Christopher Brookmyre and Billy Franks at Carnegie Hall

Christopher Brookmyre's ' A Snowball In Hell '

The events on 9/11 opened the eyes of Simon Darcourt, professional assassin par excellence, to the sad fact that his skills were now not only redundant, they were arguably anachronistic: any lunatic could take out a target if he's prepared to sacrifice himself to do so.  (Never mind the expertise, where's the fun in that?)  The Incredible Exploding Arabs were clearly going to be the only show in town though and Simon needed to come up with a new concept.  So here it is: the reality show the public really want to see, the star-studded entertainment they're truly craving when they're forced to settle for all that insipid fly-on-the-wall tedium.  It's called I'm a Celebrity and I'm Never Getting Out of Here, and viewers must 'vote' to keep his B list captives alive.  By posting real-time coverage on the internet, he has viewing figures that are literally to die for.

Does policewoman Angelique De Xavier stand a chance of stopping him?  Someone who could certainly help is her ex-lover and magician Zal Innez, who is highly talented in deception and subterfuge.  But he is a wanted man and she doesn't know how to locate him.  Meanwhile, as the clock counts down, a whole load of celebs line up to prove they are dying to be famous...

A Snowball in Hell is Christopher Brookmyre's latest intelligent satire and a thriller with exhilarating pace.

Christopher Brookmyre is a Sunday Times top ten bestselling author and the only writer to have won two Sherlock Awards.  He is the winner of the 2007 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award, and his novel All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye won the 2006 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award for Comic Fiction. In 2005, Brookmyre made his stand-up comedy debut at The Comedy Store in London.  A regular guest on BBC radio, he worked as a journalist before his career as a novelist took off.  His first novel, Quite Ugly One Morning, was a television hit starring James Nesbitt.  He lives near Glasgow with his wife, his son and his St Mirren season ticket, and has a burgeoning sideline as a football pundit.

Billy Franks

As well as the post-Festival launch of ' A Snowball in Hell ', this event will offer the opportunity to see a live set from acclaimed singer/songwriter Billy Franks, playing in Scotland for the first time in twenty years.

Lauded by his musical peers but largely ignored by the mainstream, Billy Franks can count Oasis and Peter Gabriel among his admirers, as well being cited as a songwriting influence by Bono.

With his then band, the Faith Brothers, he opened for U2 in front of 50,000 people at Milton Keynes Bowl in 1986, and his last Scottish performance saw the Faith Brothers supporting REM at Barrowlands.  

Since the Faith Brothers broke up in 1988, Billy Franks has recorded four solo albums: “Mass”, “Genius & Grace”, “Sex, Laughter & Meditation” and, most recently, “The Turtledove Boutique”.

The Faith Brothers’ 1985 hit “Country of the Blind” provided the title for Christopher Brookmyre’s second novel, and “The Sacred Art of Stealing” borrowed from Billy Franks’ 2001 track “The Sacred Art of Leaving”. Billy Franks’ lyrics are also quoted liberally throughout Christopher’s work.

In recent years, Billy has mostly been performing in the US, where he has found an audience more receptive to the singer/songwriter ethos. However, in May of this year he returned to the UK with his new band to play to a packed house at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, after which Christopher persuaded him to venture north of the border to make this an event to remember.

Billy’s film ' Tribute This ' has just won the best film award at West Hollywood Film Festival and also best film chosen by the public.