This story started off in a confusing way for me. There are dual time lines, which I don’t mind, it was the three locations that got me, Scotland, L.A and imagination, that was the tricky one by far.
What connects an elderly Scottish Miss Marple genteel lady with a hard boiled L.A Detective?
Penny Coyne has solved many mysteries and murders in her quiet little corner of Perthshire, in fact she appears to have a local police officer on speed dial, but now, Penny appears to be experiencing memory loss and drift in conversations, then the disturbing flashbacks that are frightening and concern people and places she cannot recognise.
Penny receives an invitation to a posh wedding, but the names of the betrothed couple mean nothing to her. She accepts and hopes that missing pieces of this particular jigsaw puzzle will fall into place.
Johnny Hawke is a L.A Police Detective. He is investigating a suicide that could be a homicide, and his latest actions have resulted in yet another of his partners getting killed on duty. He is suspended from duty, but decides to follow information gleaned from his source, which leads him to Scotland.Penny and Johnny meet up at the very same wedding hotel. Murders continue.
Once you get used to the central characters, you become very fond and involved in them, they compliment each other perfectly, one being calm and organised, the other being gung-ho and forceful, but sometimes, that is just what is needed. They care for the truth.
This book isn’t straight forward, I was lost so many times.
40%, story became clearer.
54%, absolutely riveting, fast in pace and action.
74%, Curveball thrown! An additional character at this late stage? What is the relevance?
88%, goes all Sci Fi, - unbelievable, having to completely rethink all I thought I knew.
100%, well, if this is what we all have to look forward to, then I’ll pass, thank you.
I have rated this as a five star read, it’s a while since I had an actual headache whilst reading a book, and I think my head is still buzzing, in no way can this be called dull.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Little, Brown Book Group UK, for my advanced copy, freely given in exchange for my honest review. I will leave copies to Goodreads and Amazon UK upon publication.

This is a twisted murder mystery crime thriller. There is a lot going on, in fact I want to thank the publisher that they give us the full book and don’t split it up into a series. We have two sleuths. A hard ass don’t take no-nonsense get the job done anyway necessary LA cop. And a Scottish, Miss Marple type, going on in years and you won’t suspect she’s totally got your number. They start in different places, but their paths meet as the chase for a serial murderer speeds up. And I have to say that’s just the surface of what you will find between the covers. Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Huh! I.... don't quite know what to say lol. I was very intrigued by the premise but this was absolutely not what I was expecting. At all! Literally unlike any other thriller/ mystery/ police proceedural I've ever come across and that's not a bad thing. Its just so different that it did take a while to get into the swing of and grasp what was happening. Its very cleverly written and one of those that you'll either love or hate! Luckily I appreciated the new take on what otherwise would have been pretty standard tropes. Granted with an amazing twist

I honestly tried to understand what was in the author’s head when he wrote this novel. But, this reviewer has to acknowledge that he failed in this task. I’m sure many readers would be drawn to the Miss Marple meets Mickey Spillane opening chapters. Here, Mr Brookmyre really crafts a delightful working together of LA Cop and a Scottish female amateur sleuth of advanced years. The writing here is clever and somehow finds a point at which the two genres can coexist quite happily.
However it would seem that after setting this rather calm scene, the author throws a switch and the reader is left floundering, struggling to keep up with the suddenly exposed new dimensions and possibilities that this departure from a traditional narrative arc reveals. The limitations inherent in this kind of writing are revealed in all their glory when the author has to devote so many pages in the final chapters to explain to the long-suffering reader what has been happening and to invent a whole box of delights that somehow throws into the mix some pseudo-scientific/IT driven mechanisms that are somehow expected to give some sense of closure and finality to this work. Great beginning, confusing middle and flat ending.

Loved this. Complex, clever, funny and absolutely crazy in parts. This, for me, was a return to the Chris Brookmyre of old where you'd start with something innocuous - a team building exercise or a school outing say and end up with a terrorist siege or in hell. Yes, this was Brookmyre at his convoluted, crazy best.

However I am at a loss as to explain the plot simply because it starts out with two seemingly random murders and ends up with the mother of all twists - best read the synopsis.

There are myriad twists along the way but the whole story is carried beautifully by detectives Johnny Hawke and Penny Coyne. Johnny is the hardboiled LA detective and Penny is a gifted amateur who solves murders in a tiny village in Scotland where, she admits, there are a lot more murders than there should be. They are a great double act but both with secrets of their own.

I realise that this novel may not be for everyone but if you've read One Fine Day or Pandaemonium then you'll know what kind of genius lunacy you're in for. Sit back and enjoy every word.

If I could give a piece of advice I'd say don't get hung up on remembering all the names or the chapter headings just follow the story.

Thankyou very much to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group for the advance review copy. Very much appreciated.

I’m no sorry to say that this book wasn’t for me. The synopsis really gripped me as I love an Agatha Christie type mystery and setting, and at first I enjoyed getting to know Penny in Scotland but the the jump to LA and the Sci-fi element through it just wasn’t for me and I was getting confused, that’s probably more my fault than the writers, mayb just the way I’m feeling at the moment but I just could not get really into it at all. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this early copy.

Another cracking novel from Chris Brookmyre, marrying up his crime roots with his sci fi speciality.
Great characterisation as always and with a fabulous sense of place. Twisty and turning and very confusing at times but with a really interesting conclusion.

I did feel the ending was a bit rushed. But overall I enjoyed this one.

I unfortunately found it difficult to engage with this book. The opening chapters paint a delightful Agatha Christie style murder mystery in Perthshire with Penny, an 80 year old inquisitive resident, being drawn into solving the mystery of a murder in the local church. The story then jumps to Los Angeles and the exploits of a brash police detective. I felt the transitions rather jarring and, rarely for me, I didn’t finish this book.

Really enjoyed this book and its playful take on the detective genre - it was a great reminder of so many of the books I have read and enjoyed while still keeping some of its own personality and not undermining the genre.

Looking at both a detective in LA and a little old lady in Scotland, the opening chapters took me a little time to get into but once I'd got into the rhythm of the story I liked alternating between the different tropes. I also particularly relished the little metafiction asides about writing and literary references, something that worked very well in this twisting and turning plot.

Essentially, if you like golden age detective fiction, noir or any other mysteries then this is the book to read! I'll be reading Chris Brookmyre's other books next :)

I usually really like Chris Brookmyre's writing, and enjoy a story that tinkers with genres and narratives, but sadly, for me, this didn't really hang together. While I enjoyed the Miss Marple, hard boiled US detective crossover and accepted the rather tenuous wedding meeting, I gave up trying to follow the video game/AI plot, and sadly, for the first time with his books, failed to finish.
Thank you to netgalley and Little Brown books for an advance copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this. Completely mad premise, but held together with aplomb and intrigue, and great character definition.

Well I thought I had stepped into a parallel universe and two books had downloaded together. I was just getting introduced to Penny from Scotland, and in bounces Jonny from LA. Two most unlikely characters who somehow got thrown together.
I found the storyline was difficult follow, and did a lot of re reading. I have to confess to loosing interest along the way. It was almost Si-fi meets crime, a blend that is hard to comprehend.

I had high hopes of this double genre crime book. A Miss Marple librarian - Penny Coyne in quaint Scottish village who has a penchant for solving murders (the last a grisly vicar killed in a confessional) becomes the assistant in detection with smart talking Johnny Hawke - who works close to the edge and has a habit of losing partners to death. This offered great potential I thought.
They meet at a wedding in a Scottish Hall/Castle where another death/murder ensues and there is already a link with why Johnny has left LA and followed a link to one of the wedding guests. Suddenly rather than looking for a murderer they are being chased in a Fiat! by people who suddenly want to murder them for being nosey (ie including the local Chief Insp McCleod).
I had allowed myself to follow this fantasy duo as the plot evolved well with characters that could be believed but the whole thing unravelled for me when they had to escape back to LA in search of suspects who were having double identities and a world of video games/virtual reality/Artificial Intelligence that I have no interest in. Penny felt mostly out of her depth in this scenario (despite her links with St Andrews University and wanting a good cup of tea!)
Overall I found the last third of the book overlong. The jealousies and needs for money making seemed to confuse the motives for some of the characters and I wondered if the author was trying to appeal to a different reader than the Scottish link (ie cosy crime but still a puzzle to unravel).
There were hints at the developing kindness and softening of Johnny as he works with Penny and of her hard streak in securing the truth.
I found the ending difficult to unravel. Computers/codes/devices delving into blood samples/twin identities. All very confusing.
A bit robotic for my liking - books, humans, crime puzzles are more to my liking.

4.5 stars. When I read the synopsis and it said genre bending, I was intrigued about a composite of cosy crime and hard boiled crime, which it was….. But there’s another element which was not mentioned, and it confused the heck out of me to start. It was a bold move, and it’s a tricky one to explain so I’m going to stick with “no spoilers”.
On the face of it, this is a really fun read, the two main characters are so diametrically opposed and yet they are both determined to get to the bottom of the mystery that has brought them together. They work well together in my opinion and I enjoyed their relationship, and the way they brought out the best in each other (I’d love to see this in the cinema starring Dame Judi Dench and Henry Cavill).
The writing is next level; there are so many intricacies and things that don’t make sense at first, and yet it all pieces together into a phenomenal story that I’ll be talking about to everyone. I’m really hoping that this is well received and gets the attention it deserves.

"The Cracked Mirror" by Chris Brookmyre, is quite an experience. As someone unfamiliar with Brookmyre's work, I wasn't sure what to expect from this genre-bending mashup of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly. But what a wild ride it turned out to be!
At first, I was a bit sceptical about the dual narrative voices - the calm, collected Penny Coyne, a Scottish librarian with a knack for solving murders, and Johnny Hawke, a hard-boiled LAPD detective with a penchant for trouble. The two protagonists' worlds collide when a mysterious wedding invitation and a dead writer lead them on a trail of clues that takes them from Los Angeles to Scotland.
As I settled into the story, I found myself drawn into the intricate web of plot and characters. Penny and Johnny are both well-written and relatable in their ways, despite their vastly different backgrounds and personalities. The relationship between them is particularly enjoyable to watch unfold as they're forced to work together to unravel the mystery.
But let me tell you, this book is not for the faint of heart. The plot is complex, with multiple twists and turns that'll keep you guessing until the end. Some of the events feel a bit far-fetched, and you'll need to suspend your disbelief sometimes. However, everything comes together in a thrilling finale that's both surprising and satisfying.
One of the things that struck me about this book is its willingness to take risks. Brookmyre blends genres in innovative ways, combining elements of a cosy mystery with hard-boiled detective fiction. It's not always seamless, but it's undeniably ambitious.
For me, the book's biggest strength is its two main characters. Penny and Johnny are both fascinating in their ways, and their interactions are some of the most enjoyable parts of the story. However, I did find myself more invested in the mystery itself than in their personal stories.
Overall, "The Cracked Mirror" is an inventive, twisty thriller that's sure to appeal to fans of both Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly. While it may not be perfect, it's a bold experiment that pays off in the end. If you're looking for something new and exciting in the crime genre, this might be the book for you. Just be prepared for a wild ride!

Two detectives stereotyped from Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly should not be in the same universe but what happens when they cross each other’s path? Well, murder!

Although it took me a while to read this, I liked the pace and intrigue of the book. It was nicely written in each style with lots of pondering about what was going on. The reveal of this was clever but a little bit of a let down. However, this didn’t stop the twists and turns at the end to give it an enjoyable and satisfying finish.

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.

Crazy, fascinating, original, and completely gripping. I have yet to read a book by Chris Brookmyre that I haven't enjoyed. What amazes me most is the variety in his work— his books cover so many different subjects, historical periods and settings - yet they consistently deliver a first-class reading experience. In "Cracked Mirror," Brookmyre masterfully incorporates and merges several seemingly unconnected genres into a mind blowing puzzle of a story. The plot is complex and multilayered, with many unexpected twists and turns, light humorous dialogues, memorable characters, and plenty of action. I enjoyed every page and can't wait to read more from this talented writer. Bravo, Mr Brookmyre!

The Cracked Mirror is a mind-blowing high concept mystery novel. I don’t know much about Michael Connelly but I do love me some Agatha Christie so that is what sold this one to me initially. I also enjoyed the other books I read by this author so I was pretty confident I was going to enjoy this one too and I did, even though it had my head spinning after a while.

It starts as a cosy mystery with a death in a church that was solved so quickly by Penny Coyne (love the name!) that I wasn’t even halfway through my coffee. I felt a little deflated to be honest but by the end of the novel I almost reminisced about those easier times :-). On the other side of the pond the death of a screen writer thankfully seemed to be a little more interesting to unravel by Johnny Hawk. I was wondering how their paths would cross being on different continents but it happened a lot sooner than I thought in quite a clever way. Johnny is a hardened LA cop who isn’t shy of breaking the rules and Penny, a veritable Miss Marple, the complete opposite, yet they clicked and they clicked with me too.

There weren’t any dull moments in this book, on the contrary, it gets quite complicated with not one but multiple suicides/potential murders that all seem alike. There’s also a big cast of characters tied to each of deaths. I had to make a scheme because it was often confusing me, which is mainly why I dropped my rating. Then the plot ventured into the science fiction genre and my eyes just got bigger and bigger. Brookmyre is brilliant but at times it wasn’t easy to follow. Forget about the first death, the focus is actually on another death. Am I confusing you already? You haven’t seen anything yet 🙂

If you’re into an imaginative, very clever whodunnit that demands a lot of your attention then you’re good to go. It’s a bit of a challenging novel and not my favorite genre but I’m sure there will be plenty of readers who will love its originality.

I liked this book and enjoyed the combining of the two genres. I was somewhat confused at times with the various characters and had to reread in order to clarify at the end, am still not sure I’ve fully grasped everything about who did what to whom but that doesn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.
There were a number of typos but I assume that’s because this was an ARC and sincerely thank the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this highly entertaining book, which I will definitely recommend to others.