Be My Enemy: Amazon.co.uk: Christopher Brookmyre: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

By now, readers know what to expect from the remarkable Mr Brookmyre, and Be My Enemy has all the hallmarks of his caustic wit. The protagonist of his earlier books, the wry Jack Parlabane, makes a welcome reappearance, faced with an intriguing professional problem: he is to take part in a weekend of "corporate teambuilding" in the comfortable surroundings of a secluded estate. But quite what sort of course is this? Jack's instincts as a no-holds-barred hack, skilled at uncovering unpalatable truths, warn him that something unusual is in the offing--but he's not quite prepared for the extremely dangerous sideshow that is to accompany the corporate makeovers.

This is wonderfully abrasive stuff, full of the scabrous insights that we read Brookmyre for, and it's good to see ideas shoehorned into the satirically biting prose; while never neglecting the crucial task of keeping us turning those pages, Brookmyre makes some sharp points here; one of them being that we all harbour certain fascist tendencies, stifling a desire to put paid to those who go against us. The Highland country house in Be My Enemy functions as a hot house in which certain ideas along these lines can be explored--and Brookmyre's conclusions are just as likely to upset politically correct leftwingers as they are to ruffle the feathers of staunch conservatives. But don't get the idea that this is any kind of a tract: Brookmyre is a man who knows that ideas in novels must always be at the service of the narrative and that's very much the case here. Jack Parlabane's one-liners are as spot-on as ever, and the juggling of violence and black humour is as precisely judged as we expect from this writer. --Barry Forshaw

Review

'Ingenious satire.' HEAT 'This is a wickedly funny crime novel.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Satisyingly develops the rare combination of jokes and jolts of which Brookmyre is the finest exponent apart from the American writer Carl Hiaasen.' GUARDIAN 'His dialogue fizzes with energy and wit, and the often gruesome, black humour is unparalleled.' VENUE 'Brookmyre segues from comedy to thriller without missing a beat.' ARENA 'Leaves you breathless with excitement.' DAILY EXPRESS 'Pacy, funny and genuinely thrilling... It's the kind of thing Agatha Christie would have written if she'd been off her tits on manky crack.' TIME OUT 'Christopher Brookmyre is a mischievious satirist, and here he is at his best.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'As a writer he's a one-man delivery system for witty one-liners, as well as being bitter, cynical, hard-bitten, and pragmatic to boot.' IRISH INDEPENDENT 'The most mischievous white-knuckle writer on the bookshelf' Daily Express 'Sharply satirical and poignantly funny, this is a gripping and highly entertaining read.' Time Out 'Chris Brookmyre is a genius.' Mirror 'Brookmyre has no equal.' Maxim 'Brookmyre is a brilliant satirist...an absolute must read' Punch 'Exhilarating linguistic fluency and keenly subversive intelligence' Scotland on Sunday 'By now, readers know what to expect from the remarkable Mr Brookmyre, and Be My Enemy has all the hallmarks of his caustic wit. The protagonist of his earlier books, the wry Jack Parlabane, makes a welcome reappearance, faced with an intriguing professional problem: he is to take part in a weekend of "corporate teambuilding" in the comfortable surroundings of a secluded estate. But quite what sort of course is this? Jack's instincts as a no-holds-barred hack, skilled at uncovering unpalatable truths, warn him that something unusual is in the offing--but he's not quite prepared for the extremely dangerous sideshow that is to accompany the corporate makeovers. This is wonderfully abrasive stuff, full of the scabrous insights that we read Brookmyre for, and it's good to see ideas shoehorned into the satirically biting prose; while never neglecting the crucial task of keeping us turning those pages, Brookmyre makes some sharp points here; one of them being that we all harbour certain fascist tendencies, stifling a desire to put paid to those who go against us. The Highland country house in Be My Enemy functions as a hot house in which certain ideas along these lines can be explored--and Brookmyre's conclusions are just as likely to upset politically correct leftwingers as they are to ruffle the feathers of staunch conservatives. But don't get the idea that this is any kind of a tract: Brookmyre is a man who knows that ideas in novels must always be at the service of the narrative and that's very much the case here. Jack Parlabane's one-liners are as spot-on as ever, and the juggling of violence and black humour is as precisely judged as we expect from this writer.' - Barry Forshaw, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Not THAT bad 14 July 2004

By I. Brown

Format:Hardcover

Jack Parlabane returns to confront Highland Country Hotel slaughter (no reference to Mrs P's maiden name). With Tim Vale in tow Parlabane is invited to participate in a management/team-building weekend. After a surprisingly positive start the weekend descends into chaos. An extreme right-wing group of psychopaths and human-safari hunters attempts to turn the Hotel into a slaughter house leaving Vale and to a lesser extent Parlabane and Co. to fight for their lives.

Vale is a marvellously wrought character with support from the familiar Parlabane. Here Brookmyre fleshes Vale out a little without exploding the enjoyable mystery of the gentleman-agent. The plot twists unexpectedly in places and there is the odd bit of evil ingenuity from vale and Parlabane. Brookmyre leads us by the hand a little at the start, recounting some of Parlanbane's previous adventures in a manner that has clearly irritated some of the other reviewers. I'd suspect this introductory material is at the behest of agent/publisher. Nevertheless, the book contains much originality and many of the supposed resemblances to "One Fine Day" are superficial or can be forgiven. I've re-read Be my Enemy once already and would argue the gems it contains clearly outweigh the disappointments. Hard to decide on whether this is a 4/5 or 3/5. I've gone with 3/5 because ultimately it doesn't rank with "One Fine Day" or "A Big Boy Did it" (to which it is most comparable).

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

The best so far...... 9 Nov 2004

By M. Woolley

I found this to be laugh out loud funny in places, and any book that can do that has to be worthy of a good review.

It may have a similar plot line to 'One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night', but to me that is a bit like complaining that Bond is always saving the world.

I found this to be the most enjoyable Brookmyre so far. Expect entertainment and enjoyment (the main reasons for reading Mr Brookmyre's work surely?!) rather then an overly complicated murder mystery.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Not a typical Brookmyre, but still brilliant. 17 Aug 2009

By Ed Peters

Format:Paperback

This was the first Christopher Brookmyre I read, though I have since read several more. In doing so I found that although they were all enjoyable, none were anything like Be My Enemy. In general I would categorise Brookmyre's work as satirical, witty thrillers, with clever plots and characters that are believable, if a little extreme. Be My Enemy is full-on farce in the vein of Tom Sharpe, with a few political rants thrown in. The plot is ridiculous, the characters often react to events in a non-believable way and much of the humour is based on shock value.

Having no pre-conceptions about what the author was trying to achieve I was happy to go along with this and had a great laugh along the way. I think the reason this book has had a lot of low ratings is that people read it having read other Brookmyres first and were expecting it to be something it's not.