In the Country of the Blind by Christopher Brookmyre
Written in 1997 and a reminder of the oceans of sleaze pre-election this is a real rollercoaster of a novel. Great fun, bit gory, bags of twists and underwritten with an ever-growing conspiracy it rattles along terrifically. So, heist goes wrong, famous and powerful media mogul murdered, ordinary guys framed and only Jack Parlabane, investigative reporter/private eye/undercover super hero can crack it. And it goes all the way to the top of the Tory party. Only read one other of his but the writing is pretty consistently strong and intelligent.
There is one lovely aside where a secret message implicating a conspirator is passed from one old friend to the protagonist by reference to a somewhat obscure song by the Skids at which point he refers to the even more obscure Skids’ B-side ‘TV Stars’ which names Albert Tatlock (early Coronation Street iconic grumpster) – virtually no-one will have got this which makes it a great piece of self-indulgence I suppose. Never mind – still a really cracking read.
As you enjoyed this, you might want to try The attack of the unsinkable rubber ducks by the same author. I’ve just finished it – same lead character in the situation of having been elected rector of Kelvin University. A good read.