Miss Marple meets Philip Marlowe in a complex and at times bewildering thriller.

This starts out with two separate narratives, entertaining enough in themselves, until our two protagonists, in the most unlikely of scenarios, join forces.

Multiple plot twists, a whole gamut of characters and the occasional intrusion of another separate and apparently unconnected narrative lead to confusion and frustration rather than intrigue and entertainment.

Throughout, there are hints at what this complicated plot might entail and the suspicion that we are heading into Inception territory nagged and annoyed.

The conclusion was entertaining but not enough to escape the feeling of being manipulated by an author entertaining himself more than his readers.

This is an extremely clever blend of 2 parallel stories, one featuring Peeny Coyne who is investigating a murder in Scotland and the other featuring Johnny Hawke an LAPD detective. Eventually, it seems that their respective murder investigations are linked so when Johhny comes to Scotland they pull their resources to solve the murders,, each using their own unique approach. This novel is a nod to Agatha Christie and is early gripping. Never read anything quite like this before and looking forward to reading more from this talented author.

I couldn't put this book down. The storyline is very clever, and the ending very unexpected. I would thoroughly recommend this book.

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre and narrated by Russ Bain and Sarah Barron was an excellent audiobook especially this is the first book/audiobook I have read by this author and wont be my last. This book is a cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly and worked great together,
I found The Cracked Mirror was the most imaginative audiobook/book and a rollercoaster ride with so many twists and turns throughout that had me gripped and I found it hard to turn the audiobook off.

The narrator's Russ Bain and Sarah Barron were excellent.

When a book is described as "a cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly" I am all in. Two of my favourite authors. I had never read anything by Chris Brookmyre before this but I'll definitely seek some more out. I assume this title is a nod to The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie, a Marple book.

It's a hard book to review fully without giving things away. I really enjoyed this, the ending was definitely not what I expected.

In this story you will meet Penny Coyne in Scotland, an old lady who has solved multiple murders in her sleepy village (a la Marple) and Johnny Hawke, LAPD homicide detective, often in trouble, always seeking the truth whatever it takes. Their worlds collide with a dead writer and a mysterious wedding invitation.

A clever, imaginative and entertaining book, that's a kind of crime novel but also not really. I enjoyed it, loved it for most, the ending threw me a bit, so that took a star off my rating.

I was so excited when I first read about this book and was waiting to approved, and couldn’t believe it when I was accepted! This book did not disappoint, it is filled with turns twists and surprises. I really recommend this book.

An elderly Scottish librarian and a disgraced US cop form an unusual partnership when they find themselves at the scene of a murder at a wedding. However, as the case unfolds they find alarming connections to other murders and things start to become sinister.

This book was a lot more complex than I initially expected and there are lots of surprising twists! A thrilling roller coaster of a story, not your average murder mystery!

Brookmyre’s two in one becomes One and then something more, much more.

He mashes up our beloved familiar tropes, the clever curious old lady who lives in a murder prone English village and the LA hard boiled detective, careworn and full of bravado. He introduces them to each other complete with tea and a dash of bullets and then brings in today’s world with its savvy info tech and all the technological paraphernalia. Admittedly I think he had huge fun doing this. I think I could feel his glee at his fiendish use of his poor poor characters. I fully confess to enjoying myself hugely whilst reading it and something that is not usual for me in these kinds of books I shed tears at the end.

An ARC kindly provided by author/publisher via Netgalley.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for a review copy of The Cracked Mirror, a stand-alone thriller set mostly in Perthshire and California.

I enjoyed The Cracked Mirror, which is a fun read with plenty of thrills and spills and some eye catching twists. I will, however, be the first to admit that I’m not very tech savvy so I found some of the twists a bit baffling and their general implication more scary than uplifting (which is what I think the author intends).

The plot is fun, uniting two very different genres of detectives, the Marple-esque Penny Coyne and the jaded LAPD detective Johnny Hawke. Somehow they find a way to work together with both amending their attitudes and views on life to accommodate the other. It’s both effective and amusing. Then there are the dangerous situations they get into, coming under fire more than once as they try to solve their case. I laughed, maybe not as frequently as I have reading the author’s previous novels, but I still laughed.

I think that this is a seriously clever novel. For a start it is engrossing with the reader constantly wondering what will come next, but more importantly it seamlessly weaves hints of the conclusion into the narrative without giving anything away. Most impressive.

I have no hesitation in recommending The Cracked Mirror as a good read.

Thank you for approving me to read this book. Unfortunately I've struggled to read it and have been unable to finish it. I enjoyed the beginning and seeing the set up for the story. I loved meeting Penny Coyne and finding out about her, and the detective Johnny Hawke was intriguing so I was keen to see how their two storylines were going to converge. I'm struggling to concentrate at the moment so the issue it most likely with me and not the book but I just found myself confused by the characters and then the story and I just couldn't follow it. I did love the writing and I love the idea of the book and I hope I get a chance to come back to this at another time. I would still recommend it to other readers.

In this slightly genre-bending novel, we meet two very different detectives in two very different locations, whose stories come to intertwine in a way that neither of them could possibly predict.

When a Scottish, Miss Marple-esque amateur detective comes into contact with a hard-boiled LA cop at a wedding, they realise they have more in common than they initially believe as it becomes evident that they have been solving variations of the same crime independently. They then come together to solve a third, very similar case, while trying to establish how it is that the same crime keeps being committed.

The pacing is mostly pretty good, and the interactions between the characters are nice. I did guess the twist at the end, but enjoyed the story nevertheless. 3.5 rounded to 4.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

I needed this book in my life.

The storylines, characters and world is perfect. I read it in one sitting.

A true plot twisting , mind bending unique story. At first a parallel narrative set on different continents, becomes an intertwined detective story before delving into the realms of AI and an elegy to literary storytelling. Brookmyre has created a truly beautiful book that seamlessly carries the reader alongside the narrators, Penny and Johnny, switching points of view per chapter. Almost cinematic in scope the world created by Brookmyre thrusts the reader directly into the action as the protagonists are flung into a world far from that which they are used to.

I can not recommend this highly enough.

It's a cliche to describe a writer being at the height of their powers but in the case of The Cracked MIrror it really is true. I've followed Brookmyre's work from his early crime/comedy hybrid novels through his Ambrose Parry historical/medical thrillers and this book feels like the culmination of everything he's learned along the way. I won't talk about the plot except to say it absolutely delivers as an unputdownable thriller, and the voice embraces the conventions (and cliches!) of crime fiction in a way that is affectionate and arch without being sneery or dismissive. Bravo.

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre is a delightful dichotomy between two very different characters whose worlds collide in a most unexpected way

Penny Coyne, little old lady from a little village
Johnny Hawke, dynamic detective from the mean streets of LA

Two people who should never meet, but make for an incredible crime-solving team

So very much fun! Cozy meets action/adventure, smashes through police procedural and careens across a good old mystery in a book that I literally devoured! A delight for mystery lovers

Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group UK | Abacus and Chris Brookmyre for this ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

This was a fun read - one that I went into blind so there were a few pleasant surprises.
Johnny Hawke is a homicide detective with LAPD, who works hard to seek the truth. Penny Coyne is a little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her village in Scotland. Their worlds are about to collide when the murder of a writer in LA leads Johnny Hawke to a wedding in Scotland. A wedding that Penny Coyne received a mysterious invite to. A wedding where another murder takes place.

💭 I felt like I was reading two different books in the beginning - amateur sleuth and action packed LA (which is a testament to the fantastic writing). Some of it was OTT but it didn’t take away any of the thrill. I was quickly engaged and ended up ignoring anything else to finish it. The narrative was funny and clever, with lots of twists. The ending was quite complex and I ended up putting the book down until my brain was refreshed. It was a jaw dropped - a unique twists that wrapped up the story nicely.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this. I look forward to reading more from this author.

An appealingly inventive idea done well.

An enjoyable read.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I'm a big fan of Chris Brookmyre and I am very grateful for the opportunity to read The Cracked Mirror. The book's twin viewpoints has perfectly pitched styles for a Miss Marple/Murder, She Wrote vibe and for a hard-boiled Michael Connelly slant so this was cleverly done by, It is also very funny in places, typical of Brookmyre's style. Unfortunately on this occasion I found I was struggling to keep up with who all the characters were and I think some of the details went over my head, leaving me a bit confused. Thank you for the copy of the book.

It begins with Penelope Coyne, an elderly figure, who becomes aware of a murder in her small Scottish village—a man has been strangled in the church confessional booth. Despite her peculiar claim of having solved numerous murders in this quiet locale, Penelope is determined to involve herself in the investigation.

In contrast, Los Angeles police lieutenant Jonny Hawke wakes up with a headache in an unfamiliar room next to a woman he struggles to remember. Known for his maverick methods that have led to a series of unfortunate partner deaths, Jonny is soon summoned to investigate what appears to be the suicide of a male writer. Though it seems straightforward, his boss insists on a thorough investigation.

These two seemingly disparate threads—an old-school murder mystery and a contemporary hardboiled detective story—merge into a unique and original narrative. The plot's distinctive nature makes it best approached with minimal prior knowledge.

http://thesecretbookreview.co.uk

In the quiet Scottish village of Glen Cuthar, 80-something Penny Coyne has a reputation for solving crime. In Los Angeles, police officer Johnny Hawke has his own way of doing things. Bizarrely their two worlds collide at a society wedding and the two of them are thrown together to solve a series of suspicious incidents. However as they investigate things become weirder and weirder and nothing seems to make sense.
It's really impossible to try to describe what a ride this book is for a reader. Beginning as a mash-up between two genres of crime fiction - the hard-bitten gumshoe and the little old lady cosy crime-solver - it takes a number of crazy twists which swerve into science fiction. Honestly I would just recommend reading this book, it's worth it!