I enjoyed this book - I did find it strange and rambling at times though. I feel that anyone who enjoys Frankie Boyle’s shows and humour will enjoy this and e we I’ll get the bits were he goes off on a tangent.
I enjoyed the storyline and the main character. I would recommend this book but only to anyone who already likes Frankie Boyle.

A confusing mixed bag. There were definitely some funny moments, but just a lot of rambling monologues that sometimes dropped into the incomprehensible. It seemed, towards the end, like two books smashed together. I wonder if this was just too literary for my taste - whatever action and mystery there had promise, but was ended abruptly, or tapered off to nowhere. The ultimate resolution of the mystery was interesting, but it just took too long to get there.

I felt like this was trying to have a similar vibe to Trainspotting, but again didn’t really achieve that.

⭐️⭐️ I found this to be slow going. What made it better was I was reading it with Boyle’s accent in my head but the storyline was slow and the humour lacking.

It was overly descriptive in some aspects and in the end I lost the thread as to what happened to Marina.

Average.

A dark comedy/thriller/murder mystery set in Glasgow written by Frankie Boyle? Well you know a book like this will be anything but boring. I could write a long review about the ins and outs of this book but it's probably easier just to say that I found myself taking photos of multiple paragraphs in this book and sending them to my friends to make them laugh. It's that kind of book.

As with all of these types of books it has a bit of a lull in the middle and the storyline is a little simplistic but overall, a very, very funny read.

I don’t always find Frankie Boyle’s acerbic humour to my liking although I think that’s probably the point as he aims his humour at all political targets. However, I was intrigued to read his first novel and I wasn’t disappointed; I found the novel dark and witty, as I expected, but it also had heart showing great affection for Glasgow and Glaswegians.
The novel is narrated by Felix who decides to try and solve the murder of his best friend Maria, as the police don’t seem to be getting anywhere with their investigations. Felix is not the best investigator as he spends most of his time in a drugged state - taking any Diazepam, Ritalin, Morphine etc. that he can lay his hands on. With his friend Donnie and crime novelist Jane, Felix carries out a haphazard investigation where he gets involved with many colourful characters such as drugs gangs and secret service agents.
This is not a typical crime novel as the murder is almost secondary, Frankie Boyle uses his characters to comment on many subjects.
Meantime is an entertaining novel littered with caustic humour and incredible similes.

I loved this Frankies style and sense of humour defiant comes through, I’m really impressed with this as a debut novel , it’s really good, keeps you on the edge of your seat and I loved the ending, didn’t see it coming at all, so lovely, this is hilarious, full of great characters and emotional, if you like Frankie you will love this book. , I know I did

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest opinion

Oh man I just loved this one and had so much fun reading it.
I’m a Frankie Boyle fan(his comedy, this is his first novel). His humour oozes out of the pages. I read the entire book in his voice in my head.

Do we describe this as a thriller? A murder mystery? A black comedy? I dunno. On the face of it it’s a murder mystery. Set in Scotland in 2015, Felix is a drug addict and when a friend of his Marina is murdered in a local park, not trusting the police to do their job, Felix decides in his drugged fuelled haze to try to find out what happened.

This is unlike any thriller you will ever read. The world that Boyle puts us in is both beautifully observed and at the same time exaggerated and otherworldly, bonkers is the right word. Populated with the weirdest and funniest characters you are ever likely to read.

If someone decided to remake Trainspotting crossed with Columbo and it was co directed by the Coen Brothers and David Lynch then this is most likely what they would come up with.

I can’t remember the last book I read where I laughed out loud so much, was fascinated by the odd and endearing characters and didn’t really mind what the plot was.
Throw in a very poignant and touching ending and you will have a read like no other that will bring out all the emotions in you.

Highly recommend. 5 stars.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

Description 🔖

When Felix’s good friend Marina is murdered in the local park, he takes it upon himself to investigate and try and find out who committed this terrible crime. There’s one small problem. Felix has a raging Valium addiction, isn’t shy to try other drugs and therefore, doesn’t have the greatest attention span, memory or level headedness.

Not to worry though, he ropes in help from a very broad range of different people, including a successful crime novelist, a GP and his fellow drug addict neighbour. Felix and his investigation team find themselves involved in Scottish radical politics, cults, secret agents and more; all on the hunt for the truth.

General Thoughts 🤔

Reading the blurb for this book (on multiple occasions) I could not get my head around what it was going to be like. There is a lot going on in the blurb and it was a perfect indicator because there was a lot going on in the book; in a good way. The craziness and unpredictability was definitely enough to keep me engaged and reading. Every chapter was like a new mini adventure that all pieced together to form the story.

This was definitely not your bog standard crime thriller. It’s certainly different, but I think it was different in a good way. I do however think that the mystery thriller aspect of the book was kind of secondary to all of the other stuff. Though it was well put together, I thought that it was more of a vehicle for us to follow Felix.

Characters 👫👭👬

Felix was the main character and narrator of this book. In the beginning, I found him a little bit irritating and a bit of a waste of space. I quite quickly started to turn and I liked him. He most definitely wasn’t stupid, but he did seem to be numbed by all of the drugs he was taking which I think held him back in his investigation. By the end of the book, I threw away everything I felt about Felix and I had so much love for him.

I really liked Jane in the book (the crime novelist). She seemed like a very genuine, straight to the point woman and I always had the feeling that if I was to meet her in person, I’d feel the need to show her respect. I can’t pinpoint why she gave me that feeling, she just gave off an air of authority I think.

Writing Style ✍️

It was Frankie Boyle’s writing style that first hooked me into this book. This may be where people become divided. I know that Frankie Boyle is a bit of a Marmite comedian, so if you do love him, I’m sure you’ll love this book. I didn’t find it possible to read this and not hear Frankie Boyle’s voice in my head. It was full of witty one liners and dark humour and so it was very much the same tone as his comedy.

However there came a point in the book where it seemed to take a bit of a sudden turn. It took me a bit by surprise to be honest and made me sit a little straighter and concentrate a little more. It got very tender and raw and brought a tear to my eye. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition to all that had come before this part of the book.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

This book was a touch wild, very funny, and at points quite emotional. It was definitely not a run of the mill crime thriller, but I don’t think that it claimed to be. As long as you pick up Meantime with an open mind and you’re not opposed to dark humour and a lot of swearing, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Not your usual crime novel to say the least. There were parts of this book I really enjoyed and other parts that left me confused and a little lost. Once I’d worked out what was going on in some parts I quite enjoyed the novel and found it quite moving

I loved this. Very funny and full of perceptive one-liners and life and it’s people. I used to live in Glasgow and this took me right back there. I felt the mystery element of the book took a back seat to the writing, but that’s fine by me when the writing is as good as this

I think there's a crime story in this book - ok so there definitely is, but it's not really all that front and centre, there's so much more going on around and about it that it does, on occasion, get lost in the noise. So, if you are looking to read this as a pure crime book, you might be disappointed.
It's another of those books that I would also pop into one of my favourite genres - that being bonkers. It is, and then some. Characters who are completely larger than life, lots of weird and wonderful shenanigans. And more drugs than the whole Trainspotting series - and that's just chapter one - no not really, but almost! And that is the ONLY comparison to make with Welsh's series. Anything else is an insult to both...
Marina is dead, Felix is a suspect. But he also an addict - big time - and spends the majority of his life out of his head. So he could have done it, but he suspects not, he sort of has an alibi. He is our narrator and, as you can expect from a man of his "highs" the story is somewhat confusing in places. He also enlists several of his friends and associates to assist him in his endeavours to discover the real murderer as he believes that the Police don't really care.
And so begins a bonkers romp, drug fuelled and, on occasion very very funny. Which takes our MC pretty much everywhere someone like me wouldn't dare go. Culminating in an ending that defied everything that came before. Brilliant!
Oh and remember who the author is before you make comment about the language. Informed choice and all that jazz... That said, it was all in context.
And my final comment which I think is quite key to the whole thing. It's a bit tongue in cheek and doesn't take itself that seriously - which, for me, made it all the more enjoyable and easy to read. I wonder if he has another book in the pipeline. I'd definitely be up for more of the same...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Rating: 3.0/5

I can be a bit wary of reading novels by celebrities who have made their name doing something else. Occasionally they succeed in translating their skills into the new medium, but far too often I find myself disappointed and wishing they had stuck to their day job. Thankfully, although not an unbridled success, Frankie Boyle has made a better stab at it than many.

When his friend, Marina, is found murdered in a local park, drug addict Felix McAveety finds himself becoming an amateur private detective as he seeks not only to clear himself of suspicion, but also to track down who was really responsible.

Although the central character of Felix acts as the narrator it is nigh on impossible to read his stream of consciousness and interior monologue without hearing the voice of Frankie Boyle in your head. There are quite frequent examples of industrial language, so if you find the use of profanities in your reading matter off-putting, then this is probably not the book for you. Against that there are some moments that are - perhaps somewhat surprisingly - quite poignant and there were also a number of occasions that not only made me smile, but actually caused me to laugh audibly.

The mystery that underpins this crime novel is solid enough, but I can't help thinking that its role is secondary and it is essentially only a vehicle for the author to air his thoughts - both comedic and socio-political. In many respects "Meantime" does comes across as one long Frankie Boyle stand-up routine. For that reason, I found that I had to break this down into digestible portions ... Listening to Frankie Boyle for an hour or so is fine, but a stand-up routine of six hours or more is probably a bit more than I could cope with in one hit.

I have a suspicion that there will be a strong correlation between people's attitude towards Frankie Boyle in general and their opinion of this book. The author can be something of a Marmite character and I suspect readers may react in a similar way to this novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about Meantime - perhaps I shouldn't have requested it as bookwise it was never all that likely to be my cup of Special Brew. Then again, I have an abiding fondness - perhaps a bit historic, these days - for Frankie Boyle and my curiosity got the better of me when I saw that he'd written a novel. (Good to try something new? For me.... for him?) In truth, it's a bit of a sprawling jumble, never poor enough to make me feel the need to stop reading nor ever really gripping enough to excite me as a reader or care all that much about the story's resolution. I made it to the end; it reads as a bit of a (deliberately?) clichéd satire, comedic hard-boiled Glaswegian pulp noir, a meandering tale of drugs, gangsters, politics, and murder, peopled with a collection of vaguely implausible characters. Threaded through all this are some good jokes, some very Frankie Boyle-ish putdowns and scabrous observations. I just wasn't sure what the point of it was, a bit like maybe during lockdown, deprived of his usual activities, he got a bit bored and decided to try his hand at writing a book. It might sell well; it's not a disaster. But it left me a bit underwhelmed overall, never really absorbed me in the way that these kind of books ideally should, and by the end of it all I rather doubted I'd be remembering all that much about it in the future.

With thanks to NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy.

I wasn't sure what to expect with Meantime but I loved it.
Very funny and a wonderful use of language but also moving and unexpected. I'll definitely be recommending!

I’m a fan of Frankie Boyle so I was very keen to read this book.

Unsure how to start with this review though!

If you’re looking for a crime novel this isn’t really it. At least not in the traditional sense. Felix investigates the death of his friend Marina with the help of his neighbour Donnie. Both are heavy drug users and while this did provide some humour I also thought it was over laboured.

Some parts were hard to follow and the stream of consciousness from Felix took a bit for me to get used to.

As you would expect from the author though there are some genuine laugh out loud moments and some absolutely spot on observations.

The setting of Glasgow and the drug dependency of the characters will draw the inevitable Trainspotting comparisons but the novels have very little in common.

For me it was an OK read but once I had put it down I was in no hurry to pick it back up again so I limped to the last page.

Many thanks to Net Galley and John Murray Press for the chance to read an early copy

I'm not going to lie. I've been putting off writing this review. Not for any bad reason, I'm just not sure I know where to begin. This is perhaps the most unconventional crime thriller (?) I've read in quite some time. And that turns out to be a good thing. Kind of bonkers, often funny, sometimes expectedly poignant, this is a murder mystery investigation the like of which I have definitely not read before. When your lead character, and part time suspect, is a self confessed stoner, and the very varied group of friends who help him really aren't much better, you kind of get a hint of where this book is likely to lead. Or so you'd think. This is a Frankie Boyle novel. I guess conventional and expected are really the last things I should be looking for, right?

The story revolves around Felix McAveety, a man who is potentially prime suspect in the murder of his good friend Marina. But Felix has an alibi, of sorts, and as much as the police might like to pin him down for the murder, or potentially any misdemeanour to be fair, it is clear to them, and us as readers, that Felix is as innocent as the day is long. Which is perhaps a bad metaphor for this book seeing as many of Felix's days are lost in a drug fuelled haze. Told in first person, this is a story which is as confusing as it is entertaining and which is packed with humour. Many Frankie Boyle-esque moments of social commentary, both barbed and not, litter the text, and whilst Felix may seem to be a complete waster, someone who would rather avoid life by sinking a few (dozen) valium, there is an astute mind there. Well hidden, but it is there. Enlisting the help of a retired Detective turned crime- novelist, Felix is determined to solve the mystery of Marina's murder, not trusting the police to get it right. He may have a point, given what I read.

Now if you've ever seen a Frankie Boyle routine or really listened to his very unique and colourful way of describing all manner of things, then you can probably already guess how the storytelling in this book is likely to go. It is probably filled with some of the most colourful and unique descriptions of people and places that I have ever read - a kind of acid trip playing out on the page - and yet it's surprisingly effective. Sometimes if made me smile, other descriptions resulting in an audible chuckle. A few grimaces too, but then we're dealing with a lot of addicts here. Not quite on a level of Trainspotting bad, but certainly not the behaviour or decorum you usually expect in crime fiction.

Taking readers from the world of drugs, to artificial intelligence, to conspiracy theory through to politics (Like AI without the I part ...), the story is set in the period immediately post independence vote. A lot of political commentary surrounding that, both for and against, but it definitely made for an interesting backdrop given all we now know was to follow. Even being just eight years ago, it gives the book a feeling of nostalgia, almost borderline historical fiction, but it was the perfect backdrop for this particular investigation. Frankie Boyle did a brilliant job of making it feel relevant and of its time, whilst still tapping into many of the arguments that still prevail. And as for the AI angle ... well that was beyond a mind trip, the 'philosophical discussions' and tangents that the characters go off on often making me wonder if I hadn't actually consumed a few hallucinogens too.

I think this is a book that will divide critics. If you enjoyed Trainspotting for the madness that it was, and appreciate the intelligence that sits behind some of Frankie Boyle's more controversial moments, then I think you'll enjoy it. This is by no means controversial, lets get that clear, but it is quirky. If you're looking for your everyday amateur detective, you won't find them in Felix. If you like a character who has the capacity to surprise and whose laid back exterior actually hides a very deep emotional core, then I think you may well bond with him. I couldn't help but like Felix. He made me smile, sometimes laugh. And yet with a slight twist of perspective, Frankie boyle managed to infuse into the story moments of poignancy that was so unexpected their impact was more keenly felt and the story all the better for it. I'm intrigued to see where Mr Boyle may lead us next time.

I'll make two things clear now.
1. I am a massive fan of Frankie Boyle.
2. Comparisons of this book to Trainspotting is lazy and disingenuous and disregard all reviews and opinions who make this lazy comparison.

With that out of the way, I will begin. Yes, I also had no idea how Frankie Boyle would approach writing, but I'm just pleased he did. This is fun to read and the plot does engage with you from the get go, but as you expect the characters just jump out from the pages. Everyone will have their favourite character, I certainly do, but I won't list them out as I don't want to spoil the discoveries for anyone, but they are all in their own way simply superb. For me, the central character seemed to be very much Frankie Boyle himself, he certainly used his jokes.

All said, a very strong debut novel which is eminently readable and enjoyable, packed full of every human emotion there is. Writing this sentence reminded me of two really sad sections, which illustrates just how well this author can write.

3/5 Ok/Good

I don’t really know what to make of this debut from Frankie Boyle.

It’s not really the crime fiction I thought it was. It’s really quite surreal to be honest as it follows the main character in Felix as he investigates the death of a friend.

With constant references to drug taking, literally every page someone is popping a pill of some sort, lots of foul language and many one liners it’s kind of entertaining and did keep me reading and engaged…

But it’s just weird, and trying to be a bit to cool? It’s VERY political, extremely satirical and I’m not sure if it’s all just Frankie Boyle writing a massive Parody of life today.

Strange, but it’s ok and I think some will love it and others maybe not so much.

Awk I loved this book. It was brilliant. I am from Glasgow and it was spot on. Funny, raw and heartfelt. I loved it 😍

It’s not often that a novel makes you giggle at least every other page. But then, it’s not often Frankie Boyle writes a novel. If you enjoy the comedian’s very dark humour and deeply pessimistic view of the world, you will love Meantime. Felix is your average disillusioned Glasgow drug-addict. But when his (only) friend Marina gets murdered, he decides to take matters into his own hands, turning himself into some sort of wannabe private detective. What could possibly go wrong? Frankie Boyle’s debut novel is just like his TV and one-man shows: brutally hilarious.