A disclaimer, right from the outset: I love Christopher Brookmyre. I love every book he’s ever written (except for Pandaemonium, but we all make mistakes). I’m honestly surprised I made it to week 2 of the blog before I included a Brookmyre - so anything you’re about to read must necessarily be taken with a pinch of fan-girl salt.

So! With that in mind, know that A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away is one of the books that I will always suggest to someone asking for a something I’d recommend, even if I don’t know them well enough to understand what they’re likely to enjoy. Because it has just about everything: crime and mystery? Check. Razor-sharp dialogue? Check. Flashbacks to uni days where we all cringe as we remember what fuds we could be? Check. Strong, kick-ass yet flawed female characters, well-behaved boy-next-door having an early mid-life crisis, race against time to beat the baddies with arms full of explosives? Check, check, check. And all of the above delivered with a laser-focused dry Scottish wit that will have most people actually laughing out loud – as opposed to the kid-on ‘lol’ you write when you’re vaguely entertained about something.

ABBDIARA cover.jpg — A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away

This edition: Abacus, 2011

Christopher Brookmyre

“it’s just like having friends”

Our core cast of characters centre around Simon and Ray, who have taken slightly different paths since they were flatmates and bandmates in their university days. Ray is an English teacher, sleep-deprived since the recent birth of his son and suffering from a bad case of wishing he was anywhere else but home. Simon is a frustrated oil-exec who has strong feelings about the indignities of living in Aberdeen, and who has taken drastic measures to liven life up. Oh, and everyone thinks he’s dead, on account of him having perished in a plane crash a couple of years before. Like I said: slightly different paths.

When Ray impossibly spots Simon one day, Events ensue. Two of Ray’s young pupils, Murph and Lexy, get caught up in the literal and metaphorical cross-fire by dint of being nosy wee bampots. Along the way we meet Angelique deXavier, a football-loving police officer with finely honed reflexes built with a tough regime of martial arts and fighting racism and misogyny. She’s brilliant and I want to be her when I grow up.

“is the burden of independent thought wearing you down?”

A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away is not a short book – 500+ pages in paperback, but the plot just races along. Brookmyre’s trademark soliloquies which are often vehicles for his (character’s) political or social opinion can tend towards the lengthy, but they so often reveal the thoughts that we’ve had in the middle of the night or in our most privately ungenerous moments, that any antipathy is borne of prickled conscience. Or maybe that’s just me.

The constant twists and turns keep you guessing as to the intent of the characters and where they might go next. In the alternating-perspective chapters, Brookmyre feeds just enough information to the reader to help you feel a half-step ahead of the plot. That is until you realise you have been totally mis-directed and are suddenly running to catch up. At least you’re in good company along with his characters.

This is one of those rare books that easily bears a second and even third read – while the immediate shock and glee of discovering each new plot reveal may be a little blunted after the first time, there is a deep satisfaction in seeing the depth and complexity of the various plot threads weaving in and out, and then pulling together into a big picture. In a similar vein, one of Brookmyre’s notable quirks are the various tangential character arcs that pop up across his oeuvre. A primary character in one book will have a fleeting yet potentially pivotal appearance in another. These easter eggs are utterly needless but it’s always like catching a glimpse of old friends.

“In Real Life (TM) … you most regret the things you don’t do”

A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away covers ground from Glasgow’s southside, through the airport, to the Scottish highlands via short expositional scenes around the world. It all seems utterly ridiculous and distinctly possible at the same time. I will likely come back with future Brookmyre reviews, because every novel is a piece of art in its own right; I come away from every reading wondering what I might be missing in the midst of the hundred lives we all live. And isn’t that what the best fiction does?- to open our eyes to the fantastical and the ridiculous and the everyday beauty of your life and mine.