Best first novel of the year

Another fast talking, fast action thriller by the author of QUITE UGLY ONE MORNING, winner of the 1996 Critics' First Blood Award.

The occasion: high school reunion. The place: an oil rig converted into a tourist resort. The outcome: carnage.

In perfect Brookmyre tradition this new thriller featuring Jack Parlabane contains a lot of body fluids, the Establishment at its most corrupt, relatively few dead bodies and a formidable display of black humour.

There's a mansion, there's murder, there's mystery - and Miss Marple wouldn't live till lunchtime. Featuring Jack Parlabane - played by James Nesbitt in the television drama of QUITE UGLY ONE MORNING

Real Life sucks. He's thirty, his dreams of becoming a rock star are long gone, and he's just discovered that responsibility has no Escape key.

Intrigue. Espionage. Advanced technology. Clinical violence. Hoovering. It's the new Christopher Brookmyre novel.

Are the characteristics of an adult killer or his victim visible in the playground or at the school disco? Or are the roots of a motive for murder seeded there? With characteristic brio and humour, Christopher Brookmyre investigates

Bad language. Scatalogical humour. Razor wit. Convoluted plot. High readability. It's the new Christopher Brookmyre novel.

The senior pupils of St Peter's High School are on retreat to a secluded outdoor activity centre, coming to terms with the murder of a fellow pupil. Not so far away, the commanders of a top-secret military experiment fear they may have unleashed the forces of Hell. Two very different worlds are on a collision course.