Country of the Blind is the second novel in the Jack Parlabane Series by Christopher Brookmyre. [My review of the first book, Quite Ugly One Morning, is here.]

[Mild Spoilers for Quite Ugly One Morning from here on.]

Plot:
Set a couple of years after the events in QUOM, Jack Parlabane and Sarah Slaughter are now happily engaged. Jack has promised Sarah that he will stop the more illegal tactics of his journalistic investigations. Unfortunately, that’s when media mogul Roland Voss, his wife and two bodyguards are found dead, with four robbers fleeing the scene, who are easily blamed for the murder. But then the lawyer of one of the robbers, Nicole Carrow, steps forward, claiming that she has evidence the robbers were being framed and Jack receives a call for help from an old friend via national television and soon everything goes to hell.

The book is fast-paced and full with vivid, wonderful characters. It’s written with a fine sense of humour and a lot of snide remarks when it comes to Scottish politics. In short, a perfect, entertaining crime novel.

To truly appreciate everything in this novel, you have to know Scottish politics. But even if you are like me and you don’t, you’ll have a blast reading Country of the Blind. Though you probably really have to be left-leaning in your politics to enjoy all the digs against the conservatives.

But if you are, Parlabane’s musings on porn alone are worth to read this book. So. true. Though he mostly talks about journalism and politics and how the two influence each other.

Anyway, since the book is not set immediately after QUOM, we get a rather altered situation for Jack. He’s living with Sarah, they’re about to get married and, while he still investigates, he promised to stop the breaking and entering, which so far has been a big part of his work. Brookmyre does a great job showing the effects of that on Parlabane. Wonderful character development. [Did I mention how much I like Jack as a character?]

The story is great, too. Slightly crazy but therefore all the more believable. And in the four robbers we get a wonderful cast of supporting characters that at the end of the book I was sure I’d miss. Too bad that they’re not featured in any other books.

And contrary to QUOM, Country of the Blind hardly features any gore (and pretty much no fecal humour, so, yay!).

Summarising, recommended to people who are leftwing, like crime novels and have a sense of humour.