Customer Reviews:

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A1NGKMZK5C4R0R 2008-11-10
 
Review Summary: Cuold do better - see me
 
Review Content: Mostly I give Christopher Brookmyre's books four or five stars. True I tend not to like books with gratuitous violence of foul language, but he is normally so inventive that I forgive such transgressions. Not so with A snowball in hell! Brookmyre seems always determined to push at the boundaries of acceptability, and I have no problems with that. In this latest book however he doesn't push acceptability; he kicks it out of sight. He takes his hero Angelique de Xavia through an improbable series of events with which she is impotent to cope unless she has guidance her lover Zal!
It could have been a hugely enjoyable romp! It could have been his usual skilful mix of the absurd! It is neither, it misses most of the tests which have previously set Brookmyre apart form mere thriller writers. All this being said, I enjoyed the book, but only give it three stars "As was always stated on my school report "could do better".

 
 
 

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: AJS6KYCKJG4AF 2008-10-13
 
Review Summary: Entertaining and inventive cartoon nastiness
 
Review Content: It's always worth buying the latest Brookmyre to see what bit of inventive nastiness he's come up with this time. Where some other authors would make all this mayhem stomach turning and unpleasant, Brookmyre somehow manages to get away with it because it comes across as cartoon violence; sort of "Reservoir Dogs" where the dogs in question are Huckleberry Hound and Deputy Dawg.

There were some excellent plot twists and it's definitely a page-turner, but I didn't like this as much as his previous book (Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks), perhaps because the underlying theme there (the inability of people to discount bogus ideas) was stronger than the theme here (the celebrity of non-celebrities; yes, we'd all probably like to dream up some unpleasant fates to visit on participants in Big Brother, or indeed on Endemol executives). So four stars rather than five; if you are familiar with Brookmyre's novels, then you'll probably buy it anyway, but might not make a lot of sense to you if you haven't read a couple of previous pieces of his work where the characters here were previously introduced.
 
 
 

0 out of 0 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A2MR3HX7O9A6CL 2008-10-01
 
Review Summary: Mr Spanks revenge
 
Review Content: This is the second book I have read of CB's and was not dissapointed. I do however have to concede I enjoyed his last book Unsinkable Rubber Ducks more. It's difficult to say why, because both are really well crafted books that keep the reader engaged. I just felt that this didnt quite hit the bullseye regarding any real humour and its slightly convoluted plotline.Having said all that I would really recommend anyone to read a Brookmyre novel.
 
 
 

0 out of 1 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A3V01UNSLT9EDG 2008-09-23
 
Review Summary: Not so much Dubh Ardrain as Down a Drain
 
Review Content: This book reads as if it's been written over a period of time with large spaces between each bout of writing. It draws strongly on The Sacred Art of Stealing and shares some of the same characters, however the plot is not nearly as strong as TSAoS. The mini set pieces within the main story don't 'hang' together properly or form a cohesive whole. Brookmyre seems to seek to shock the reader with lots of (senseless) killing and little actual storyline. As with a lot of Brookmyre's work, the story appears to serve as a platform for the author's own political rants. This may fill the pages, but hardly makes it into a page turner. If you liked TSAoS don't think this will be a suitable sequel, it's not a patch.
 
 
 

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A276FR3KODDXFN 2008-09-18
 
Review Summary: Massively entertaining
 
Review Content: A hard boiled heroine, a sensitive intelligent hero, a black hearted villain with a passion for indie pop, vicious satire of contemporary media culture, exuberant wit, sufficient plot twists to turn one cross-eyed.

Nope, I can't find anything not to like. A thoroughly recommended and entertaining raead