To The Last Page

You should probably have a good idea what to expect from a novel by Frankie Boyle, which is something that might dismay as many people as it excites, and sure enough Meantime doesn't overturn any prior expectations you might have. You might not have expected a neo-noir crime thriller maybe, but this fiction debut is nonetheless filled with amusing and often laugh-out-loud one-liners and observations that often border - or, depending on your viewpoint, overstep - boundaries of good taste. Boyle's take on a Glaswegian version of noir crime thriller inevitably has his very own characteristic spin on the genre. His detective Felix McVeety is not just the hard-bitten, hard-drinking type, but also one who indulges in - or perhaps more accurately is unable to function without - vast quantities of drugs. Hey, it did Sherlock Holmes no harm, as his friend and downstairs neighbour Donnie observes, so Felix reckons that while they are two people least likely to be investigating anything...