Be my enemy or, fuck this for a game of soldiers

It was a junket, a freebie. A 'team-building' weekend in the highlands for lawyers, advertising execs, businessmen, even the head of a charity. Oh, and a journalist, specially solicited for his renowned and voluble scepticism - Jack Parlabane. Amid the flying paintballs and flowing Shiraz even the most cynical admit the organisers have pulled some surprises - stalkers in the forest, power cuts in the night, mass mobile phone thefts, disappearing staff, disappearing guests: there's nothing can bring out people's hidden strengths or break down inter-personal barriers quite like not having a clue what's going on and being scared out of your wits. However, when the only vehicular access for thirty miles is cut off it seems that events are being orchestrated not just for pleasure... And that's before they find the first body. Thereafter, 'finding out who your colleagues really are' is not so much an end product as the key to reaching Monday morning alive. For investigative journalist Jack Parlabane, these are worrying times: it's been almost three years since anyone tried to kill him, and he fears he's losing his touch. But then comes an assignment in the Scottish countryside that will more than make up for lost time. Ultimate Motivational Leisure offers the latest in corporate outward bound courses, the sort of team-building exercises that Jack thinks are decidedly for bankers. The organisers, however, are keen to overturn his prejudices, while Jack is happy to have them reinforced. If nothing else, he gets a free weekend of shooting at PR people with a paintball gun. Except the longer the weekend goes on, the weirder things start to get. First someone steals the SIM cards from everyone's mobile phones. Then, when the group accidentally strays on to army land, the army starts firing back - and not with cans of Dulux. Suddenly no one can tell what's real and what isn't, whether this is part of the game, or if everybody is fighting for their lives It was a junket, a freebie, a team-building weekend in the Highlands for lawyers, advertising execs, businessmen, even the head of a charity. Oh, and a journalist, Jack Parlabane. Amidst the flying paintballs and flowing Shiraz even the most cynical admit the organizers have pulled some surprises. Ferociously unpredictable. Bitingly funny. Action-packed to perfection. BE MY ENEMY finds Christopher Brookmyre on top form - and you'll never look at a snooker table in the same way again. "Be My Enemy" ensures that you'll never look at a snooker table in the same way again.