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Meantime

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Meantime

By: Frankie Boyle
Narrated by: Chris Reilly
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About this listen

*FRANKIE BOYLE'S GRIPPING CRIME NOVEL: AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER *

'A dark and entertaining tranche of Glasgow noir . . . [A] deft, engaging thriller' Observer

'Full of scintillating sentences and perfect lines of dialogue' Sunday Times

_______________________________________________________________

Glasgow, 2015. 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. Felix enlists the help of a brilliant but mercurial GP; a bright young trade unionist; a failing screenwriter; semi-celebrity crime novelist Jane Pickford; and his crisis fuelled downstairs neighbour Donnie.

Their investigation sends them on a bewildering expedition that takes in Scottish radical politics, Artificial Intelligence, cults, secret agents, smugglers and vegan record shops.

Meantime is a picaresque detective story set against the backdrop of post-referendum Scotland. Frankie B
oyle's compelling debut novel is a tale of murder and revenge, and of personal and political loss.

'A darkest noir, unputdownable crime novel that swerves and surprises, with a gut-punch ending. I loved it!' Denise Mina, author of The Long Drop

'Inherent vices and scalpel-sharp jokes vie with a very human concern for those least garlanded in the rat race of life' Ian Rankin

©2022 Frankie Boyle (P)2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Crime Fiction Crime Fiction Witty Funny Suspense Murder

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Critic reviews

"A gloriously funny mystery that bucks the 'cosy crime trend'... Peppered with one-liners, it reads Raymond Chandler in Glasgow... Boyle regularly deploys the beautifully offbeat imagery that characterises the best of his stand-up." (Telegraph)

"A surprisingly moving and beautiful journey through one man's shitshow of a friend's death / hangover." (Lucy Prebble, executive producer and writer of Succession)
All stars
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I really enjoyed Frankie Boyle’s novel. Great story with memorable characters. I laughed out load 10+ times, which I haven’t done since the first reading of John Niven’s Kill Your Friends. I hope this is the first of many

Addictive

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I’ve always enjoyed the truth in Boyle’s tasteless comedy of despair. And I’ve long suspected, from the evidence of his monologues at the end of his TV shows and his contributions to newspaper columns, that there was a great writer struggling to get out of him. So it was no surprise to me to discover that he is to the genre of detective fiction what Raymond Chandler was, almost a hundred years before.

Like Chandler, his descriptions are vivid, unvarnished and often hilarious, using a no nonsense pros style that belies the eloquence and flare Boyle has with language. Also, like Chandler, he has a flawed but compelling realist detective, seeing the world (and coping with it) through a prism of drugs. Where Philip Marlowe drank heavily in every other scene, Felix, our protagonist, self medicates with every substance imaginable. And, like Chandler’s LA, Boyle’s Glasgow is a menagerie of highly entertaining, well drawn and compelling characters of every imaginable background; from government spooks to terminal novelists, from corrupted cops to doctors with god complexes, they’re all here.

The surprise for me was not Boyle’s facility with language, nor his ability to tell a cracking mystery story. It was his capacity to move me to tears of empathic grief, set alongside his ability to make me guffaw at absurd yet truthful humour, without jarring me and, somehow, making it all feel appropriate.

In the same way that I fell in love with Philip Marlowe’s journey from 1939 to 1959, I want to see if Felix has any more adventures in him. I do hope so.

Genuinely the best detective novel of this century so far, to be rated alongside John Le Carre or Cormac McCarthy for Boyle’s capacity to capture truths within fiction and to distil it into an addictive cocktail, not for the faint hearted.

Fans of Boyle will get it immediately. But there’s a much wider audience out there which I hope this book will reach. This could be the start of a brilliant fiction writer’s career?

Frankie Hard Boyled May Cause Addiction

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and some good writing too, especially about tragedy, sadness, loss, alienation. But the plot meanders, is overcomplicated and broadly implausible.

many good lines

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Loved this story from start to finish. This couldn’t be more Boyle-esque and the narrative is simply superb.

North of the border intrigue

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Amazing storytelling and the characters are all terrific. Dialougue is incredibly written. Wonderful insights and delightfully funny if you have a morbid sense of humour. Superb narration!

Loved it

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Relentlessly funny, which of course was only to be expected, but also a well constructed and enjoyable whodunnit. Full of characters I cared about, and horrible bastards I wanted to see get their comeuppance. I hope to have the chance to read more in this line from Mr Boyle. The voice actor who narrated it was perfect for the job, He could do both the Glasgow humour, and the accents of the non Scottish characters.

Relentlessly funny

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I recommend this book for anyone feeling frustrated with mainstream takes on politics… but it’s not about politics. It’s about loss, pain and our need for meaning. Plus a great crime story.

Superb!

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This book is a lot like his stand-up comedy, in that it is clever, deep cutting and intellectually presented with a political edge. The characters are brilliantly created and the story masterfully told. Be prepared to share a lot of the emotion with the characters in the book.

Affectional story from Frankie Boyle

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Liked it it but not the best book. For me, there were slightly too many characters. Some classic Boyle lines which made me howl. Good story but could have been better. Narration was good

Not bad. Some great bits

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Loved it, I've read nothing like it but I loved it. It made this English middle aged lady laugh out loud, shake my head in confusion (mostly about the array of pills!) and cry real tears. a Brilliant Novel please write more.

Insane

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