Boiling A Frog

by Christopher Brookmyre

Paperback, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

813

Series

Jack Parlabane (3)

Genres

Publication

Abacus. (2003), Edition: Reprint.

Description

Jack Parlabane, the investigative journalist who is not averse to breaking the law for the sake of a good story, has finally been caught on the petard of his own self-confidence and is experiencing accommodation courtesy of Her Majesty. The fledgling Scottish parliament is in catatonic shock after experiencing its first dose of Westminster sleaze. The Catholic Church of Scotland is taking full advantage of the politicians' discomfort and is riding high in the polls as the voice of morality. Behind the scenes the truth is obscured by the machinations of the spin doctors and in prison, aware he's missing out on a great story, Parlabane discovers that contacts and a pretty way with words are no defence against people he has helped to put away. Part political satire, part cliff-hanging thriller this is high calibre entertainment. And for the author's own view on his books visit his website at www.brookmyre.clara.net… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50

Christopher Brookmyre’s writing is fresh, sharp and funny in Boiling a Frog, the third entry in his Jack Parlabane series. As the book opens we find Jack has just been sentenced to six months in jail for breaking and entering at the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Scotland. This is what

Jack does, being an a freelance journalist always on the lookout for a good conspiracy story, but this time he was a little off his game partly due to his marriage going through a rough patch. Some of Jack’s experiences in jail are both frightening and funny as he tries to deal with the low life, crazy residents that he is dwelling side by side with. What Jack doesn’t realize at first is that he has been set up by the villain of the piece.

This book keeps the reader guessing while it twists and turns through politics and the art of spin, especially in the hands of a bitter public relations guy who’s not above blackmail. Jack Parlabane is an excellent lead character with his cynical outlook and his drive for always following the story. In this outing Brookmyre’s trademark dark humor is aimed at Scottish politics, especially the spin doctors. Unfortunately, at times I found the story a little hard to follow because of my lack of knowledge in this area.

However, I am a huge fan of Brookmyre’s style and I enjoyed this complex and original story. With it’s excellent dialogue, sharp observations and his odd rant or two, Boiling A Frog held my interest and gave me a few shocks and many laugh out loud moments along the way.

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LibraryThing member gibbon

Competent, instructive about shady goings-on in the Scottish Executive; will come as less of a surprise to anyone who has encountered the accusations of the group "Scotland against crooked lawyers". The only obvious defect is the author's patent pleasure in his own cleverness, of which the title is

a good example. If you have to explain the relevance of a title, it's not good enough.

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LibraryThing member SimonW11

Not his best, The usual tirades against the usual hate figures and much tooing and froing between times and places whilst he
sets up the plot for the delayed violence. Yes I know Christopher Brookmyre delaying violence does sound odd.

LibraryThing member sarah_rubyred

Boring. I'm a fan of Christopher Brookmyre but this one just didn't keep me entertained enough to keep reading. If I want a rant about masters of spin and the various sex scandals I'll read the papers. It got it's second star for the prison scenes, much more Brookmyre-like.

LibraryThing member ruthm2010

A very clever plot together with Brookmyre's trademark colourful use of language makes this book a great read. I did find some of the political background stuff quite hard going at times however it was well worth persevering to get to the core of the story.

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