Be My Enemy - Christopher Brookmyre

Written by Christopher Brookmyre
Read by Angus Kink
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Series: Jack Parlabane, book 4
Length: 12hrs 28min
Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

A subtitle on an inside page of Be My Enemy reveals that the novelist wanted to call his eighth book F…k This for a Game of Soldiers; although this would have prevented the book being stocked by genteel retailers.

It was a junket, a freebie. A ‘team-building’ weekend in the highlands for lawyers, advertising execs, businessmen, even the head of a charity. Oh, and a journalist, specially solicited for his renowned and voluble scepticism - Jack Parlabane.

But quite what sort of course is this? Jack’s instincts as a no-holds-barred hack, skilled at uncovering unpalatable truths, warn him that something unusual is in the offing - but he’s not quite prepared for the extremely dangerous sideshow that is to accompany the corporate makeovers.

Amid the flying paintballs and flowing Shiraz even the most cynical admit the organisers have pulled some surprises - stalkers in the forest, power cuts in the night, mass mobile phone thefts, disappearing staff, disappearing guests: there’s nothing can bring out people’s hidden strengths or break down inter-personal barriers quite like not having a clue what’s going on and being scared out of your wits. However, when the only vehicular access for thirty miles is cut off it seems that events are being orchestrated not just for pleasure … And that’s before they find the first body. Thereafter, ‘finding out who your colleagues really are’ is not so much an end product as the key to reaching Monday morning alive.

A review - This book is purely for entertainment, and entertain it did. Humour, suspense and gore followed by more humour, suspense and gore. Parlabane and Vale make an awesome duo, and I wish there could have been more books with the two of them in together.

There are twists and turns all the way through. Often I found myself thinking ‘It would be awesome/gross/typical Brookmyre if…’ only for my ‘if’ to happen not long later. But in fairness, I also had quite a few ‘typical Brookmyre’s challenged, while still managing to be quite brilliant.