A funny crime thriller set in Glasgow

Frankie Boyle has secured a publisher for his first novel: a crime thriller set in Glasgow after the Scottish independence referendum.

Due to be released in July next year, Meantime revolves around a drug addict trying to solve the murder of his best friend, after the police show no interest.

He recruits the help of a dying crime novelist and his crisis-ridden friend in a quest that ‘takes them into the dark heart of Scottish politics, the orbit of drug dealers, and the matrix of artificial intelligence’.

Publishers Baskerville describe the book as ‘a wild ride through Glasgow's multicultural present [and] colonial past. It’s dazzlingly funny, grappling with big ideas, and is heartbreakingly tinged with personal and political loss’.

And Boyle told trade website The Bookseller: ‘I love crime fiction, and I love funny novels, so I thought I’d have a bash at putting them together.

‘I’m also very keen on not going mad during a lockdown, and writing the book really helped with that.

‘If you want to read about someone with few skills and little insight making a very poor attempt to solve his friend’s murder, this is the book for you.’

He previously revealed that  he originally intended Meantime to be an audiobook ‘but it got longer and a lot of the joy of it is in the dialogue’.

The comic added:  ‘It's a kind of multicultural, postcolonial idea of Glasgow. There's a character who's a London woman with a Zambian background, there's a middle-aged guy from Edinburgh, there's an Indian lassie, there's a Scottish Chinese guy, all this kind of stuff.

‘It's really good, I'm really proud of it" he said of the novel. "But as it got longer I realised I can't do all those voices or really sell it in any way.’

Editor Yassine Belkacem said the book ‘plays with the genre in some very clever ways while also being a real page-turner.  I’m sure [it] will surprise readers’.

Boyle previously written written three non-fiction books: his memoirs  My Shit Life So Far, plus Work! Consume! Die!  and The Future Of British Politics.

He also wrote the graphic novel Rex Royd, about a ‘superscientist CEO’.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Boyle will also make his stage acting debut next year, starring in a new production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame at the Gate Theatre in Dublin in February.

• The Chortle Comedy Book Festival is coming to the British Library and 2Northdown on November 26-28, featuring the likes of Harry Hill, Lucy Beaumont, Phil Wang, Tim Key, Isy Suttie and many more. Details and tickets

Published: 28 Oct 2021