Created by Christopher Brookmyre
JASMINE SHARP is a young private eye, a former actress, who co-stars in a series of books by Scottish author Christopher Brookmyre, alongside Detective Superintendent Catherine MacLeod.
In a refreshing change of pace, though, Jasmine and Catherine aren’t BFFs–fact is, they barely tolerate each other. Catherine consider’s Jasmine “a sneaky, duplicitous and thoroughly sleekit wee bitch” and Jasmine ‘s thinks the Detective Superintendent’s official title should be “Queen Crabbit Cow.”
It’s fortunate for readers, then, if not for the two sleuths, that their paths (and their cases ) seem to intersect with alarming frequency.
The third book in the series, Bred in the Bone (2014), particularly impressed me, and I concluded my gushing review in the pages of Mystery Scene requesting “More please, Mr. Brookmyre.”
It didn’t seem to work. although the author has continued to serve up one tasty black-humour-laced hard-boiled treat after another, he hasn’t revisited Jasmine and Catherine… yet, although the latter does show up in a couple of short stories, and has a few cameos in some of his other books.
But Jasmine? Nope. Not yet.
I keep hoping though.
UNDER OATH
- “A strident blast of the trumpet to wake up crime fiction readers everywhere.”
— Val McDermid on Where the Bodies are Buried - “Glasgow’s mean streets come alive, and author Brookmyre puts his readers in the shoes of the people who walk them. Surely Where the Bodies are Buried is one of the best novels of the year.”
— John Lutz (New York Times) - “A curious blend of hard-nosed police procedural, gripping private eye drama, and a swirling domestic saga of almost Dickensian ambition, Brookmyre’s done a sly and masterful job of juggling various plot lines, tangled family histories and psychologically complex backstories, leading to a bold and bloody climax that I would find a rich and apt conclusion to the series — were I not already screaming “But what the hell happens next?”
— Kevin Burton Smith on Flesh Wounds (Mystery Scene)
NOVELS
- Where the Bodies are Buried (2012) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- When the Devil Drives (2013) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Flesh Wounds (aka “Bred in the Bone”) (2014) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
