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Amazon.co.uk Review
Douglas Lindsay's Barney is the most notorious serial killer of his time--but wouldn't hurt a fly. It is all a misunderstanding, a series of accidents and a dead mother with stiffs in the fridge; but now Barney is on the run, blamed for every unsolved murder going and various Scotland missed penalties in the World Cup. Seeking peace of mind and safety, he heads for a remote monastery, where, in due course, he is followed by the police--but not before a series of violent deaths, many of them involving his scissors.
Barney cannot imagine that the Abbot is such a man; he'd seemed happy enough after the cut. Perhaps, Barney ponders, he has a secret mirror and checked the cut after it was given. Barney's imagination races. Maybe the Abbot has a lot more than a secret mirror...Everyone is in this monastery because they have secrets, and some of those secrets are a deal more worrying than Barney's--and the past of the monastery, its resort to cannibalism in the hard winter of 1938 and whatever it was that happened at Two Trees, is of even greater concern. And what is the Abbot hiding under his robes? Douglas Lindsay has a scattershot sense of humour which alternates the mildly routine with the uproarious--there is always another joke along in a moment if one misfires. The hapless Barney, guilty of little except being deeply boring, is a comic creation of real merit, and the mysteries of the monastery is a genuinely involving puzzle. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
What's On, March, 2000
With classic timing and delight in the grotesque, Lindsay has crafted a macabre masterpiece where content lives up to style.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Read it while sitting on the toilet - like I did,
By
This review is from: The Cutting Edge of Barney Thomson (Paperback)
I read most of this book sitting on the toilet - just five pages at a time, and the plot is sufficiently simplistic that you won't get confused if you just pick it up and read a tiny bit of like that. It's a sequel, but my wife didn't know that when she picked it up for me in a charity shop, and it really didn't matter that I hadn't read the first book - it is alluded to on numerous occasions but knowing the details of the story is not important. In a nutshell it's about a barber who hides out in a remote monastery, cut off from civilisation by the winter snow, because the police wrongly believe him to be a serial killer; the twist is that one of the monks is a real serial killer and people suddenly start getting bumped off one by one. If I was going to sum up The Cutting Edge of Barney Thomson in one word it would be "laboured". This is a comedy in which the running jokes are over-egged and repeated more than once too often and the characters have a very annoying habit (no pun intended) of going off on lengthy monologues in which they just repeat a single statement in increasingly flowery language. The dialogue is not very believable and it's a shame because occasionally you get the sense that Lindsay really is capable of creating a very real interplay between his characters. This really comes through in the will-they-or-won't-they sexual chemistry between the male and female police officers leading the chase for Thomson. I've now learned that there are a couple more books in the series and I'm encouraged enough to pick one up if I see it cheap. It's a very lightweight read but an enjoyable little yarn with some nice ideas that could have been better if the editor had snipped a few more pages (there, I intended the pun that time).
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Twisted Humour - Tremendous Read,
This review is from: The Cutting Edge of Barney Thomson (Paperback)
I bought this book mainly on the basis of a recommendation from amazon, as it appeared to be in the same vein as other authors I had enjoyed recently, such as Colin Bateman. However, when I started reading the book I was initially disappointed, as the style of writing was completely different from anything I had read before, and it took me a while to adjust and settle into it. Although I struggled at the beginning, I soon got to grips with the author's writing and I'm glad. This is without doubt a hilarious book. It centres on Barney Thomson, an alledged serial killer and barber from Glasgow, who is on the run from the police when his heinous crimes come to light. Thomson decides to take refuge in a monastrey in the north west of Scotland where the Brothers have very little to do with the outside world. This is the place where Thomson feels he will have time to contemplate his next move and prove his innocence to a world that has him guilty of every goal ever missed by the Scottish World Cup Squad, and any other crime known to man into the bargain! Unfortunately for Thomson, it is not long before murder follows him to this place of sanctuary and the Brother monks start to fall like flies. More unfortunately for our hero, all clues to the identity of the murderer seem to lead to him!! So as Thomson tries desperately to exonerate himself and bring the real murderer to justice, he is unaware that two of Strathclyde Constabulary's finest are on his trail - albeit a trail that is a week and a half late!! DCI Mulholland and DS Proudfoot blaze a trail over the highlands of Scotland in a bid to capture this serial barber and bring him to justice. En route they encounter a society of plain living, highland folk who are more interested in feeding guests tea and cakes and discussing philosphy. Eventually the "Polis" and Barney Thomson almost meet, but will they join forces to capture the real killer? The storyline is fast paced and the humour is tremendous. The plot is straight forward and although you may finger the real killer early on, the motive for the killings will have you rolling about with laughter.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Even better than the first!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Cutting Edge of Barney Thomson (Paperback)
Having read the first in the trilogy of books about Barney Thomson, the barber from Glasgow, I couldn't wait to read the second one. I was definitely not disappointed! The story was even more intriguing and original than the first, but still retained its excellent sense of black humour. Once again, the witless mind of Barney only serves to get him into even more trouble and you can feel yourself wanting to shout at him to do the most obvious and logical thing to get him out of the mess! Of course, he never does - and a good thing too, or we'd never be able to savour such a wonderful, twisted, yet very funny plot!
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