According to Montenegrin media reports, Brkovic was attacked by three masked men as he was entering his apartment building in Podgorica around 2200 hours on Tuesday. His bodyguard, Srdjan Vojicic, tried to help him but the assailants shot him dead.
Brkovic said that the attack was "the work of the murderers and mobsters who recognised themselves in my latest novel."
In his latest novel "Ljubavnik Duklje (Lover of Duklja)" Brkovic portrayed public life in Montenegro, indirectly accusing many public figures of crime.
The attack was also condemned by the ruling Montenegrin Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and other political parties and individuals.
Brkovic had been targeted by his political opponents several times in the early 1990s, primarily over his condemnation of the shelling of Dubrovnik by the Yugoslav People's Army, which involved Montenegrin troops. He was forced to flee the country because the nationalist authorities in Podgorica were going to arrest him and Serb nationalists had condemned him to death.