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Meantime

An absolutely gripping detective novel from one of Britain's best known comedians

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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

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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

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Pre-order Frankie Boyle's new book A Short History of the Apocalypse now! Out 7th November 2024

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Real readers love MEANTIME:

'Unlike any thriller you'll ever read' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'A brilliantly original piece of Glasgow noir . . . Fantastic' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Raw, funny, and heartfelt. I loved it' Real reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'Keeps you on the edge of your seat and I loved the ending' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
©2022 Frankie Boyle Crime Fiction Mystery Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction Witty Funny Suspense Murder

Critic reviews

A darkest noir, unputdownable crime novel that swerves and surprises, with a gut-punch ending. I loved it!
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
Starts off the funniest noir - like a Glaswegian Big Lebowski - then takes you somewhere suddenly heartbreaking . . . A debut novel that makes me absolutely INSIST there is more to come
The gags are so good that the book doesn't outstay its welcome [...] anybody who loves jet-black humour is in for a treat
Reads like a twisted Caledonian take on Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. Inherent vices and scalpel-sharp jokes vie with a very human concern for those least garlanded in the rat race of life
Part whodunnit, part social safari, part extended stand-up monologue . . . the novel is full of scintillating sentences and perfect lines of dialogue
An enjoyably dark and entertaining tranche of Glasgow noir . . . Imagine Withnail and I stumbling into a Bond movie co-written by William McIlvanney and Mick Herron . . . [A] deft, engaging thriller
A surprisingly moving and beautiful journey through one man's sh*tshow of a friend's death/hangover
A fine slice of contemporary noir, full of acute insight into the way we live now (John Williams)
Just finished this and f*ck me, it's total class!! I'm sure all the expletive swears are coming out for this one - and so they should. Ace (Helen Stanton, Forum Books)
Meantime is a tremendous book: a detective story full of twists and turns that is as beautifully written as it is darkly comic. . . Not surprisingly, Meantime is very, very funny. But it is also a gripping work of stylised crime fiction that marks, I suspect, a new and exciting chapter in Boyle's multi-faceted career (Matthew D’ancona)
Remarkably moving
A sharply written, memorable read
Meantime flies along, filled with laughs and moments that pull you up sharp
Boyle's key strength is in creating such a believable milieu, even when events are exaggerated, underpinned but never derailed by a tongue-in-cheek humour
Frankie Boyle's fiction debut is genuinely engrossing
It's both funny and moving
[Frankie Boyle] has graduated into an extremely fine author with his first novel . . . The book lays bare the various worlds of Glasgow . . . and it slowly becomes that awful word, unputdownable, as the fascinating mixture of violence, drugs and unexpected humour surround the reader
Boyle's darkly comic debut unfolds amid vivid scenes of the seamy Glasgow underworld, its hard-bitten humour offset by an unexpectedly tender conclusion
Word-perfect dialogue and wild imagination
All stars
Most relevant
I loved this book, especially when wondering around Glasgow listening to it. At one point the Scotia was mentioned and by chance I just happened to be right outside it.

Phenomenal.

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I’ve always enjoyed the truth in Boyle’s tasteless comedy of despair. And I’ve long suspected, from the evidence of his monologues at the end of his TV shows and his contributions to newspaper columns, that there was a great writer struggling to get out of him. So it was no surprise to me to discover that he is to the genre of detective fiction what Raymond Chandler was, almost a hundred years before.

Like Chandler, his descriptions are vivid, unvarnished and often hilarious, using a no nonsense pros style that belies the eloquence and flare Boyle has with language. Also, like Chandler, he has a flawed but compelling realist detective, seeing the world (and coping with it) through a prism of drugs. Where Philip Marlowe drank heavily in every other scene, Felix, our protagonist, self medicates with every substance imaginable. And, like Chandler’s LA, Boyle’s Glasgow is a menagerie of highly entertaining, well drawn and compelling characters of every imaginable background; from government spooks to terminal novelists, from corrupted cops to doctors with god complexes, they’re all here.

The surprise for me was not Boyle’s facility with language, nor his ability to tell a cracking mystery story. It was his capacity to move me to tears of empathic grief, set alongside his ability to make me guffaw at absurd yet truthful humour, without jarring me and, somehow, making it all feel appropriate.

In the same way that I fell in love with Philip Marlowe’s journey from 1939 to 1959, I want to see if Felix has any more adventures in him. I do hope so.

Genuinely the best detective novel of this century so far, to be rated alongside John Le Carre or Cormac McCarthy for Boyle’s capacity to capture truths within fiction and to distil it into an addictive cocktail, not for the faint hearted.

Fans of Boyle will get it immediately. But there’s a much wider audience out there which I hope this book will reach. This could be the start of a brilliant fiction writer’s career?

Frankie Hard Boyled May Cause Addiction

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worth to read, a bit depressing I think Frankie me need to go chill out a bit.

From Scotland's Jesus to Scotland's agatha Christi

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I am surprised by this book and it was an excellent read lots of drama, twists turns and humour.

Super Read

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and some good writing too, especially about tragedy, sadness, loss, alienation. But the plot meanders, is overcomplicated and broadly implausible.

many good lines

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