Chris Brookmyre has long been one of my favourite crime writers, with his precise plotting and dry, laconic wit, so I was delighted to receive his latest book, The Cracked Mirror, for review.
It is, quite simply, a crime fiction book like no other - and is utterly brilliant. There are two main protagonists - Johnny Hawke, a hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective, and Penny Coyne, an astute elderly village-dwelling Englishwoman solidly in the Miss Marple tradition. Their worlds collide when there is a murder during a wedding celebration at a grand old English country hotel.
Brookmyre sets the two genres side by side, moving the reader between Johnny’s edgy cynicism and Penny’s precise observation, while at the same time building up our appreciation of the strengths and abilities of the two characters as what becomes their joint investigation takes them from the gentle-looking English countryside to the harsh sunlight and high-stakes complexities of California’s silicon valley.
The respect and fondness each has for the other draw the reader in as we navigate the twists and turns of an increasingly baffling plot which finally arrives at a dénouement that is as unexpected as it is inevitable.
If you enjoy crime fiction, whether problem-solving cosies or action-packed thrillers, and if you’re up for an entirely new kind of mystery-reading experience that will knock you off your metaphorical feet, then this is the book for you.