This is undoubtedly a complicated wee story, lots of characters, some of whom act in a similar but baffling way. So many characters behaving similarly in fact, I found it a bit perplexing now and then. I thought I could detect hints of other stories- I won't say which ones in case of potential spoilers- but as it turned out my guess was wrong! It does all come together in the end. It's clever and the patter is very entertaining, worth the effort.

Penny Coyne is a Scottish version of Miss Marple, Johnny Hawke, a hardbitten detective of the LAPD. When cosy mystery collides with violent murder, the two must unite to defeat the bad men and solve the mysterious murders. Scenes shift from Scottish village life to Silicon Valley in contemporary California, where it becomes clear to the reader, if not immediately to the hero and heroine that this story is not just Agatha Christie married to Michael Connelly, but The Matrix and Blade Runner too.

I honestly didn't know where this book was heading!
You start off with one character and then switch to a completely different character and then finally they join together in a crossover of genres - Scottish old lady crime sleuth meets brash LA detective at a wedding.
People keep dying around them and they end up on the run together and then science fiction gets thrown in for good measure towards the end too to really confuse matters when you're struggling to keep up with all the different characters as it is.

At times you just have to go with the flow with this one. It's my first Chris Brookmyre book and am left wondering if they are all like this!
I enjoyed the individual parts and some of the interaction between the two main parts - Penny and Hawke. Scene setting was also very good throughout.

However, unfortunately, by the end I was not enjoying it. It was just too many things to get my head around - and I normally like a sci-fi and a crime thriller, just they're not normally in the same book.

I can't say much more without giving the twists away but I struggled a bit overall to like this one, especially towards the end.

THE CRACKED MIRROR

Well, what can I say ??

With such a pragmatic start I was expecting so much more but unfortunately ended up persevering with The Cracked Mirror, as is slowly changed into a novel closer to the science fiction genre.

I think it’s safe to say that this one just wasn’t for me.

There were copious amounts of times that I put it down and only picked it back up reluctantly as it was a NetGalley read and I felt inclined to continue.

On a plus the descriptive prose are sensational and do a great job at painting a vivid picture of the scene in your imagination.

I feel that The Cracked Mirror would appeal to someone who enjoys science fiction and also technology as there are lots of technology references throughout, but this mystery novel just wasn’t right for myself.
But thank you #NetGalley and the publishers #LittleBrownGroupUK #Abacus for my eArc copy in exchange for my honest review.

#TheCrackedMirror #author #ChrisBrookmyre
#mystery #thriller #policeproceduals #womensleuth #sciencefiction

I’ve been reading Chris Brookmyre since the very beginning. Cracked Mirror takes many of his best tropes and turns them into one brilliant and incredibly imaginative thriller. He loves an unusual pairing of protagonists - this time we have a little old lady who likes to solve murders in her sleepy Scottish town and a hard bitten LA cop whose partners have a nasty habit of dying on him. Somehow they both end up at the same big Scottish wedding where the bride apparently kills herself the night before the wedding. Soon they both start asking questions and find themselves on the run from some very bad people.
Set in Scotland and LA, involving a huge cast of characters and several families who all seem to have been affected. by similar murder /suicides. It all gets very complicated and rattles along at a million miles an hour - hugely entertaining. As the book reaches the climax you may well realise that this book is really another of Chris Brookmyre’s favourite tropes, but revealing that would give the game away. The twists keep coming until the final page. I really didn’t want it to end.

I requested an ARC of this thriller because I was intrigued how the author would blend elements of a Scottish ‘cosy crime’ with depictions of hard-boiled Los Angeles police investigations. The answer is, at times they are melded together very well, and at other times, you have to suspend all common sense and faith in literary genres to follow the story line that charts how Scottish senior citizen Penny Coyne and US-American homicide detective Johnny Hawke end up working together to solve the most unbelievable crime. Keeping up with the huge ancillary cast can be taxing, even for the most ardent and experienced thriller reader, but the effort is rewarded when it comes to the novel’s eventual denouement. My thanks go to NetGalley and to the publishers for gifting me an ARC in anticipation of this honest and unbiased book review.

I love it when authors mash up different sub genres and do it well!  With this beauty we get the cosy, vintage feel of a Ms Marple with the edgy, tightly packed thriller with a MMC who reminds me of Martin Riggs and every other "living on the edge" kind of detective!

Octogenarian Penny lives in rural Scotland and still has all her marbles, thank you very much.  

Johnny is the epitome of hard-charging, LAPD detective and like the great Dirty Harry, his partners kind of end up dead! But he's way out of his element when his investigation takes him to Scotland.

The story flows really well between these two POV and the different feel of the characters stays distinct and somehow just blends so well!  The plot twists are enticing and as with any good Marple, there must be multiple red herrings!

They may be complete opposites in just about everything but these two odd ducks make a forceful pairing!  The humour helps it to not be a completely straight forward crime novel and it really helps meld everything together.

As a huge fan of Chris Brookmyre’s books, I was really looking forward to The Cracked Mirror, and I was not disappointed. In fact, this is unlike any of his previous books and will astound and impress you in equal measure.
To begin with, the reader is faced with two very different scenarios, one featuring a Miss Marple-like character solving crimes in a Perthshire village, and the other a tough LAPD detective who is not averse to bending the rules. What could possibly connect two such diverse characters? Once they are forced to start working together, and discover that their skills complement each other, I did not want their collaboration to end. In the hands of such a skillful writer, this hybrid narrative is a joy to read.
There are a lot of characters and a complicated, layered plot to contend with, but as long as you concentrate and immerse yourself in the story the effort will be rewarded. The best thing about The Cracked Mirror is how well Penny Coyne and Johnny Hawke work together when they team up. I enjoyed that the action is split between Scotland and Los Angeles, and how each of the main characters was out of their comfort zone at some point. I think it would be rewarding to reread this book to see what you notice second time around.
The final twist and the superb ending will stay with you long after you have finished reading – it will leave a lasting impression. I cannot recommend this book highly enough and I look forward to the next book from this outstanding writer. Thanks to Abacus and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

This was a really unusual read, at first I felt like I was reading two seperate stories in the same book but this book really turns genres on its head. A really clever book that uses all the crime tropes we are familiar with, the elderly nosy Scottish woman that relies on her intuition to solve crimes and the Hollywood law enforcement officer that is a maverick that braves the rules to catch the criminals. It lulls us into a false sense of security where the reader follows all the literary crumbs into a corner with unexpected results. I really enjoyed this fast paced novel that is crying out for a cinematic adaptation.

'This is not that crime novel', says the publisher's blurb for The Cracked Mirror, and they're not wrong; perhaps the least strange thing about this book is the fact that it involves a mash-up between a Miss Marple-type amateur sleuth and an LA cop with a flexible approach to the rules.
This feels like a bit of a risky book in a few places. There are the opening chapters, alternating between the two detectives in their respective locations, with Penny Coyne solving murders in a Scottish village and Johnny Hawke being assigned the case of an apparent suicide of a promising young screenwriter in LA. It takes a bit of time before the plot throws the characters together and the story begins to take shape, but it's worth sticking with this part.
Then there are the aspects that I won't say much about, because this really is a book that you need to read without spoilers, but any reader expecting the straightforward solving of a central crime may begin to feel challenged as the cast and the complexity build.
I've never read anything quite like The Cracked Mirror, and I'm glad I did read it. It's a complicated read that made me feel genuinely perplexed and wrong-footed at every turn, and not only in terms of the story itself.

The book starts with two parallel stories: one with a hard bitten LAPD detective, the other with a cosy Scottish amateur lady sleuth. These two opposite ends of the crime genre crash into each other and go on a wild adventure together, with a steadily increasing body count, car chases and intrigue.

A thoroughly enjoyable caper with a mind-bending ending - read it immediately!

I’m always a bit wary of books being overhyped before I read them, and a quick skim of the reviews for this book all seem to lean into the “mind-bending” description, which I found intriguing.

I am a huge fan of Christopher Brookmyre and have been for years now, but one of the things that I particularly like about him is his ability to shift between genres with ease, from crime fiction to historical fiction and everything in between. This sounded like an interesting premise which drew me in - two separate stories, with no crossover initially. Penny Coyne is the Miss Marple of her quaint Scottish village of Glen Cluthar, solving mysteries in between shifts at the library, whereas Johnny Hawk is the hard boiled LA noir-ish detective, a bit of a maverick, causing chaos while getting the job done.

Ashley the separate takes progress, they suddenly cross over and the unlikely partners team up to solve their mysteries, which seem to be bleeding into each other. This actually works really well and I feel like the book is very good at demonstrating how each character brings a different skill set to solving mysteries which actually end up complementing each other. I don’t want to go too far into the ins and outs of the story as it’s well worth reading it to see it unspooling in front of you.

It’s a great story and it’s well told, with lots of twists and turns along the way. It feels very of the moment as well and I found it really interesting with the themes of technological advances and the potential offered by these. The question that always follows is - just because you can, does that mean that you should? So it poses some interesting philosophical questions along the way.

I really enjoyed it - an interesting story with well-defined characters, acknowledging the potential stereotypes of the genre. Well worth a read!

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

I’ve read several books by Chris Brookmyre and those he’s co-written with his wife, Marisa Haetzman under the pseudonym Ambrose Parry and thoroughly enjoyed each one. The Cracked Mirror is not like any of his other books and it took me quite a while to get into it.

First of all there’s the title – as the publishers’ description alludes to, it’s not another version of Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, but it is a cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly. I’ve read all of Christie’s crime fiction novels and none of Michael Connelly’s books, so I didn’t know quite what to expect. Maybe a mash-up of British/American crime fiction/thriller, and that is what it is, with plenty of twists and turns, complications and rollercoaster fast action chases, most of it unbelievable. It’s brutal, violent, with quite a bit of dark humour thrown in. It’s also tense and full of suspense.

At first I was happily reading about Penny Coyne – think a sort of Miss Marple like character, a Scottish elderly spinster with a successful record of solving murder mysteries in her home village. The book begins as a body is found in the confessional booth of the chapel of Saint Bride’s in Glen Cluthar, where Ms Penelope Coyle lives. And then I was suddenly confused when I came to read a completely different story about Johnny Hawke, an LAPD homicide detective, not bothered about sticking to the rules. He’s investigating an apparent suicide of a screen writer in LA. But, as their cases came together I settled into this bizarre book and it became a unified whole. It has a very clever plot (maybe just too clever for me) that kept me guessing right to the end.

This started with a cozy British crime vibe, switched to a gritty US cop thriller vibe, and ended (no spoilers) in a whole different place. This was it’s strength and made it different to anything I have read before.. It has many layers and surprises.
To read a book that had friendship at its core (particularly a friendship between a man and a woman that was not romantic in anyway) gave the book a charming and unexpected heart. This worked really well. I liked both Penny and Johnny very much.
I am glad I read it and would recommend The Cracked Mirror. It has a lot of characters and I almost gave up a couple of times (this was almost certainly more about me not having the headspace to totally invest) . I am pleased I persevered.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

oh my goodness me what have i just read....

a miss marple copy cat but its something more as well as two people one a detective and the other a little old lady somehow and work a murder case

theres a lot more involved and without giving out any clues its best you read it yourselves

though there are quite a few characters to get to know but it all comes together with answers that are stranger than fiction....

but its an interesting play on an agatha christie character...

FORGET WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW
THIS IS NOT THAT CRIME NOVEL

Ok so no spoilers, which makes this difficult to summarise; this is essentially multiple stories in one book, so we have the typical older lady sleuth detective who solves murders in a sleepy Scottish town: Penny Coyne and then we have the LAPD homicide detective Johnny Hawke who does what's necessary to get results, regardless of the trouble he gets in.

So our usual tropes, but this is not what you expect, yes their paths cross, but what happens then is not what you expect.

This is such a clever book, with so many layers, crossing multiple genres, but still has a lot of heart. Sometimes you're not sure who to trust or like, but I always had a soft spot for Penny and Johnny.

I absolutely loved that this was a fast paced book, and the way the story was told and unfolded. From the concept of the book to the execution this is a one of a kind book, that I'm still processing.

Yes there are a lot of characters, which would usually put me off, but they are so cleverly written, you only need to focus on the main characters and the plot.

This is my first time reading a Brookmyre book, but I'm certain it won't be the last.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

I haven’t read this author before but what a belter of a book to start with. A standalone crime thriller which mixes a hardened LA detective & a wee biddy in a Scottish village. Yes, really, but it works.

Penelope Coyne is aware that another murder has been committed in her small village. She has solved some before & takes it in her stride. Johnny Hawke, our intrepid American, wakes next to a woman whom he can’t remember but is soon embroiled in the apparent suicide of a writer. That’s all I’m going to say on the plot.

How the author managed to weave these polar opposite threads together I’m not sure; I’ve just read it & I'm still unclear but he does. There is a large cast (focus on the main ones) & don’t worry about following the chapter headings, just go with the flow. An unusual & cleverly constructed read. Recommended.

Really thought I'd love this one, sorry to say I didn't. Found it a bit overwhelming with lots of characters and jumping between locations. I have had to leave it for now, but may go back to it in the future.
Thank you netgalley for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This thriller moves at a cracking pace. I initially found the alternating chapters between Scotland and the USA quite confusing, it felt like I was reading two completely different books. Once these characters come together the story flows but there are a lot of characters to keep track of.

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre is an imaginative and original crime thriller that briefly confused me, then won me over, and thoroughly entertained me.
It features possibly the most unlikely crime duo of all time in a genre-busting tale that will leave you breathless and perhaps a little emotional.
The Cracked Mirror is clever, inventive, and unlike anything I’ve ever read before.
It’s hard to say anything about it without giving away too much and as I didn’t see the twist coming, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone else.
So all I can do is recommend it, tell you that I read it in just two days, and predict that you’re in for a treat.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC.