Meantime: The gripping debut crime novel from Frankie Boyle

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He was a permanent panellist on Mock the Week for seven series and has made guest appearances on several popular panel shows including Have I Got News for You, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Would I Lie to You? It makes you wonder what Boyle is capable of beyond the gags and the student union political rhetoric - which is, admittedly, often very funny.

But to break through his drug-induced fog and get closer to the truth Felix enlists the help of a dying crime novelist, Jane Pickford and his crisis-ridden friend Scott. Oh yes, there are a lot of drugs involved and as I have no personal experience whatsoever of drugs, I have no idea what Frankie Boyle is writing about! His life has been hard but ultimately, he is a good guy, and one thing that Frankie Boyle has in common with George R.

Docherty – an activist who Felix remembers from his bizarre scripts that he pitched to BBC Scotland. Not quite on a level of Trainspotting bad, but certainly not the behaviour or decorum you usually expect in crime fiction. He is our narrator and, as you can expect from a man of his "highs" the story is somewhat confusing in places. I saw a lot of other reviews finding the constant drug taking to be boring or inconsequential to the story but I believe this is justified later as a comment on self-medication. It's a crime thriller but it very much reflects Boyle's previous tv and stand up work, in that it's not your conventional crime thriller.

I found this an entertaining eclectic romp, although the crime story is just the a vague excuse for an outline.This certainly put me in mind of a lot of Christopher Brookmyre’s better stuff, but whilst still retaining a distinctive Boyle signature, which gives it its own offbeat and delightful spark. Many Frankie Boyle-esque moments of social commentary, both barbed and not, litter the text, and whilst Felix may seem to be a complete waster, someone who would rather avoid life by sinking a few (dozen) valium, there is an astute mind there. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. I didn’t care about him, or the murdered woman, or any of the rag tag band of misfits he’d enlisted to help him solve the crime. When Felix McAveety's best friend Marina is found murdered in the local park, he goes looking for answers.

They meet Chong, who seems to believe reality is simulated, and find signs that British Intelligence are involved in Marina's death. The political points are brilliant, the quality of observations and resultant humour is constant throughout and particularly if you hail from the west of Scotland you will get a lot out of this.Highlighting the writing style, Merritt found that Boyle was accomplished with his dialogue and wordplay, but a "great affectation for Glasgow . Although the central character of Felix acts as the narrator it is nigh on impossible to read his stream of consciousness and interior monologue without hearing the voice of Frankie Boyle in your head. Nobody comes across terribly realistic, not in any kind of way that undercuts the pathos of the real emotional core, but it is bizarre nonetheless. Notice to Internet Explorer users Server security: Please note Internet Explorer users with versions 9 and 10 now need to enable TLS 1.