3.5⭐️ - I really enjoyed this book. Didn’t see the twist coming until it twisted. Really liked the characters and the style of writing and would definitely read more by this author. Great read!

Brookmyre has thrown away the rule book for this one. How is it possible for a mash up of Miss Marple and modern day LAPD to come together in a single volume. I went into this with an open mind. I’ve read and enjoyed other Brookmyre titles, but this is very different. It’s incredibly clever and it messes with your mind. Two completely different characters, writing styles and locations. Each are involved in solving murder, one in LA, the other in Perth, Scotland. Then their worlds come together via a wedding.

There’s no easy way to describe this story except it’s fiends clever. Red herrings and plot twists abound and the final twist is jaw dropping. On reflection, there were clues all the way there, but the writing is so cleverly crafted, they slide by unnoticed. I’m guessing this will be a marmite title. I loved it for its sheer audacity, A brave and inventive approach that, for me, worked. I suspect some will find it perhaps trying to be too clever. We must be thankful for publishers and authors prepared to gamble on something new and less formulaic. I hope this is a great success and happily give 5*

LAPD cop Johnny Hawke is maintaing his unfortunate record for unpleasant things happening to his work partners. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Scotland, seemingly innocuous elderly librarian Penny Coyne is embroiled in another puzzling case.

These two people should never have met, much less team up. But this unlikely duo have unwittingly stumbled across something which has been going on for a very long time indeed...

I just reviewed The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre. #TheCrackedMirror #NetGalley

Didn’t really know how to score this book as it was so odd…..it starts off like a modern-day Miss Marple with a little old lady in her 80’s who is a bit of an amateur sleuth but then it moves to an LA police detective ….,,

Couldn’t really warm to either character but the mix didn’t work either - like oil and water.

Brilliantly inventive bringing together of a miss marple style character and an LAPD cop - apparently in the style of Michael Connolly, who I’m not familiar with but recognised the style from films and TV. The interlinking of their stories- and the bleeding together of subgenres - is masterfully done and very entertaining. Throw in some intriguing concepts about modern technology (very much not the bag of the marple-esque Penny), and Brookmyre keeps all the plates spinning across multiple mysteries. The big reveal is perhaps a little too obvious - the clues are there to be picked up in true golden age style - but I can forgive that as it’s so much fun and still leaves a lot to be unpicked. Love the sting in the final lines too.

Seasoned and brash LAPD Robbery and Homicide Lieutenant Johnny Hawke is a loose cannon. Renowned for the quick demise of his partners, he is to be handled with care. Why his boss entrusts him with the soft handling of an apparent suicide is anyone’s guess, but there the story starts.

Meanwhile, over the pond in Perthshire, Scotland, we have Miss Penelope (Penny to her friends) Coyne, amateur sleuth, librarian and all round local treasure. Credited with solving fifteen murders (not so amateur then!) in the small town of Glen Cluthar, her latest murder “investigation” involves a philandering local, a priest and the town’s Catholic church.

When the two MPs meet at a society wedding, there’s only one outcome.

A very clever and unusual plot that had a lot going for it. Unfortunately at times it was just a little too clever and much too long, Holly Golly did it drag on. Brookmyre’s fans will love it, but for me it just misses the mark of being a great book as opposed to an ok read.

Great idea, good writing, needs some editing.

Thank you NetGalley and Abacus.

A well crafted tale. Starts out as a detective mash up and leads you gently through the incremental steps to a science fiction mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown for ARC.

I pushed this to the top of the TBR pile and read deep into the night because I couldn't put it down.

Johnny Hawke, hardbitten LAPD detective with a bad habit of losing partners, comes across a case of apparent suicide on a Hollywood film set. His investigation leads to personal disaster, suspension, and a fishing trip to a place he's never been.

Penny Coyne, elderly amateur sleuth in rural Perthshire, is invited to a fancy wedding of people she only vaguely remembers from her days working in publishing..

Of course their worlds collide and of course they are the best crime fighting odd couple you (or indeed the on-form Brookmyre) could conjure up. And if it had stayed with the genre mash-up you didn't know you needed, it would still have been great. But wait, there's more! Nothing is quite as it seems at first, second, or third glance and the denouement is surprising and sad and warm-hearted.

This is a clever conceit, occasionally confusing to keep the strands together but always cracking fun!

GENIUS!

This is clever, two stories entwined into one… this author has talent. Go with the flow you won’t be disappointed… stayed with me for a bit afterwards.

Wow! Wow! Wow! I started this wondering how could CB mix Agatha Christie and Michael Connolly ( as the book has been described) . What a story! Johnny Hawke is an LA cop who breaks the rules in order to get to the truth. Penny Coyne ( aged 82!) never breaks the rules and has managed to solve several cases in the past. Despite being in opposite sides of the pond, they find themselves unexpectedly at the same wedding in Scotland. There is a death which resembles the one Hawke is investigating in LA - so he and Penny become unlikely partners. The narrative is complex, convoluted and gripping. Lots of characters with a part to play - but is everything as it seems? The ending is a huge reveal which only when you finish the story will you realise there were subtle clues all the way through. This is not a run of the mill whodunnit but a new slant on the old story. This book is different to CB’s others ( most of which I’ve read) and I am mightily impressed by this new departure. I loved it! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC ebook in return for an honest review.

My Rating: 1⭐️ not my cup of tea at all…

NetGalley Synopsis

Forget what you think you know… 

You know Penny Coyne. The little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her otherwise sleepy village, despite bumbling local police. A razor-sharp mind in a twinset and tweed.

You know Johnny Hawke. Hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective. Always in trouble with his captain, always losing partners, but always battling for the truth, whatever it takes.

Against all the odds, against the usual story, their worlds are about to collide. It starts with a dead writer and a mysterious wedding invitation. It will end with a rabbit hole that goes so deep, Johnny and Penny might just come to question not just whodunnit, but whether they want to know the answer.

*A cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly.

Well I should have read that last line a little closer… a cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie… I could have saved myself the trouble. I have never read anything that is Agatha Christie adjacent or similar that I have enjoyed… I believe its just not for me… this was no different. And to be honest I haven’t read anything from Michael Connelly but the bits that were from Hawkes perspective I think were likely more his style and that was ok… but the Penny ones… talk about snore fest for me…

Now what I will say is this was CLEVER I really didn’t know how the author was going to intersect the two stories that were not even running in the same country let alone with the same characters but honestly that was clever and excellent writing. There is no doubt about it that Brookmyre is talented… however…. The story just dragged on and on and on and on… this is nearly 500 pages and ALOT is happening but it felt like it was all happening underwater, in slow motion trapped in mud… come on… I shouldn’t feel bored by a story that has two stories multi POV and multi-countries with multi-mysteries.

I wasn’t a fan of Penny… I thought she was whatever… I mean good on her shes a little old lady that can solve mysteries… but she was kind of a nothing to me… and she was boring. Johnny was a bit better but again very stereotypical and ME MAN YOU WOMAN kind of dude… whatever cause that doesn’t particularly bother me except again I was still bored… either way for me this was a huge miss.

I am disappointed too cause I loved the sound of it… but I will make sure I never pick up another book that is “like” Agatha Christie cause I never ever Vibe with them. I think maybe one day I may read an actual Agatha Christie to see if I actually like her work… but anything that is LIKE it… definitely not for me. I would prefer it to be the actual famous author and go… yeah thats not for me… cause now its put me off her writing before I have even given her a chance. So… we shall see.

Either way… I am keeping this short… its one star.. I am positive lots of people will like this… but I did not.

Thank you to Abacus, NetGalley and the author for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

If I could give this 5.5 stars I would. I actually stopped and started again because I couldn't figure out what I was reading but once I got into the rhythm of the story I was absolutely hooked. The narrative worked perfectly with just enough drip feeding to stop the reading getting confused. It's rare too that I've read what is essentially a sci fi novel with a real, beating heart. A triumph

When I read somewhere that this was a mix of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly, I thought eh? But knock me down and smack me with this very book - for it is a mix and a homage in one. Very funny and clever. Twisty and ambitious. The contrast between rural scotland and LA was good too. I think the author had a lot of fun with this and it shows.

#TheCrackedMirror #NetGalley
You know Penny Coyne. The little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her otherwise sleepy village, despite bumbling local police. A razor-sharp mind in a twinset and tweed. You know Johnny Hawke. Hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective. Always in trouble with his captain, always losing partners, but always battling for the truth, whatever it takes. Against all the odds, against the usual story, their worlds are about to collide. It starts with a dead writer and a mysterious wedding invitation. It will end with a rabbit hole that goes so deep, Johnny and Penny might just come to question not just whodunnit, but whether they want to know the answer
Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown Books UK Abacus for giving me an advance copy

An unusual and interesting novel combining two popular aspects of the crime genre - the hardbitten, LA cop and the cosy, elderly female detective. I loved the characters and the surprising elements that came in the final act. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Though you have never met them before this book centres on two characters you probably "know". There's the tough LAPD cop, Johnny Hawke, who will get his man never mind who he has to offend, annoy etc and you will live longer if you are not his partner. He's a dark, hard character who will fall out with anyone. In a sleepy village in Scotland (sleepy but otherwise the murder capital of the area!) there's Penelope (Penny to her friends) Coyne. She is ageing but is still remarkably sharp and has a dry wit. She would probably never wish to cause offence but it pretty tough. Remarkably Chris Brookmyre manages to write them both into one book.

Initially you have two stories - one in LA and one in Scotland - each of which has one of the main characters involved in the cases. In Penny's case it involves a man who has managed to make himself quite unpopular in the village and is then found dead. The situation in LA is a little different. There is a suicide in a movie studio that Johnny is told is an open and shut case that he is to deal with quickly and diplomatically. However he sees it a little differently. As time goes by Johnny and Penny come across one another in a very upmarket hotel in Scotland where a wedding is about to take place.

I've been a fan of Brookmyre's writing for quite a few years now however I am very impressed at just how well he has managed to write 2 such different characters in their own stories and then bring them together. The voices he uses for them are quite distinct too and the story alternates between them once they are "working together". It is fair to say that this is not really my ideal book and I think others may well like this even more than me. However I did like this a lot and I thought it was a very clever story. I don't like giving things away in my reviews however this does take some surprising turns. By the end I found myself thinking of the nesting sets of Russian dolls - have you got to the last one yet!

How do you know what is real in a book…

Wow. I have been a fan of Chris Brookmyre for over 20 years, and I just love his inventiveness.
Penny Coyne is a genteel OAP who's a whizz at solving the many murders that occur in her quiet Scottish village. Johnny Hawke is a tough, hard-drinking LA cop with a history of dead partners and a penchant for bending the rules. They both have eerily similar murders to solve.....
This book is a gift to avid readers of crime of all genres, with multiple layers of intriguing puzzles to solve while also enjoying the chaos when cosy mystery meets hard boiled noir. The only caveat is that the reader needs to be open minded about the current limits of technology 🙂 This story reminds me a little of one of his previous novels ('Bedlam'), in that it wanders around the edges of sci-fi territory in a most entertaining fashion.
Fabulous. My favourite book of the year to date.

Tremendous…
Penny Coyne, a seemingly typical and harmless little old lady but who has solved numerous cases of murder within her small village. Johnny Hawke - a hard boiled LAPD homicide detective. Surely, never the twain should meet? A clash of genres in this tremendous mystery come whodunit come thriller - with two superheroes from opposite ends of a spectrum, both fighting for truth and for justice, team up to form the ultimate fighting force. Hugely entertaining and endlessly enjoyable with a deftly drawn cast of eclectic characters and a swiftly moving and propulsive plot.

I hadn’t read any of Chris Brookmyre’s books before but I will now, I found this story a refreshing and twisty one, where you felt like it was two stories as one but it worked as long as you were willing to go along with the fun of it! It had twists, some good dialogue and with a read.

3.5 stars


Brookmyres ability to write in different genres is quite something, but I didn't ever imagine he would be doing 2 in one book.
It's different, and at times it feels like you're getting 2 books for the price of 1. At other times it didn't quite work for me.

Interesting, plenty of twists, a bit of fun, and some great dialogue... once I'd settled into it, it felt like another winner.
I just took a while to settle in.