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Meantime
- Author
- Frankie Boyle
- Narrator
- Chris Reilly
- Publisher
- John Murray Press
- Publish Date
- 21 July 2022
- Run Time
- 8 hours 47 minutes
- Format
- x-book®
What to expect
'A dark and entertaining tranche of Glasgow noir . . . [A] deft, engaging thriller' Observer
'Full of scintillating sentences and perfect lines of dialogue' Sunday Times
_______________________________________________________________
Glasgow, 2015. When Valium addict Felix McAveety's best friend Marina is found murdered in the local park, he goes looking for answers to questions that he quickly forgets. Felix enlists the help of a brilliant but mercurial GP; a bright young trade unionist; a failing screenwriter; semi-celebrity crime novelist Jane Pickford; and his crisis fuelled downstairs neighbour Donnie.
Their investigation sends them on a bewildering expedition that takes in Scottish radical politics, Artificial Intelligence, cults, secret agents, smugglers and vegan record shops.
Meantime is a picaresque detective story set against the backdrop of post-referendum Scotland. Frankie B
oyle's compelling debut novel is a tale of murder and revenge, and of personal and political loss.
'A darkest noir, unputdownable crime novel that swerves and surprises, with a gut-punch ending. I loved it!' Denise Mina, author of The Long Drop
'Inherent vices and scalpel-sharp jokes vie with a very human concern for those least garlanded in the rat race of life' Ian Rankin
____________________________________________________________________
Pre-order Frankie Boyle's new book A Short History of the Apocalypse now! Out 7th November 2024
_____________________________________________________________________
Real readers love MEANTIME:
'Unlike any thriller you'll ever read' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'A brilliantly original piece of Glasgow noir . . . Fantastic' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Raw, funny, and heartfelt. I loved it' Real reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Keeps you on the edge of your seat and I loved the ending' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Critics Review
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A darkest noir, unputdownable crime novel that swerves and surprises, with a gut-punch ending. I loved it!
Denise Mina
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A gloriously funny mystery that bucks the "cosy crime' trend" . . . Peppered with one-liners, it reads Raymond Chandler in Glasgow . . . Boyle regularly deploys the beautifully offbeat imagery that characterises the best of his stand-up
Daily Telegraph
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Starts off the funniest noir - like a Glaswegian Big Lebowski - then takes you somewhere suddenly heartbreaking . . . A debut novel that makes me absolutely INSIST there is more to come
Marina Hyde
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The gags are so good that the book doesn't outstay its welcome [...] anybody who loves jet-black humour is in for a treat
Daily Express
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Reads like a twisted Caledonian take on Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. Inherent vices and scalpel-sharp jokes vie with a very human concern for those least garlanded in the rat race of life
Ian Rankin
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Part whodunnit, part social safari, part extended stand-up monologue . . . the novel is full of scintillating sentences and perfect lines of dialogue
Sunday Times
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An enjoyably dark and entertaining tranche of Glasgow noir . . . Imagine Withnail and I stumbling into a Bond movie co-written by William McIlvanney and Mick Herron . . . [A] deft, engaging thriller
Observer
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A surprisingly moving and beautiful journey through one man's sh*tshow of a friend's death/hangover
Lucy Prebble, screenwriter for Succession
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A fine slice of contemporary noir, full of acute insight into the way we live now
Mail on Sunday
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Just finished this and f*ck me, it's total class!! I'm sure all the expletive swears are coming out for this one - and so they should. Ace
Helen Stanton, Forum Books
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Meantime is a tremendous book: a detective story full of twists and turns that is as beautifully written as it is darkly comic. . . Not surprisingly, Meantime is very, very funny. But it is also a gripping work of stylised crime fiction that marks, I suspect, a new and exciting chapter in Boyle's multi-faceted career
Tortoise
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Remarkably moving
Scotsman
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A sharply written, memorable read
Scottish Field
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Meantime flies along, filled with laughs and moments that pull you up sharp
Sun (Scotland)
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Boyle's key strength is in creating such a believable milieu, even when events are exaggerated, underpinned but never derailed by a tongue-in-cheek humour
Chortle
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Frankie Boyle's fiction debut is genuinely engrossing
Independent
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It's both funny and moving
Guardian
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[Frankie Boyle] has graduated into an extremely fine author with his first novel . . . The book lays bare the various worlds of Glasgow . . . and it slowly becomes that awful word, unputdownable, as the fascinating mixture of violence, drugs and unexpected humour surround the reader
On Yorkshire Magazine
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Boyle's darkly comic debut unfolds amid vivid scenes of the seamy Glasgow underworld, its hard-bitten humour offset by an unexpectedly tender conclusion
Daily Mail
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Word-perfect dialogue and wild imagination
Strathspey & Badenoch Herald
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Frankie Boyle
- Narrator
- Chris Reilly
- Duration
- 8 hours 47 minutes
- Release Date
- 21 July 2022
- ISBN
- 9781399801195
- Format
- x-book®
- Publisher
- John Murray Press
- Genre
- Crime and / or mystery fiction
Synopsis
*FRANKIE BOYLE'S GRIPPING CRIME NOVEL: AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER *'A dark and entertaining tranche of Glasgow noir . . . [A] deft, engaging thriller' Observer'Full of scintillating sentences and perfect lines of dialogue' Sunday Times_______________________________________________________________Glasgow, 2015. When Valium addict Felix McAveety's best friend Marina is found murdered in the local park, he goes looking for answers to questions that he quickly forgets. Felix enlists the help of a brilliant but mercurial GP; a bright young trade unionist; a failing screenwriter; semi-celebrity crime novelist Jane Pickford; and his crisis fuelled downstairs neighbour Donnie.Their investigation sends them on a bewildering expedition that takes in Scottish radical politics, Artificial Intelligence, cults, secret agents, smugglers and vegan record shops.Meantime is a picaresque detective story set against the backdrop of post-referendum Scotland. Frankie Boyle's compelling debut novel is a tale of murder and revenge, and of personal and political loss.'A darkest noir, unputdownable crime novel that swerves and surprises, with a gut-punch ending. I loved it!' Denise Mina, author of The Long Drop'Inherent vices and scalpel-sharp jokes vie with a very human concern for those least garlanded in the rat race of life' Ian Rankin____________________________________________________________________Pre-order Frankie Boyle's new book A Short History of the Apocalypse now! Out 7th November 2024_____________________________________________________________________Real readers love MEANTIME:'Unlike any thriller you'll ever read' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'A brilliantly original piece of Glasgow noir . . . Fantastic' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Raw, funny, and heartfelt. I loved it' Real reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Keeps you on the edge of your seat and I loved the ending' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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