Hello and welcome to the first ever Bartcop Books column! Yep, you heard right, Bartcop Books. No, it doesn't mean that we've collected all of BC's previous articles from the web, printed them out, stuck them between two pieces of cardboard, and are about to charge you through the nose to buy them. Nope, it just means that after Project 60, Entertainment, Sports, Cooking, Drinks and Vegas, Books are the latest thing to get their own Bartcop subsidiary site. If we keep creating new sites at this rate, we'll soon leave BC with just political commentary, humour and Shirley Manson obsessions to write about...

So, what's the point of this column then? The basic idea comes down to something like Oprah's Book Club with ADD and an IQ of 64. Every week, I'll recommend a different book and then we can all go out and buy it, read it together then cry and hug each other...or something like that. Probably without the hugging. Or the crying. Or the near-total domination of the US publishing industry.

Actually, this column isn't going to be a 'This is a book you must read' type of thing. The books I'm going to recommend are ones that I like that I think will be of interest to all my fellow bartcop.com readers. I'm not expecting everyone to rush out and buy the books I've recommended as soon as they see what I'm recommending this week (though it would be nice if you did). Just because I've recommend a book that doesn't appeal to you, or you've already read and think is bad, doesn't mean you're not welcome here. I'm just one guy with an opinion, a keyboard and a modem, doing my best to amuse you for a few minutes.

Over the weeks, I'm going to recommend a real variety of books, not just stick to one genre or section of the bookstore. First, it stops this column running out of books to cover and secondly, it'll keep it interesting and hopefully encourage you to come back week after week to see what I'm recommending as there's no way you could predict it! Plus, it might encourage people to read a bit more widely, find other things they like rather than just reading the same old same old in a different package with a different author's name on the cover.

There's going to be more to this column than just weekly book recommendations. When the Library is completed, you'll be able to find details of other books that have been featured in bartcop.com (such as The Hunting Of The President) and other books that might be of interest without quite getting up to a full recommendation themselves...Sopranos books, Vegas tour guides, Tequila for Dummies (if that even exists)...

This isn't just about my opinion either. I want to hear from you, the readers out there. Got a book you really like? Send me a recommendation and I'll feature it. Want to review a book that's just come out? Send it in! Or just want to disagree with me? I don't mind...as long as it's not hate mail, and until I get so much mail I can't process it all, I'll probably print it.

Email me with any comments, thoughts, reviews recommendations of your own.

And if you're a publisher who wants a book reviewed for an audience of dozens (hey, it worked for Talk Magazine) then contact me.

Not The End Of The World by Christopher Brookmyre

With all that included, what else could be a better choice for the first choice for the Bartcop Books column than this? All that's missing is fine tequila, but with the frantic pace of this novel, none of the characters really has the time to sit back and enjoy a shot of Chinaco.

Los Angeles, 1999. While the world prepares itself for the coming of the new Millennium, low-rent film producers from around the world are gathering for the American Feature Film Market. Across the street, TV evengelist and former Presidential candidate Luther St. John is leading the American Legion of Decency's Festival of Light. And in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Coast Guard find the oceanographic research ship Gazes Also abandoned, it's crew gone the same way as the Marie Celeste's and the ship's submersible missing...

In short, it doesn't look like it's going to be a good week for the LAPD's Larry Freeman and Scottish freelance photgrapher Steff Kennedy. When fundamentalist Christian terrorists decide that this would be a good time for senator's daughter Madeleine Witherson (also known as porn starlet Katy Koxx or the Whore of Babylon, depending on which side of the culture wars you're on) to pay for her sins, it's only going add to the general chaos.

In Britain, Christopher Brookmyre is rapidly gaining a lot of attention as a Scottish Carl Hiaasen, casually mixing outlandish thriller plotlines with humour and a generally sceptical political outlook. Not The End Of The World, his third novel, but the first to be available in the US, demostrates his ability to the full. Its dissection of the hypocrisy of the Christian Right brings to mind the righteous anger of Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce, mixing sections that will have you laughing out loud with inspired philosophical and political analysis. When you add this to a plot that's genuinely original and inventive, with twists coming straight out of left-field and a seemingly effortless raising of the tension and stakes throughout, you've got a novel that you can find yourself reading straight through in one go, before going straight back to the start to read it again and pick up on all the bits you missed out first time through.

As well as examining the Christian Right and just how nasty fundamentalism can get when any atrocity can be justified in the name of God, the LA setting provides Brookmyre with the opportunity to turn his cynical outsider's eye of LA and Hollywood 'culture', placing the vacuous heart of low-budget movie making against the dark heart of Luther St. John's schemes to create a more 'righteous' America.

Here's a sample for you:
 

He figured it would be a kinder service to mankind to go round the world removing Bibles from hotel rooms and replacing them with wank mags. It seemed a safe bet which one the average businessman would rather find by the bed when he came in alone, tired and stressed out after a long trip or a boring seminar. Just snuggling up against the headboard, all on his own, miles from home, crick in his neck, hasn't seen his wife for four days...Only one of the two aforementioned publications would ensure he was fast asleep with a smile on his face ten minutes later, having shouted hallelujah and heartily thanked God for his good fortune.

I've recommended Brookmyre's novels to many people, and all of them have enjoyed them, which is why I feel pretty confident in making this the first choice for Bartcop Books. It's the sort of book that deserves a wider audience and I think Bartcop readers are the sort of people who'd fit in well with that audience - not afraid of the truth, but hoping for a good few laughs and thrills along the way.