«Part whodunnit, part social safari, part extended stand-up monologue . . . the novel is full of scintillating sentences and perfect lines of dialogue»

Sunday Times

«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»

Observer

«A surprisingly moving and beautiful journey through one man's sh*tshow of a friend's death/hangover»

Lucy Prebble, screenwriter for Succession

«

Frankie Boyle's fiction debut is genuinely engrossing

»

Independent

«It's both funny and moving»

Guardian

«[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»

On Yorkshire Magazine

«Remarkably moving»

Scotsman

«A fine slice of contemporary noir, full of acute insight into the way we live now»

John Williams, Mail on Sunday

«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, Tortoise

«Word-perfect dialogue and wild imagination»

Strathspey & Badenoch Herald

«A sharply written, memorable read»

Scottish Field

«Meantime flies along, filled with laughs and moments that pull you up sharp»

Sun (Scotland)

«Boyle's darkly comic debut unfolds amid vivid scenes of the seamy Glasgow underworld, its hard-bitten humour offset by an unexpectedly tender conclusion»

Daily Mail

«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»

Chortle

«A darkest noir, unputdownable crime novel that swerves and surprises, with a gut-punch ending. I loved it!»

Denise Mina

«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»

Daily Telegraph

«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»

Marina Hyde

«The gags are so good that the book doesn't outstay its welcome [...] anybody who loves jet-black humour is in for a treat»

Daily Express

«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»

Ian Rankin