jerome, a film student with secrets of his own who is trying to reach for a better life. A discovery shakes up their world and sends them on a journey through the past, where everything may not be quite as it first appeared...

Full of Christopher Brookmyre’s trademark pitch black humour, this is a great read! It rattles along at a great pace, full of interesting characters and a strong story. There were lots of twists and turns, and a few red herrings, but it’s tightly plotted and a really enjoyable read.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

'Truth is, you never really get away with anything. You're always living with the consequences.'

The Cut is, like Brookmyre's last novel, Fallen Angel, a standalone crime novel although set in the same reality as his other books (I spotted clues!)

Its two main characters, Millicent (Millie) and Jerome (Jerry) couldn't seem more different. Millie is - or was - a make up artist, brilliant at creating gory deaths in the low-budget horror films of the 1980s and 1990s. But she's been away now for more than twenty years, and is, in her 70s, getting to grips with the 21st century and her different place in it.

Jerry, a young man of colour, was brought up by his gran in a little Ayreshire town, subject to bullying and prejudice (and sometimes running with the wrong crowd). As at home in the 20s as Millie feels out of time, he's started on a film and politics course in Glasgow, but getting into some hot water in the halls or residence, gratefully takes up the offer of a place in the tenement flat Millie shares with two other women.

What seems initially to be a classic comedy of opposites forced to rub along soon, however, takes a much bleaker tone. Jerry has secrets, and Millie has darker ones. Both reach out from their pasts to threaten, and they will need to pool their talents if they're to survive.

I loved the interplay between Millie and Jerry. Millie is almost in shock, mistrustful and ill at ease and indeed (little bit of a CW) early on she's verging on suicidal. Basically her life and reputation were destroyed 20 years earlier. She's been in an environment where trust is next to impossible, and there is a palpable sense that she's just waiting for the hammer to fall and her hard-won, fledgling place in the modern world to be snatched away. And if she's bound to fail, wouldn't it be better to pull the lever herself? Jerry has a similar dilemma. Uni isn't really for people like him, is it? Surrounded by (apparently) self confident, posh English types ('Born three-nothing up and convinced they'd scored a hat trick'), he is acutely uncomfortable, and possessed of a similar, self-destructive drive to jump first, before he's found out.

Not the most promising pair to deal with the consequences when Millie spots, by chance, a photograph which casts a new light on the catastrophe that destroyed her life. But following up that information has brought those consequences down on them, and they have no choice. The way they go about this, come to rely on one another, and find out just how much they have in common was a joy. Interspersed with that story is an earlier timeline, following Millie at her work on a gore-fest in the later 80s (a film which later came to be regarded as cursed, 'so horrifying that it didn't even get as far as being banned'). She was at the top of her game, and I loved Brookmyre's depiction not only of the somewhat louche goings on around the film ('it's not a real party until an ambulance turns up') but of the thrill of the business itself - the making-water-flow-uphill sense of actually pulling off a production, keeping the backers on side, dangling promises of tax breaks and of stardust, of being touched with the glamour of the movie business. (Alongside this we also see the tedium of long hours on set, everyone waiting while a shot is set up, with money burning all the time).

Featuring numerous escapades, capers and near escapes, the story basically pits Millie and Jerry as (apparent) innocents against some very shadowy and avowedly professional (and rather scary) figures from that dark corner where politics, the media, organised crime and the spooks hang out together. You wouldn't put money on our heroes surviving, but this is the movie business and both may be able to call on some unexpected resources.

As ever, Brookmyre's writing is spot on, from the entitled English students in Jerry's class ('respectable middle-class kiddies from Melton Middle and Crumpetshire') to the great unmentionable ('it's awkward when there's a Brexity relative around for Christmas dinner' - and indeed the book is a glorious romp through a very Continental film culture) to the fallout of the Leveson enquiry after which Brookmyre's clearly ENTIRELY FICTIONAL press and media baron, who seemed very shaky when giving evidence '...made a ****ing miraculous recovery though, didn't he?' There's foreshadowing, in the comparison of a Parisian hotel to the Continental from the John Wick movies, and in a certain escapade with a wheelchair. There are film references galore as Jerry and Millie try to score points off each other. (Jerry's gran ran a video rental store back in the day, when there were such things: he grew up on "video nasties" and one target of Brookmyre's scorn is the hypocritical campaign against them - 'it was always the same when there was a cultural phenomenon of which the British establishment disapproved').

And when all the secrets are revealed, and the events that set everything in motion are finally revealed, the book proves, indeed, to a have a very contemporary resonance. What had been hidden all along would have seemed very different if it had come to light earlier, making this a book truly of its (two) time(s). Brookmyre balances a thrilling and high-jeopardy series of events with a real satirical edge and a dash of truly ghoulish humour.

A tale of two misfit people taking you from their Glasgow home to a chase across to France and down into Italy to solve the conundrum of a death linked closely to the world of horror movies. Millicent in her 70s has just served a 24 year sentence for murder and Jerry is trying to sort himself during his first year at university. The latter goes to live in a house with 3 elderly ladies and befriends Millicent who finds evidence that might lead to proving here innocence.
The story takes you on a tortuous trip through horror movie-land and corruption with a distinct link to the last movie Millicent worked on as a macabre makeup artist which has become a cursed film.
An interesting set of characters (although a lot to keep track of) and the development of Millicent and Jerry’s friendship added a depth to the adventure.

A little bit different to what I expected, but I really enjoyed this. This had the feel of one of Brookmyre's earlier novels with the dark humour and the Scottish vernacular which was wonderful as I loved those books. But the plot line wasn't quite as thrilling as I'd hoped, every seemed to go too smoothly.
I liked the characters especially Rossco, and would have liked more page time for him.
All in all, a good read and a good introduction to a great author.

In one sense, The Cut falls into the recently popular sub-genre of 'crime/thrillers with OAPs as main characters' (in the past few months alone I've read The Thursday Murder Club, The Marlow Murder Club, and The Postscript Murders, all featuring retired characters teaming up to solve a murder). However long time Brookmyre readers will be well aware that, far from jumping on the bandwagon here, he's simply revisiting the territory of previous novels such as All Fun And Games Until Someone Loses An Eye, which featured a suburban grandmother as protagonist.

One of the most successful things about this book is the 'odd couple' trope, which sees Brookmyre team up 72 year old Millicent with first year university student Jerome on a journey across Europe in which they must escape assassins while attempting to prove Millicent innocent of the murder she was convicted of 25 years ago. Both characters could politely be described as 'prickly' but the reader ends up rooting for them absolutely: there is a particularly lovely moment of absolution for one of them late in the book. While I was less engaged by the film industry settings of the flashback sections - the sheer volume of which didn't really feel necessary to move the plot along - it was nevertheless a really satisfying page turner with the typical touches of Brookmyre humour.

Since Chris Brookmyre jolted crime readers with his first Jack Parlabane tale back in the mid-1990s, the Scottish storyteller has delivered plenty of fresh takes and distinctiveness. Whether it was his quirky early tales that were a sweary Scots take on comic crime to the darker places some of his later books treaded, whether it's mysteries in Victorian Edinburgh co-written with Marisa Haetzman under the name Ambrose Parry or twisted space station whodunnits, Brookmyre always entertains.

So I was very curious about his new standalone, THE CUT.

Unsurprisingly, I came away impressed and delighted, after an engrossing few hours reading.

Brookmyre seasons the stew and delivers plenty of fresh flavour with an unusual tag-team of sleuths trying to work out what happened in the past while surviving the present (I guess making this a thriller with a murder mystery component too), and an intriguing dive into horror movie fandom and some behind-the-scenes wizardry and machinations of the European film world. Having said see ya to her sixties a couple of years back, Millicent Spark is shuffling through life and prepping to bring her own curtain down a little early. A quarter century ago Millicent was Millie, a renowned makeup artist on the horror movie scene. She created magic onset, impressing everyone with gruesome deaths.

Until she lived through the horrors of a gruesome death herself. One morning Millie woke up to a blood-soaked scene to rival those she created on film. Her lover dead, she went to prison.

'The Video Nasty Killer' screamed the tabloids, stoking public outrage about horror films and their influence. Proclaiming her innocence for years, Millie-now-Millicent served a very long sentence, and doesn't know how to live in the modern world now she's finally out. A shell of her former self, fearful and anxious, yet sharp even brutal with her tongue. Out of place and off-kilter.

Meanwhile Jerry is a film-loving fresher at a Glasgow University who's said goodbye to his days as a petty thief and burglar after the deaths of two elderly people forced a crisis of conscience. Somewhat. And not if his dangerous past associate has his say. Struggling with life in the halls, Jerry answers an ad to live with three old ladies, including the sharp-tongued Millicent. Two people split by more than five decades, but both harbouring secrets and guilt and feeling like they can't find their footing.

When Millicent is jolted by an old photo, the duo try to uncover a truth from long ago, kickstarting an unlikely adventure across Europe where film fan Jerry get an up-close experience with movie history, but may not live to write about it. THE CUT is a true delight, a fast-paced thriller with strong characterisation and a good sense of its world, that takes readers behind-the-scenes of an industry that can seem glamorous from afar but is full of grime (and far worse). Brookmyre also raises some interesting issues about depictions of violence onscreen and how that is seen, or used as a political football or scapegoat by politicians and others looking to distract from larger issues or embarrassments.

Well-drawn characters (beyond our Spring and Autumn heroes) create further tension and laughs - the cast is deep and good. Overall, THE CUT is a very good read from a very good storyteller. Thoroughly enjoyable, a thrill ride that also makes you think. Superb.

Never having read any of Chris Brookmyre’s novels I picked up The Cut purely because it sounded like an entertaining read. And that it was. I had great fun reading it and am now well and truly a Brookmyre convert.

Millicent, or Millie Sparks was, in a previous life, (prior to serving a 25 year sentence for killing her boyfriend) a special effects makeup artist teams up with Jerry, a young film student with slightly questionable morals to make up our dynamic duo. An unlikely duo, granted but one that definitely works.

After foiling an attempt on Millicent’s life our duo flee Scotland and travel to Paris and through to Rome all the while gathering evidence against the bad guys and meeting up with Millie’s old cohort from way back when.

In places The Cut is dark and creepy, giving us glimpses behind the movie glamour to a seedy reality underneath in other places it can be laugh out loud funny. The characters are unconventional and quirky and the plot is as engaging as it is twisty turny.

I loved it, highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Cut is the latest novel from the endlessly inventive and wonderful thriller writer Chris Brookmyre.
Chris often throws together vastly different characters at the heart of a story and he has really excelled himself this time. Millie Sharp was a well known make up artist, in demand for her highly realistic effects for violent horror movies. Now in her 70s, she has just been released from prison after serving 25 years for the murder of her boyfriend, something she has always denied. She crosses paths with Jerry, a film studies student, just as she begins to question everything that led to the murder. It’s soon evident that someone doesn’t like her poking around and the pair make a dash for Paris and Italy in the hope of finding some answers from her old friends and colleagues.
It’s a wonderful book, full of clever twists and turns and characters you really warm to and care about. I think it’s one the best he’s written ( confession - I’ve read them all!) Ifyou, for some reason, haven’t discovered Chris Brookmyre, this is a great novel to start with.

Thank you to #Netgalley and #LittleBrownUK for allowing me to review this ARC

★★★½ rounded up.

When I was 14, I actively chose Christopher (he was full named back then) Brookmyre’s Quite Ugly One Morning as the book to do a report on because the opening word was ‘FUCK’. Yes, I did it so I could technically swear in a school document and yes I’d still do it now.

There was a point to that trip down memory lane – that was the last time I picked up one of his books and (thanks to the passing of time) I’m somewhat older since I charged into a classroom armed with my sweary publication. HOWEVER, there’s one thing that continues to be true. Chris Brookmyre is a clever writer. And I’m not ashamed to admit that perhaps he’s a bit too clever for my tiny brain. I’ll get onto this in a bit more detail in a mo’, but for now, here’s the TL;DR:

✨Set in Glasgow where I creepily used to live
✨A horror makeup artist who woke up next to her very stabbed-to-death boyfriend
✨ A scallywag of a student with a dodgy past and sticky fingers
✨ VHS tapes are causing utter chaos

Millie Spark spent 24 years behind bars and emerged as 72-year-old Millicent – a women who was (understandably) nervous about the outside world. With all of her family dead, she moves in with Vivian and Carla to form an unlikely (and often opinion clashing) trio quite set on seeing out their golden years in peace.

BUT OBVS THAT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN. Would be a bit dull to be honest so enter Jerome AKA Jerry. A film student at Glasgow Uni who isn’t a fan of living in halls and jumps at the opportunity to get the fuck outta there. In an unusual twist (but you got to do what you got to do for cheap digs), he moves in with the trio and everything starts to go a bit chaotic.

On what was planned to be Millicent’s death, her life is saved by a photo on a hotel’s wall which throws her and her unlikely new BFF, Jerry, into European jaunt to prove her innocence.

The Cut is bonkers. It’s peppered with Scottish humour throughout and it’s something you don’t tend to mix with a murdery book, but you know what? It works. You get fed little tidbits of info as the book flashes from the past to the present, evolving the characters into loveable rogues who you just want to see succeed.

BUT, as I mentioned earlier, I reckon this went over my head a little bit. I was skim reading chapters with vital info in it whilst trying to remember who was who and it didn’t hook me in as much as I honestly wanted it to.

If you love Chris Brookmyre’s work, then this is absolutely for you and if you like slow-paced, but long thrillers, I’ll shout until you add it to your TBR pile. For me, it was a solid read, but I’ll leave it on the shelf for a while.

The Cut is out on 4th March 2021.

P.s. the wee nod to the current situation at the end? *chefs kiss*

This is a stand-alone novel by Chris Brookmyre. It features Millicent ‘Millie’ Sparks, a seventy two year old former make-up artist, recently removed from prison after serving twenty five years for the murder of her former lover and student Jerome ‘Jerry’ who is a film buff and petty criminal. Neither of our main characters feel comfortable with the world. Millie, whose life changed forever when she woke up to find Markus Laird dead in bed, next to her, is at a loss with the modern world she now inhabits. She feels her innocence means nothing, as she deals with parole officers and having to function as a private citizen, when she still feels as though she is judged. Meanwhile, Jerry is uncomfortable with university life; feeling he doesn’t belong and is looked at with suspicion by his fellow students.

When Millie’s house mates, Vivian and Carla advertise for a student to share their living space, Jerry jumps at the chance to escape his halls of residence. Yet, both Jerry and Millie find it harder to escape their path than they hoped and, when Millie happens upon a photograph which changes her vision of the events which put her behind bars, the unlikely pair join up to discover what really happened all those years ago.

By far the thing I enjoyed most about this novel were the characters. They were an unlikely pair of conspirators, but they worked really well together and there was a lot of humour in their interaction. A large part of the book revolved around the horror movies which Millie used to work on and there were a number of flashbacks, looking back on that time and of the notorious movie that Millie was working on at the time.

Overall, this is an interesting mystery. Brookmyre links all the parts of the storyline and characters well; although sometimes the coincidences seem a little unlikely. Still, this is fiction after all and I did care about the characters, which made me want to discover what happened. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

A fabulously entertaining, thrill of a read that plays with the myth of 'the cursed movie' and is sure to delight horror movie buffs everywhere. Chris Brookmyre effortlessly weaves an intricate plot that cuts between time and place as well as fusing diverse genres so that I was kept on my toes throughout. Part of what makes the book such a treat are the characters of Millie and Jerry. Proving that age is just a number, the two outsiders find that they have more in common that they would have imagined, which is a good job, when they find themselves on the run.
I really hope that someone, somewhere has the good sense to turn this into a tv series or movie.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.