Two identical suicides one in Scotland and the other in Los Angeles, but are they suicide? Bring in the Octogenarian Penny Coyne in Scotland and Johnny Hawke in LA. Penny and Johnny end up joining forces but then the story twists!

Not sure whether I enjoyed this book, it is well written but very mind bending.

Have you ever finished the entire run of a particular crime series and then looked at the next author with dozens of books with the same sleuth and thought: where do I start?

Well, this is not one of those books. Meet Penny Coyne (I know), star of a cosy crime set in a small Perthshire village, where murder seems to dog every parishioner's footsteps. Also meet Johnny Hawke, hard-bitten and cynical LAPD homicide detective, ready to do whatever it takes to get the perp. And when their worlds met, it was moider!

As their two investigations collide, the facts add up to an impossible number, a rabbithole that opens up and swallows you in a literary maze akin to a Thursday Next novel. We know all the well-trodden beats in the crime genre, but what happens when you cross-pollinate Miss Marple with Harry Bosch, and throw in creative direction by Christopher Nolan? The Cracked Mirror, people, a mystery within an enigma within a conundrum, a labyrinth of stock characters expanded to mythic proportions by the ingenious and fiendishly entertaining plot and two characters who are so much more than their immediate peers.

And the twist! No spoilers but, man, the twist is so worth the highly entertaining read of Brookmyre’s highwire performance. It’s one where a second reading, a third reading will give you even more to savour. A big fat five stars from me.

3* The Mirror Cracked by Chris Brookmyre, a smart high concept thriller.

Penny lives a less than quiet life in her pretty Perthshire village, with a reputation for solving murders and supporting the local police. When a body is found in the confession box of the local church, Penny is quickly into detective mode, but not before she is mysteriously invited to a significant society wedding. Johnny is a 'seat of his pants and don't bother with the rules' kind of LA detective. Sent out to look into a high-profile suicide, he suspects that all isn't as simple as his superiors want it to be. And then the clues take him to Perthshire ...

Mixing up genres is a tricky thing to pull off, not least the tone and pace. Here we have Agatha Christie's Marple meets noir meets Michael Connelly (and lots more besides but I won't spoil the fun). This is a hugely enjoyable book where you get sucked into every part of its universe. The plot is a little 'involved' with a lot of characters, so it certainly isn't one for a quick read but it is certainly a book that is full of twists and turns, which are extremely clever right to the end.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC

Chris Brookmyre is an insta buy author for me, and this is no exception. Deftly executed, a fun, pacy thriller with a great twist. I absolutely loved it.

Thank you to netgalley, the author and the publisher for this advance reader copy.
I so wanted to love this book having read the blurb. Unfortunately I had to give up 20% into the story because I found it too confusing to follow. There were so many characters that I couldn't remember who was who and I found the storyline confusing. Not for me I'm afraid.

Although a bit bit of slow burner, it is well worth sticking with this book. Beautifully written and truly a masterpiece.

Love a good Chris Brookmyre novel and this is one of those. Miss Marple meets Harry Bosch by way of Douglas Adams! Mystery, thriller, cosy crime, crime noir and Sci-fi, this book covers many a genre. Entertaining page turner and a change of style for Chris Brookmyre. Fear not though, his dark humour and likeable characters are all present and correct.

WOW what an edge of the seat mystery thriller The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre is. This is my first time reading a book by this fantastic author.

Penny Coyne an elderly librarian in a sleepy village encounters John Hawke an LAPD Homicide Detective, an unlikely pair team up together to solve the mystery of a double locked-rooom mystery. and much much more.

A book, a movie, a video game, murder, deceit, science fiction all factor in this mystery thriller. Agatha Christie, John Marrs, Michael Connelly rolled into the mix.

I love John Hawke's catchphrase 'Holly Goly.' when he is up against it and has a light bulb moment it is so endearing. Don't let Penny in her twinset and tweed fool anybody as beneath her exterior she is one smart cookie. Also behind hard hitting Detective John Hawke there lies a heart of gold especially in his relationship with Penny.

Found this a very intriguing read but did require some perseverance, some bits I got and some I didn’t, well least not until the end. The meeting of the two central characters was fun to read and follow however bizarre it got and in the end I was waiting for the Penny to drop, which it duly did. A gumshoe and tweeds avatar which I enjoyed reading.

From the blurb:

FORGET WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW
THIS IS NOT THAT CRIME NOVEL

You know Johnny Hawke. Hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective. Always in trouble with his captain, always losing partners, but always battling for the truth, whatever it takes.

You know Penny Coyne. The little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her otherwise sleepy village, despite bumbling local police. A razor-sharp mind in a Sunday best hat.

A cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly, The Cracked Mirror is the most imaginative and entertaining crime novel of the year, a genre-splicing rollercoaster with a poignantly emotional heart.

Well, I didn't know Johnny Hawke, but I ADORE Michael Connelly. I also don't know Penny Coyne, nor have I read Agatha Christie - but I did really enjoy this book.

It's actually incredibly quite difficult to write a review which doesn't give any spoilers and I don't ever do that!

There is something troubling about the content, something which we can't understand yet, the possibilities and risks that makes me feel like it's tapping into a world, which frankly scares the shit out of me!

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced copy, I'll be checking out the authors other work for certain now!

I got about 15% in before I gave up. I found it quite confusing and wasn’t really sure what was happening. I loved the premise when I first heard of it and the actual writing was very good. I’m sure if I’d persevered there would have been some great twists but I just think it wasn’t for me.

I enjoyed this mystery/thriller very much, even though most of the time I had no clue what was going on! There are red herrings, dead ends and confusion aplenty as elderly Scot Penny and suspended LA cop Johnny sleuth together to uncover the riddle connecting three (or more) murders - or were some of them suicides?! Whilst the denouement requires a bit of an imaginative stretch, it doesn't detract from the overall plot, which has seemed borderline fantastical from the very start. I particularly enjoyed the love-hate relationship between the two protagonists, and their different styles of investigating the crimes. This book is a page-turner, lighthearted but well-written, an excellent choice for a summer read for puzzle lovers.

Ohhh very interesting premise and fun read

I loved the two characters and how they were written, I could not get enough!

This book caught my eye because I enjoy reading Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly, and I'd just finished reading my first Christopher Brookmyre book. I was intrigued how he was going to combine such different styles, but he does it excellently, alternating between two stories which don’t appear to be related initially, but start to become intertwined as the book progresses. The Agatha Christie element is very Miss Marple. It’s impossible to say more without giving the major plot twist away. It’s a long book for a crime novel (the paperback has 512 pages) but it kept me interested and was a satisfying read. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Cracker Mirror was the first book I’ve read by Chris Brookmyre, and I was thrilled to receive an ARC copy because the premise really intrigued me. It’s one of those books that I can’t say too much about without giving plot lines away, and one that you should absolutely go into blind to get the most immersive experience.

It’s Russian dolls in book form. There are so many layers, so many characters, and every time I thought I might have figured out where the story was going, I was proven wrong.

That being said, I found the pacing of this book quite slow for my own tastes. This book is set in four parts, and I was confused for the entirety of part 1, although I thoroughly enjoyed part 2. Similarly, I enjoyed part 3 to begin with but thought it lost its way towards the end. This middle part was where we could have lost 50-100 pages and still told the same story. I thought part 4 was a good conclusion and very very clever, and Chris Brookmyre’s writing is brilliant.

Overall, I thought The Cracked Mirror was undeniably far-fetched and a little bit silly, but ultimately a whole lot of fun. When this worked for me, it really worked. It just took me a lot longer to get into than I’d hoped, and didn’t have me hooked the whole way through.

Thank you NetGalley, Little Brown Book Group for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

At first I thought this was like an Agatha Christie novel which I don't like particularly. An Octogenarian sleuth who solves murders in a little village in Scotland, teams up with an LA cop on suspension to solve a few similar cases of suicide which are not quite what they seem.
Quirky murder mystery with an unusual and unexpected twist at the end.

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book as I am a big fine of the detective/crime genre, but I’m afraid I was terribly disappointed. There is an enormous cast of characters and it’s impossible to keep track; even the two central characters are entirely two-dimensional. Numerous stories overlap which makes it all very disjointed and by the end I had no understanding of who had committed any of the crimes or even who was whom. I’m very sorry because I always try to be positive in my reviews but I just didn’t enjoy anything about this book.

Thank you to netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advance copy to read.

Sadly I had to DNF at 25%. I really couldn't grasp what was happening with the two storylines running together. I didn't remember a single characters name and didn't really understand what was happening.

The actual writing was decent, it just wasn't for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book with no obligation to review.

This is very inventive indeed. At first I was not sure about it, I didn't really like the Penny bit at the start but then we meet Johnny and I liked that theme much more., even although there is a surprisingly upsetting death very early in the LA section.. It all hots up when Penny and Johnny meet and from then on the story just zips along with loads happening, some things perhaps rather less believable than others - a shoot out in the public library of a genteel Perthshire town, for example.. I was a bit irked by some apparent inconsistencies in the action but keep reading and find out why.

Towards the end it all becomes very Black Mirror and although I cannot pretend to understand all the technicalities, it is a great and original twist. Finally, we think we know everything and then the last paragraph makes us doubt all over again.

Really enjoyable.

I loved the sound of two drastically different detectives colliding and working together in The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre. The idea of a Miss Marple type of detective working with a Harry Bosch L.A. type really tickled my fancy.

The story begins in picturesque Perthshire and an elderly Penny Coyne, Librarian and amateur detective, is preparing to go to a high-society wedding. She’s not sure why she has been invited, but is intent on going anyway to find out why. Running parallel, in Los Angeles, Johnny Hawke is a LAPD homocide detective called in to investigate a mysterious death death in a film studio. His investigation takes him to Scotland and the same hotel and wedding that Penny Coyne is attending.

I enjoyed the fish out of element of the story of Johnny Hawke in Scotland. I enjoyed reading the burgeoning relationship between Johnny and Penny, which was believable, touching and a joy to read.

Without giving away too much, this is a pacy story with even further strands. At one point, I had to re-read a chapter or two just to make sure I was across it all. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed this edgy exciting story!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Little, Brown Book Group UK, for making the e-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.