I have read several previous novels of Chris Brookmyre’s novels, so I was curious to find out about his new novel The Cracked mirror. The title reminds me of an Agatha Christie novel, but the story is far from that. 

There is two storylines firstly set in Scotland 80-year-old Penny Coyne has just come back from her holidays and has started investigating a murder where a body is found near a local church. 

She has also been invited to a wedding, but she doesn’t know who invited her. 

LAPD cop Jonny Hawke doesn’t always work by the rule book, but his boss has sent him to investigate a possible suicide with a new partner in toe. But the problem when Johnny gets new partners, they end up dead and that’s what just happened. Johnny is suspended but carries on with the investigation under his own steam which leads him to Scotland where he meets Penny Coyne. 

When I first started reading this, I often wondered what relevance with the two characters was as they are so different from each other, and I did think if this was a mistake in the book.  But As I carried on this storyline became intriguing and I was enjoying it mostly until we got to part three. For me I thought that style of the writing then changed dramatically after that, and I got so overwhelmed with the characters. I started losing interest and I nearly didn’t finish it. But I carried on, although the ending was a bit weird, I enjoyed he conclusion. 3.5 stars from me.