‘I HAVE AN UNNERVING FACILITY FOR RECALLING EVENTS'
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THE BEST BO'C'iKS, Oiiiés {EVENTS
Schooldaze
For his latest murder mystery Christopher Brookmyre has headed back to the classroom. Mark Robertson does his best to avoid the dunces corner.
ove it oi' loathe it. school is something almost
everyone has in common. l‘or his tenth novel. the
typically loquaciotisly titled. A 'liilt' lz'lr'lir'rl in Il/nm/ tHIt/ llrl/‘r/ Blur/t l’t'iii‘il. ('hristopher Brookmyre has dug deep into his scholastic past to construct a story. which is markedly different from his previous work. Many of his signature traits remain; plotlines that c\p|oi'e the dark recesses of the human mind. conllict. deceit. mystery. and. the most effective weapon in his arsenal. his deft touch with coal black humour. The difference is perspective. The book is broken up into school years. kicking off at that weepy. pee-soaked first day of primary one. and climaxing with the fifth year. cnd-of-teriii disco. Betwist is cleaved the exploration and resolution of several murders. We discover the victims‘ identities from the outset. and spend the book e\ploriiig their past. garnering clues. not through detective work. but through these early events.
‘I have an almost unnerving facility for being able to recall events from a loiig time ago. so it was quite an enjoyable exerciscf he says. ‘Because I was mining all these events ~ and I would stress it was events. rather than people a most of which were all based on truth. I was able to concentrate on finding out what those events were doing to the characters.‘
This is no simple nostalgia trip though. More than just dusting regular dialogue with playground vocabulary. Brookmyre understands intrinsically the brutal. black and white of school culture. an environment where reputations are made or ruined. and thieves. hardmen and pant w'etters are rarely forgotten.
‘I made the decision quite early on that l was going to
28 THE LIST .‘5‘ Mi. 8 June 2008
write the childhood stuff first. without even deciding what the murder mystery would be. I didn‘t know their futures. But by the time I had gotten through school with them. it almost wrote itself. If you‘re trying to do something like this where you’re going into the past. you might subconsciously throw in some big arrows to guide people. But when I set out. I didn't even know who the victims and the villains weref
In creating such a vivid world. Brookmyre. in a way. does himself a disservice. The early story is so good it renders the mystery that develops in tandem somewhat underfed. He could have taken the opportunity to write more about where those nervous primary oners ended up. ‘The best compliment I've been paid about this book was from a guy who emailed me and said that my descriptions of school in here were just like his — and he went to a boarding school in lingland.‘
This comment proves a point. While renowned as a sharp-tongued mystery writer. Brookmyre and other commercially successful ‘genre‘ writers tend to be sidelined in the credibility stakes because of their work's supposed formula-based nature. .l 'I'u/r' . . . doesn‘t necessarily throw up revelations about the human condition. as ‘real‘ literature is supposed to. but instead reminds us where it comes from and how the minutiae of our developing years stays with Us forever. no matter how deep we try to bury it.
A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil is published by Little, Brown on Thu 25 May. Brookmyre will appear at Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 2 Jun.
=l< Christopher Brookmyre Old school pals and a pile of bodies are the context to the Glasgow-based writer's latest crime mystery, A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil. See preview, left. Little. Brown; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 2 Jun.
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