The evolution of the characters works wonderfully, especially Felix: piecing together his personal story is on a par with trying to solve the crime he's investigating. 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. Not quite on a level of Trainspotting bad, but certainly not the behaviour or decorum you usually expect in crime fiction. This was not a crime story, it was a way for Frankie to spill all his guff onto the page and bore us all to tears.

Although the author is a famous comedian, this is their debut, and I feel it will divide the room between those who like the book and those who found it “out there. Frankie deals with addiction with great humour and a deft, knowing touch while leaving us in no doubt of the torment it leaves in its wake - or, indeed, the torment that informs the addiction in the first place. A slow-paced, sometimes reassuringly pedestrian trawl though the main plot-lines, leaves space to appreciate the language and embrace the observations. They broke up after Amy cheated on him, but a few months before the Alternative Independence event, they started having sex, pretending they were strangers in a one-night stand.Everyone will have their favourite character, I certainly do, but I won't list them out as I don't want to spoil the discoveries for anyone, but they are all in their own way simply superb. As the evidence begins to arrive fast and furious, Felix enlists the help of others including his ecstatic downstairs neighbor, as well as a successful crime novelist among others, to bring about justice for his friend. Finding himself a suspect, Felix and his overweight neighbour, Donnie, also partial to mind-altering substances, decide to undertake their own investigation: “We were the two people least suited to investigating anything, but with the right drug combinations we could be whoever we had to be. I wanted to gulp the book down in great draughts but had to force myself to breathe and savour every moment, fearful I'd miss one of the gems of insight, wisdom or humour that glitter on every page. Taking readers from the world of drugs, to artificial intelligence, to conspiracy theory through to politics (Like AI without the I part .

To have the ability to convey feelings the way he did either suggests maybe his own past trauma or an incredibly special talent to relate to that level of loss on that deep of a level. 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.I wasnt focused on trying to beat the detective and guess the culprit, I was just along for the ride and wanting to learn more about each character, which made this a nice stress-free yet nourishing read. Beware if you are offended by drug taking and gratuitous and appalling swear words, but that's Glasgow for you! I enjoyed this book, the story is loose and well paced but in places seems a little disjointed, but the characters feel real enough and the story really just acts as a roller coaster leading them into various locales for conversation and internal monologues.

When Felix investigated Marina's murder, they planned for him to overdose on Donnie's drugs or be framed for intent to supply, then for him to be killed by Matt and Mary – who were given drugs and told someone was trying to kill them.Marina Katos – Felix's murdered friend, a graduate of Princeton University who was recently employed for the artificial intelligence company Beloved Intelligence while working at a Mexican bar, the Go-Go.

star review, a Chortle critic found that the author created a realistic environment, with "expressive, almost poetic, descriptions of Glasgow life in all its forms" and "sympathy towards his characters" that the reader will share. There are a few twists and gotcha moments throughout the story and I found myself really engaged by these and the one-liners that are dashed throughout. The plot is deliberately used as the tracks for a scenic train journey, though on closer inspection, the landscape can be quite bleak, enjoyable nonetheless.I can say without any doubt that I have never laughed so much in my life reading a book as I did during this, it got to the point where I was still laughing at something pages ago and then as I came across something else it just got silly and I was laughing so much that often I forgot what I was laughing at. It lures you into a false sense of security that this book will simply be the daft escapade of a depressed drug addict and his mates hopelessly trying to solve a murder. Writing a crime novel now appears to be a well-established rung on the career ladder of white male television entertainers, achieved with varying degrees of success and skill, so it’s a relief to find that Frankie Boyle’s first work of fiction is an enjoyably dark and entertaining tranche of Glasgow noir. Donnie confesses to being an anarchist infiltrating the police, then a police officer infiltrating environmental activists.