All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye by Christopher Brookmyre

All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye Reviews

• 
  Ben Carroll

  Like with every Brookmyre I've ever read, all I could think of after finishing this was how soon I could get another Brookmyre to read. If I saw a granny reading one in the street within an hour of finishing this, I would have robbed her. These books are drugs.
  
  I think I know why. There's a brutal humour, cleverness and charm in Brookmyre's writing, but there's something else too. A third of the way through All Fun And Games, I faced up to the truth that I was reading a thriller. There. I said it.
  
  I don't tend to read thrillers or crime novels. And maybe it's because my system is so unused to them that when I'm tricked into reading one via a very non-genre example, they hit hard. I'm like a teetotaller who's had his water bottle switched with Vodka.
  
  It's good news, I think. As long as I don't become an alcoholic and only read high-percentage books which get you drunk instantly and straightforwardly. It's good that I have that option, now; sometimes you need it. Brookmyre is my crime/thriller writer, and I can go there whenever I choose.
  
  Which is why it's worrying news that I saw his latest on the New In table at Waterstones yesterday, and it was by 'Chris' not 'Christopher,' and was boasting a 'new direction.' The new direction sounded like it was focusing on the serious-crime side, and forgetting the humour and blistering originality that first got me interested.
  
  I'm ten Brookmyre-novels away from catching up, anyway, so it's a long time before I'll have to explore the new direction. I just hope this isn't a gateway drug situation.
• 
  Rachael Hewison

  I like to think that I’m a pretty open minded reader, I will give any genre a go and always finish a book no matter how dire it is. My boyfriend is the complete opposite. For him reading consists of Christopher Brookmyre, Christopher Brookmyre and Christopher Brookmyre. I thought this author must be good if he’s created this much of an addiction so I gave him a try. Now all I can say is, “I want to read another one!”
  Brookmyre introduces us to a variety of unique main characters, most of which form the Tiger Team. They are all incredibly interesting, with their own back stories. However the book is read from three perspectives; Jane, Alexis and Ross. These characters are truly believable and Jane’s section in particular is brilliant, making me feel as though I was sneaking a peek into a middle aged woman’s diary. We can feel all of the characters’ emotions; fear, excitement, confusion, lust. Even the secondary characters came to life, most notably Bett, who developed from a robot into a normal human being. The interactions between Bett and Jane were superb and my only issue with Brookmyre’s characterisation was a slight sense of unease about the speed of Jane’s transformation.
  Brookmyre’s writing is fast and witty and while it tediously started off as very, “He said, she replied, he shouted, she responded,” it soon wore off and reached a steadier and rapid flow. He was descriptive without being overburdening and he made it easy to understand the technical jargon regarding weapons and equipment.
  If I’m honest the only part that disappointed me was the ending, which I felt Brookmyre skimmed over. The twists revealed at the end are brilliant but I felt that it was lacking as a conclusion leaving many avenues of the story still open.
  Overall a brilliant, addictive, imaginative thriller that had me taking the train to work just so I could squeeze in some extra reading.
• 
  Jamie Collins

  2.5 stars. Brookmyre has come up with plenty of wacky plots, but this one is so ludicrous that I had trouble enjoying the story. It’s still an amusing read at times, but it requires great suspension of disbelief.
  
  Jane has spent 25 years raising children and keeping house for her boring husband. She’s a fan of James Bond movies, though, so when her adult son is threatened by wicked arms dealers, it only takes a little target practice and a few judo lessons to transform her into an espionage agent extraordinaire.
  
  Brookmyre often places an ordinary person in a situation where he’s forced to go on the offensive against terrorists, for instance, but it’s usually handled in a more believable (yet comedic) way. I’m totally open to a story where a middle-aged housewife saves the day, but Jane’s attitude, not to mention her astonishing effectiveness, seemed utterly implausible to me.
  
  The plot thread concerning the weapons manufacturers also had me rolling my eyes, but it’s partially redeemed by the twist at the end.
  
  Early on I had hopes for the romance, but it became mushy and predictable, and caused an improbably fast change of personality in one of the parties.
  
  This book is much less graphic and violent than a typical Brookmyre novel. It’s also a bit less cynical and contains hardly any ranting - sure, we learn that guns are bad and the defense industry is evil and hypocritical, but the lecture is relatively mild and isn't allowed to overwhelm the book.
• 
  Deanne

  She's stuck in a rut, going through the motions, thinking that at 46 she's over the hill and heading down the other side. Married to a man who was middle aged at 19, mother to grown up children who seem to think that she was born aged 46.
  Then one day changes all that and she realises that she's not dead yet, finds that inner punk she thought she'd lost when she got pregnant and married.
  Guns, abductions, a mysterious bad guy,(without the evil fortress inside an extinct volcano)and a group of mercenaries, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
  Picked it up for tthe title, one of my Mum's favourite sayings when I was a child, along with such other gems as:-
  Don't come running to me if you break a leg.
  If you don't stop crying, I'll give you something to cry about it.
  and I'm going to change my name, (usually used if any of us had used the word Mum too many times).
• 
  The Cats’ Mother

  “All fund and games, until someone loses an eye” is a stand-alone black-comedy/thriller published in 2005, about a law-abiding middle-aged housewife from Glasgow who morphs into a reckless Jane Bond, assisted by an A-Team style crew of mercenaries, when her son’s life is under threat. Brookmyre is one of the authors whose books I reward myself with when I catch up with my ARCs, and I’m gradually catching up with his back catalogue, and while not among my favourites, this was still a highly entertaining romp that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
  
  Jane Fleming is 46, stuck in a joyless marriage, feeling older than her age now she’s a grandmother, and wondering what went wrong with her life - until a sudden attack on her family has her dodging the police and racing to France to meet the mysterious Bett and his team of highly specialised outcasts. Her engineer son has developed new technology, which will affect the global arms industry, putting a target on his back, and Bett’s team are hired by his employer to rescue him. All Jane knows of espionage comes from watching Bond movies, but suddenly she’s putting it all into practice in ways she could never have foreseen...
  
  This had a slightly confusing start, with rather too much geek-speak for this non-techie reader, and I wondered when we would meet our actual heroine - but from the moment Jane turns lioness to save her granddaughter, I was all in. Sure it was all completely preposterous, and some of the tech was now a bit dated, but I enjoyed Jane’s transformation and the way she stands up to control-freak Bett. I also liked the other POV characters, Lex and Ross, and wasn’t sure how it would all turn out, but was satisfied by the ending.
  For those who find the title disturbing, there is a fair bit of violence - and swearing - but nobody actually loses an eye!
• 
  Jon

  The Guardian compared Brookmyre to Elmore Leonard. The sheer volume of exposition, backstory, and unnecessary spelling-out-for-the-reader passages determined... that was a lie.
  
  That said, despite the occasional sloggy passage and the (more than) occasional desire to call up the author and insist that as far as I know, I am not learning-disabled, that I do understand exactly what is going on with these characters, and that I don't need another two or three paragraphs explaining their thoughts about these goings on, thank you very much, there is an undeniable sense of fun about the enterprise.
  
  Preposterous fun, and an unexpected late-chapter veer into Harlequin romance territory, but fun nevertheless.
• 
  Debbie

  This is a great romp by Christopher Brookmyre with all the trademark Brookmyre ingredients of murder, mayhem, twists, turns and humour, where the one thing you can be sure of is that nothing is as it seems.
  
  The heroine of the book is a dutiful, downtrodden middle aged wife and mother. Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much! Great fun.
• 
  Ian Mapp

  Utterly stupid and yet very, very entertaining. This is Brookmyres best for some time and nice to see a reversal in what I thought was becoming a downward trend.
  
  Its all a James Bond type fantasy.... lived out by a 44 year old grandmother. Only Brookmyre could give such a plot.
  
  Starts with a group of crack experts breaking into a defence facility. You think they are criminals but they are a security team testing vulnerability.
  
  Then we have a story emerging. A young scientist has discovered the ability to stop bullets from hitting his target and the gun industry attempts to kidnap him but he escapes. They then turn their attentions to his family (niece) but have not planned for his mother - the fearsome jane who puts up such a fight she is recruited into the organisation and trained up in gun handling and martial arts skills.
  
  Only Brookmyre.
  
  Usual nonsense ensues, including a closing showdown where the grandmother gets to sleep with another man (eventually leaving her husband) and save her son.
  
  No-one else can combine a thriller (although with ludicrous plotlines), with great black comedy and ranting left wing politics.
  
  Thats why we read them and when they are this good, that is why we love them.
  
  
• 
  Wendle

  All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye = (A Granny ^ kick arse) + Eclectic group of criminal mastermind do-gooders for hire.
  
  If I forced myself to choose a favourite Brookmyre book, this may be the one I would choose. If I forced myself. Maybe.
  
  The start of this book actually made me pretty damn angry. One character for what a complete tit he was, in every single way imaginable, and the other—his wife and main character of the story—for letting her life get taken away from her. For putting up with so much shite. For not standing up for herself. For so, so many things.
  
  Enter Bett. Oh, I didn't like him at first either, but by the end, in fact, quite a way before the end, I thought he was rather adorable. And I wanted—still want—more books on him and his team getting into all sorts of adventures.
  
  The good and the bad about Brookmyre. So good at creating characters I can feel strongly about, one way or the other, and creating people and groups I want to read more about. So bad at making more stories happen. I guess he can't write stories forever about everyone, but I bloody well wish he could.
• 
  Corissa

  This book is my first romp into a Brookmyre and it took me a while to get into it. It wasn't until Mrs. Fleming was out of the kitchen that it took off for me and then I couldn't put it down.
• 
  Nick Davies

  This was slow to get started, and I was worried for a while that it might lack the wit and quirkiness that I have got used to from Chris Brookmyre's novels. It did improve in that manner towards the middle, and I ended up quite enjoying it. Alas though it doesn't sit at the top of my list of favourite books by this author - I thought the plot (basically this involved an average 46 year-old grandmother getting involved in espionage and James Bond-esque action, after her adult son goes missing) was a bit too silly to completely get on board with, and there was a little less opportunity for Brookmyre to exercise his abilities in describing ordinary folk and how they behave with each other - as he so skilfully and intelligently does in some of my favourites of his novels. So overall probably a 3.5.
• 
  Nathan Hurst

  Brookmyre woke up one morning and thought, 'I wonder what would happen if James Bond was a woman?' The result is A-fag. It's a solid adventure with all the set pieces you might expect from a good Ian Fleming novel, with nods to the source of the idea all over the place. Even the lead character is named Fleming.
  
  The book kicks along at a good pace with compulsory casino scene and car chase. But things turned out a little too well for Jane Fleming. From housewife to accidental heroine in a week, suddenly a ninja with expert espionage skills and a crack shot with a Walther PPK.
  
  That aside, I enjoyed it. It's fun, in a linear, A to B plot kind of way, with a little twist at the end. Great for a commuter read.
• 
  Derek Holmes

  Take a spy thriller and cross it with Pygmalion to get a good fun holiday read. A middle aged Scottish granny embroiled with spies, assassins and kidnappers when her scientist son demonstrates a startling invention, that could change the face of warfare forever. Far from being frightened she finds herself exhilarated by this turn of events and sees it as an escape from her humdrum life. It's daft but it doesn't take itself too seriously.
• 
  Mike Worth

  Impressive book - not sure is these are ever turned into films - but this is all action and full of hollywood "coincedences". I guess my love for these is the same as other's love for Bond. I don't know why people like Bond films...so I guess maybe others may not like these!
• 
  Alec Downie

  Do Not Fuck with Scottish Grans
• 
  Irma

  I LOVED this. A 40-year-old Scottish grandmother gangs up with a team of... Spies? Mercs? Something in between, when her son, working in the arms industry, goes missing. This book is funny, with some kick-ass characters, and with a lot more intelligence than you'd attribute to a book of this genre. My only real issue was how perfect Jane was: how much of a natural she was, and we're supposed to believe she mastered everything thrown at her - from fistfights to shooting to gathering intel - in the span of less than a week. But honestly, it didn't bother me nearly as much as you'd think because the rest of the book was so much fun.
• 
  Margarida

  Loved this book, worth a repeat reading. A great reminder that those over 40 can kick ass.
• 
  D.B. Borton

  Wonderful feminist action thriller, and a lot of fun.
• 
  ML Downie

  a lot of fun and games indeed and no one loses an eye but a lot of evil men lose their lives.
• 
  Sarah

  Fabulously funny, a bit of a departure from his usual stories but amusing all the same and all ends well.
• 
  Guy

  Intussen ook nog wat gelezen: van een uitstap naar Londen eens All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye (2005) van Christopher Brookmyre meegebracht. Aan de stapels boeken te zien moet Brookmyre een held zijn in z’n land, en dat is eigenlijk best te begrijpen. Het is immers een bijzonder flukse, slim in elkaar gestoken roman met een gezonde combinatie van humor en actie, pulp en literatuur. De uitgerekte proloog was aanvankelijk wat verwarrend, waardoor het meer dan vijftig pagina’s duurde voor het verhaal op gang kwam, maar daarna schoot het adrenalinepeil de hoogte. Het boek is een beetje de literaire tegenhanger van de hi-tech-toestanden van James Bond, La Femme Nikita en Alias. Jane Fleming is een fortysomething wiens leven eigenlijk al een hele tijd geleden eindigde. Kinderen het huis uit, geen hobby’s, jeugdige rebellie opgegeven voor een huwelijk met een patattenzak wiens leven draait rond voetbal en TV. Dan wordt het verhaal natuurlijk opengetrokken, als de zoon van Fleming, die tewerkgesteld is in de wapenindustrie, wordt ontvoerd omdat hij kennis zou hebben van iets dat miljarden waard zou zijn. Per ongeluk wordt Fleming betrokken in de spiraal van geweld, en wat blijkt? Ze is ervoor geboren en slaagt erin op recordtempo opgeleid te worden tot vechtmachine/spion. Allemaal bij de haren gesleepte onzin, maar door clevere koerswijzigingen, al dan niet verdoken verwijzingen naar voorgangers uit film en literatuur en bakken typisch Britse wittiness, blijft All Fun And Games… boeiend tot vierhonderdste pagina. (***1/2)
• 
  William

  Brookmyre is one talented raconteur, with the added important bonus that he writes well and develops characters as a novelist does. I don't read many thrillers because the central characters seem interchangeable from one author to another. But Brookmyre creates people to whom one has to react. In this book, Bett and Jane Fleming are terrific characters. Alexis, the other principal figure, is a bit less fully depicted.
  
  There is a lot of James Bond in this book, though I have never read Ian Fleming. Brookmyre is a master of the caper plot. There are two in this story, both meticulously developed and believable (even if their substance is a bit absurd, which is also typical Brookmyre).
  
  It's not often that one reads an adventure tale where more of the principals are female than male (Jane and Alexis, in particular). I'm always impressed with the craft of a writer who can focus on the gender which is not their own and do so believably.
  
  I also like the fact that the several surprising plot twists are fun and organic. No, I don't think he gives enough information for one to guess what is going to happen, but I found somehow I did not care.
  
  As other readers have commented, Brookmyre is addictive. He's a thinking person's caper/thriller writer and I am committed to reading the rest of what he has produced.
• 
  Rob Kitchin

  Brookmyre’s tales are always good fun, invariably a thriller tale wrapped up in dark humour and spun out as an edgy comic caper. So it is with All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye, which has a very nice hook about a dour Scottish housewife making a transformation into Lara Croft as a secret agent. The set-up is very nicely done, as is the unfolding of the plot and the denouement, with the action sequences particularly well conveyed. As usual, Brookmyre develops a colourful cast of characters, placing them a number of them slightly or fully out of place, and riffing on their interplay. The result is humour is ever present, though rarely spills over into belly laughs. The only downside is there is far too much explication and back story, with rambling long passages that added little but padding. Some judicious editing would have added a little pace and verve. Overall, an entertaining, well conceived, tongue-in-cheek thriller.
• 
  Mark Cowen

  I'm working my way through Christopher Brookmyre's novels and this was the best one yet. The story involves the usual Brookmyre Bond-villain baddies about to take over the world being defeated by someone with a fraction of the armoury and training, and this one is no different. A weapons expert is kindnapped to be sold on, and a crack hit-team employed to release him - the addition to the team of the victim's mother, previously a do-nothing granny in Eat Kilbride - being the main part of the tale.
  
  After a quicker than usual start, the tale fairly whips along, ignoring how the transformation of Jane's character seems to happen in double-quick time. But a real page-turner it is....
  
  There's room for the principal characters to return in a sequel - it would be good to know if they do...
  
• 
  Russell Taylor

  My first Christhopher Brookmyre novel, and it certainly won't be the last. The initial scene was a little bit slow, but once Jane was introduced things really picked up and before long the pages were flying by. The story's pace is good, a fine mix of fun and tension, and even though Jane's development is far fetched this doesn't spoil the story for me at all. The supporting cast were good overall, although he spent much more time on the female members of the team at the expense of the guys. The ending? Well, perhaps a tad underwhelming, but the journey to get there was so good that it didn't matter too much - I still enjoyed it greatly. Can't wait to start another one of his novel's...I wonder which one to go for?
• 
  Moriquen

  At first I was dissapointed with this book. It took too long to get started. First you get the introduction of Bett's team, then you flip to boring old Jane, only to go back again to Bett's team and Lex's actions. I was almost ready to give up on the book because it seemed like such a meaningless enumeration of actions by characters you're not familiar enough with.
  But when I got past this part I really started enjoying the book. Especially after Jane's actions trying to get to Rachel, when she turns into some kind of supergranny!
  It was not the best book I've ever read (because of the beginning), but if Brookmyres other books are like the second part of this one, I would definately like to read some more.