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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 Funny Witty Suspense Murder

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
Most relevant  
The humour is as you’d expect from Frankie Boyle, the plot is so so, and the drug portrayal is far closer to parody than reality. We all need to earn a living and so we can’t be too hard on Boyle for turning to writing like seemingly every other stand up during lock down. He does better than some, not as well as others. Certainly not a must listen, but enjoyable enough. In comedy terms, if 1 is Mrs Brown’s Boys and 10 is George Carlin, this pulls a reliable 5.

Yeah, it was alright

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Not sure you could predict even a chapter ahead.

Great story, well written - great turn of phrase . . .

Great Read!

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Absolutely loved it! Performance was on point, with different accents done perfectly. Incredibly witty with it's realistic dry jokes. The crime investigation side was interesting, I'm not too into crime novels but the humor was incredibly good, the dark jokes were captivating, and kept me interested in what turned out to be a really good, satisfying crime investigation plot.

Hilariously dark

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Can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this book,
It hit some very personal moments.
Thanks Frankie Boyle….

The Last Leg

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I enjoyed this novel from Frankie, plenty of laughs in a well written package. This is his best book so far, in my opinion.

A good book, well worth checking out.

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Laughed out loud many times Brilliant, even better if you’re familiar with frankie Boyle already. Laughed out loud many times

Brilliant, even better if you’re familiar with frankie Boyle already. Laughed out loud many times

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Immensely dark in a charismatic and light-hearted way. I understand why the delivery would feel flat to some, but to me it perfectly fit Frankie’s deliberate melancholy.

Genuinely hilarious at so many points I lost count, usually in the form of similes, metaphors, and analogies.

I’d recommend without hesitation. But not to everyone.

Peacefully dark, hilarious, and moving.

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While I delighted in the narrator’s accent and various voices, the narration was a little flat. The story left me confused and my brain as addled as the central character.

Not much sense

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