All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye

Book excerpt: This prize-winning comic thriller takes readers “from high-octane gun antics to kitchen mopping in East Kilbride . . . [in] one beast of a story” (The Guardian, UK). International bestselling author Christopher Brookmyre has been lauded for his dark sense of humor and brilliant suspense plotting. Now his Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize–winning novel follows “his most ambitious heroine yet”: a forty-six-year-old house-proud grandmother (The Guardian, UK). As a teenager, Jane Bell had dreamt of playing in the casinos of Monte Carlo, surrounded by the likes of James Bond. But now her dreams are as dry as the dust her Dyson sucks up from her hall carpet. Her son Ross, a researcher for a Swiss arms manufacturer, is the one with the exciting life. But lately it’s gotten a bit too exciting. Ross needs to disappear before some shady characters force him to divulge the secrets of his research. And they’re not the only ones desperate to locate him. Ross’s firm has hired a team of security experts, and, headed by the enigmatic Bett, they have little in common apart from total professionalism and a thorough disregard for the law. Bett believes the key to Ross’s whereabouts is his mother, and in one respect, he is right. But even he is taken aback by her dogged determination to secure her son’s safety. The teenage dreams of fast cars, high-tech firepower, and extreme action had always promised to be fun and games, but in real life, it’s likely someone is going to lose an eye . . . “Funny, electric and captivating.” —Times (UK)