Christopher Brookmyre, Quite Ugly One Morning (1996)

Focal Character/Chapter Schemata

© Jesper Christensen; Ripped off by Bent Sørensen

Chap 1
Police
(PC Dalziel) / Chap 2
Jack Parlabane / Chap 3
Parlabane/
Police (Dalziel) / Chap 4
Stephen Lime
Chap 5
Scot. Press / Parlabane /
Dalziel / Chap 6
S. Slaughter / Parlabane / Chap 7
Darren Mortlake / Chap 8
Jack Parlabane / Sarah Slaughter
Chap 9
Jack Parlabane / Sarah Slaughter / Chap 10
Stephen Lime / Darren Mortlake / Chap 11
PC Dalziel /
Jack Parlabane / Chap 12
Sarah Slaughter / Jack Parlabane
Chap 13
Sarah Slaughter / Jack Parlabane / Chap 14
Sarah Slaughter / Jack Parlabane / Chap 15
Stephen Lime / Darren Mortlake / Chap 16
Parlabane /
Sarah Slaughter
Chap 17
Dalziel
Jack Parlabane /
Sarah Slaughter / Chap 18
L. A. …/
Mrs. Kinross / Chap 19
Parlabane / Medway / Dempsey / Chap 20
Parlabane / Sarah
Chap 21
Parlabane (flash- back) / Chap 22
Sarah / Parlabane / Chap 23
McGregor / Mrs. Kinross / Darren / Chap 24
Parlabane / Anna / Sarah
Chap 25
LA Larry / Parlabane (flash-back) / Chap 26
Sarah / Chap 27
Parlabane / Sarah / Chap 28
Lime
Chap 29
McGregor / Dalziel / Chap 30
Sarah / Parlabane / Lime / Chap 31
Darren / Lime / Sarah / Parlabane / Good Night
McGregor / Dalziel / Sarah / Parlabane / Lime

Chris Brookmyre: Quite Ugly One Morning

Techniques:

Flashbacks: Parlabane in particular, ‘local’ flashbacks for Darren and Lime

Multiple focal characters (see chapter schemata)

Secrets revealed slowly – detection process; yet no doubt about the identity of the culprits. All detective novels/crime novels are epistemological quests, so is this one…

Sympathy for (or at least empathy with) most characters, even Darren, the (dumb & pathetic) bad guy; Lime is THE exception (unlike Banks who can write vaguely sympathetic Tory characters…)

Poetics:

Use of symbols:

Names: Parlabane (smooth talker), Sarah Slaughter (a good name for a doctor?); S. Lime (the slimy Limey); Ponsonby (archetypal ‘posh’ name)

Fetishes: Knives, guns, gadgetry, computers, abjectal matter, limbs and body parts

Local colour:Specifics of city-scape (no pastoral!)

Semiotics of topography: Edinburgh

Scottish dialects and sociolects, contrasted w. English

Comedy:Verbal humour: jokes, puns, insults etc.

Satire, political and moral: NHS, capital, government

Slapstick, physical humour

Abjectal humour: Jobbie, lost limbs etc.

Stock characters: Lone hero, love interest, sidekick, cops and bad guys

Stock scenes: Chase, Breaking and entering, Narrow esacpe etc. (no sex between hero and heroine)

All this adds up to hyperbole, and signals postmodern pastiche

Intertexts:Warren Zevon songs

Carl Hiaasen novels, plots

Quake (game-like ‘plot’ elements)

“Random ‘thefts’” (R. Davies, etc.)

The ‘megatexts’ of generic conventions: Noir fiction, Subcultural texts (lyrics, slang/argot)

This adds up to genre hybridity – postmodern playfulness

Bottom line:

Satirical genre fiction with a strong dose of moral indignation, social conscience and didacticism – the good guys may win a battle but the war is another matter altogether. Morality is negotiable, but ultimately constitutes the difference between good and evil, cf. Parlabane only killing in self-defence…