Okay, So never have I found an opening line for a blurb more appropriate that this one. You really do need to forget what you think you know. I can't comment on any similarity (or otherwise) to that book as I haven't read it, but if you read the blurb you can already tell that this book is rather unique. It is the ultimate in genre mash ups. More mashed than the potato topping of a cottage pie. It is part cosy (hence the Agatha reference) part thriller (a la Connelly) and then with a little but of an unexpected twist that took me completely by surprise. I'm not going to lie. I did wonder quite where this book was going and how on earth the two worlds of the Miss Marple-esque Penny Coyne could ever become entwined with the all action world of renegade LAPD cop, Johnny Hawke, but entwined they were. And I loved it.

We are first alerted to Penny's mystery loving tendencies when faced with an unexplained death in her own village, but that is really just an aside, a prelude to the main tale, allowing us a glimpse into her quiet, occasionally scandal hit world. As for Johnny, his world is far more intense. The stakes far higher, his reputation for trouble ... Well, I'd say talk to a few of his former partners about that but they aren't in any position to dish the dirt anymore ... Their stories are told in an alternating format, not always religiously moving from one world to the next as the chapters change, but often enough that you never lose the thread of what is happening. So what happens to bring Johnny crashing into Penny's world, and just how do the pair end up at a high profile wedding at an exclusive estate in a very beautiful part of Scotland? Well, I'm not going to say too much about that but it does involve a couple of sudden deaths in their respective worlds that both Penny and Johnny deem very suspicious. It pushes the too together in a race to find the truth before they both end up on the wrong side of a pathologists chiller cabinet door.

I really did like the two main protagonists of Penny and Johnny. They are totally chalk and cheese. Penny prim and proper, the embodiment of good manners and decorum, and a librarian and book lover to boot. What's not to love? Johnny is a little more rough and ready. Quite ... abrupt and direct in his words and actions, earning him more than the odd admonishment from Penny. They absolutely, categorically, should not work as a team and yet they really do. It's an absurd pairing, and there is more than the odd moment where one or the other of them surprised me with their actions, Penny especially, whose past seems a little cloudy, like she is hiding something. Whether we will ever learn what that is before the end of the book, it is certainly intriguining and, in a very Miss Marple way, they wayin which she puts people at ease makes gaining insight into their lives quite a simple task for her, in a way that Johnny's more direct nature failed to achieve. But I like Johnny's direct nature. His determination to find out what is really happening, even if it is on his own dime.

There is a third thread to the story, one that crops up at varying intervals, its relevance to the main story unclear. But the more we learn, the more I understood. And the more I understood, the more I realise that this was no ordinary crime novel. Mash up or not, this one is very special. And to pull this off, Chris Brookmyre needed to fill his world with very vibrant and varied characters, something at which he is very adept. Everyone of the people that Penny and Johnny came into contact with added something new and exciting to the story. Sometimes they dropped those vital clues, ina. very Christie-esque, going to lead us to the big reveal kind of way, sometimes more subtly, introducing yet another possible suspect in a landscape already rich in dubious characters of variously nefarious intent.

I really enjoyed this book. Loved the wonderful array of settings and how the author used them to infuse the plot with either atmosphere or tension. The location also really determined the pace of the book, the more sedate scenes in the idyllic Scottish locales, the intense, threat laden action sequences taking place in LA. For the most part at least. There is one scene that put me in mind of Hot Fuzz. If you know, you know. Which brings me to the rich vein of humour that flows throughout the whole book. Although there are some really intense scenes, there is a beautiful balance of light and shade and the interaction between Penny and Johnny made me smile, if not laugh out loud. And as for the emotions that the book brought out of me. Given the particular twist in this novel, they way it almost shape shifted from one genre to an entirely different thing altogether in order to solve the really mystery that fed the whole story ... Well I wasn't quite ready for the way I felt at the end of the book, it's the right ending, for sure, but surprisingly tender too. 

If you love a cracking yarn with brilliant characters, action, and plenty of mystery, that tends towards living its life on and angle, then this is a book I'd definitely recommend. It's fun, it's fresh, and its a a book I know I will end up reading again, just to see what probably all too clear clues I missed the first time around. Very clever Mr Brookmyre. Loved it.