BitchAboutIT

No spoilers within…

This is another great book by Christopher Brookmyre a Scottish comedy/thriller author who has for a long time been a favorite of mine.

‘A Tale…’ differs somewhat from Brookmyres past books, in that he has obviously drawn from a lot of his own childhood experiences, especially those from school.  I was educated in the Scottish system pretty much when he was it brought back so many fond, and not so fond memories.  It’s also worth noting that the book contains many period accurate colloquialisms which may be confusing to a non-scots reader, thankfully there is a glossary at the back of the book (something I didn’t notice until I had finished it )

From the first chapter you will no doubt be confused as there are a lot of characters to follow, and those which you think are the main players chop and change a fair bit.  I wouldn’t let this worry you, by the end of the book you’ll want to start over again to fully appreciate all the subtle sub-stories and seemingly innocent observations which all cumulate in the outcome.

The story is essentially a ‘who-dunnit’ split across the school days and subsequent adult lives of the characters, however the discovery of the villain is somewhat secondary to personal realisations and discoveries the main characters make of their own situations and personalities and those of their peers.

I guess my only complaint is that all this had to fit into one novel.  Each character could be it’s own book, I’d have loved to see the school years played out more in full, but Brookmyre does get the balance right and gives you the information you need to provoke your own imagination whilst keeping the tome to a size that doesn’t try and break your arm.

Well as is customary I need to give it a score, it would receive a 5/5 but I am going to award a 4.5/5 simply because I don’t think it quite achieves the same heights as my personal Brookmyre favorite ‘A big boy did it and ran away’.

Still… a bloody good read non-the-less!