<DIV>British critics have compared Christopher Brookmyre's writing to the "sassy, nasty, fast style of the Americans Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen" (The Guardian) and called his work "perpetually in-your-face ... irreverent and stylish" (The Times). Now he returns with another cracked gem of a comic thriller: Country of the Blind. This time, hard-bitten investigative journalist Jack Parlabane -- hero of Brookmyre's award-winning novel Quite Ugly One Morning-finds himself up to his eyeballs in murder, mayhem, and political intrigue when conservative tabloid media mogul Roland Voss is discovered at his country estate with his throat slit and his wife and bodyguards killed. The police have arrested four men fleeing the scene, but for Parlabane it all doesn't add up and he suspects the fix is in ... unless he can get to the bottom of things before everybody else. Packed with Brookmyre's distinctive collection of wacked-out characters and fueled by his trademark hell-for-leather pacing, Country of the Blind is a tart "tartan noir" that will leave you breathless with suspense -- if you're not asphyxiated by convulsions of laughter first. "A high-octane political thriller doused in stinging satire." -- The Sunday Times (London)</div>