775 c24b10e1-b0af-4598-920e-0c0b58dd4a1f Country of the Blind Christopher Brookmyre calibre (2.82.0) [https://calibre-ebook.com] 2012-05-01T12:00:00+00:00 <div><p>Comic crime novelist Christopher Brookmyre is back with another outrageous caper featuring hard-bitten investigative journalist Jack Parlabane, hero of the award-winning novel Quite Ugly One Morning. When conservative tabloid media mogul Roland Voss is discovered at his country estate with his throat slit and his wife and bodyguards killed, Parlabane soon finds himself up to his eyeballs in murder, mayhem, and political intrigue. The police have arrested four men fleeing the crime scene, but for Parlabane it all doesn’t add up and he suspects the fix is in . . . unless he can get to the bottom of things before everybody else. Packed with Brookmyre’s distinctive collection of wacked-out characters and fueled by his trademark hell-for-leather pacing, Country of the Blind is a tart “tartan noir” that will leave you breathless with suspense—if you’re not asphyxiated by convulsions of laughter first.</p> <p>**</p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3> <p>Glasgow's crusading muckraker Jack Parlabane returns in the fifth novel from journalist Brookmyre (Quite Ugly One Morning; One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night; etc.). A plucky English lawyer, Nicole Carrow (out to make it as a public defender in Scotland to rebel against her dad), is finding out she got more than she bargained for with potential clients like Mrs. McGrotty "an elephantine creature in a shapeless brown coat that looked like it had been fashioned from dog-pelts and then dragged behind a heavy goods vehicle for a couple of days." Then she's approached by a strangely courteous ex-con named Tam McInnes, who gives her an envelope full of evidence of a conspiracy that goes to the highest levels of British commerce and government. Shortly afterwards, billionaire media mogul Roland Voss is brutally murdered, and McInnes and three others (including his son, Paul, and Paul's hilariously dissipated roommate, Spammy) have been artfully set up to take the fall. The only one to believe Nicole, however, is the ever-suspicious Parlabane, who knows good media manipulation when he sees it. More murders and a daring jailbreak (or is it another setup?) send McInnes &amp; Co. into hiding and stir up a national manhunt, while back in Glasgow Parlabane races to expose the scam. While the plot may sound hackneyed, Brookmyre's deft character sketches, street-level dialect and mercilessly satirical observations of cross-border politics, journalism and human zaniness keep this good-sized novel moving smoothly along. The U.K. press has called Brookmyre a Scottish analogue to Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard; Country of the Blind actually proves it.<br> Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. </p> <h3>From Booklist</h3> <p>Brookmyre has won well-deserved plaudits in the U.K. for his original plots and clever dialogue. His latest may pose problems for some American readers--the dialect is sometimes difficult to decipher, and the references to British culture and customs are often obscure--but perseverance pays dividends. This is a biting, violent, fiendishly funny story of bribery, blackmail, and murder in high places. When media mogul Roland Voss and his wife are savagely murdered at a country estate, investigative journalist Jack Parlabane swears he won't get involved. He's set to marry his longtime lady friend, and she's definitely not interested in Jack's risking his neck on the eve of their wedding. But the pull is too strong, and before he knows it, Jack is involved in what he's sure is a conspiracy to frame the accused killer and divert suspicion away from the real mastermind behind the brutal crime, whom Jack suspects is a leading government minister. An outstanding read for dedicated Anglophiles and for all lovers of hip, intelligent, action-packed crime thrillers. <em>Emily Melton</em><br> <em>Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved</em></p></div> Grove Press B0085WH19I eng