The Case of the Missing Books: A Mobile Library Mystery
by Ian Sansom
Israel Armstrong is your other-than-average man about Londontown; at least he'd like to think so. He knows a great cappuccino when he encounters one, loves art house flicks and can speak at length on Dostoevsky.
But can he run a small, Northern Ireland public library? Especially when that library happens to have been shuttered for years, is now on wheels, and, most distressingly, all the books have disappeared? It'll take more than a bibliophile's knowledge of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot to recapture the missing library in a hilarious whotook'em that relies more heavily on Sansom's memorable characters than the mystery that envelopes them.
At a time when the literary anti-hero is most often a leather-clad, drinking and smoking, but ultimately big-hearted rebel, the passive aggressive, less than gifted Israel Armstrong is truly enjoyable precisely because he is so utterly unlikable.
Sansom also succeeds in depicting modern Northern Ireland without succumbing to the specter of the Troubles. His junk food munching bureaucrats, small town bullies, knowing baristas and seductress journalists humanize the region in a way that a more overwrought narrative might not. The effects of the Troubles exist in these characters, but they do not dominate their quotidian lives.
Thankfully, my sister passed The Case of the Missing Books on to me, which, after a slow start, I delightedly sunk my teeth into. With a baby at home my recent fiction reading experiences have been filled with false starts, frustration and boredom. For some reason nonfiction has been easier to hang with while sleep-deprived and listening for the tiniest sounds emanating from the nursery. Fortunately, book two of the Mobile Library Mysteries, Mr. Dixon Disappears, is available in the States next month.
On the web:
Ian Sansom for your information
Ballykissangel
by Ian Sansom
Israel Armstrong is your other-than-average man about Londontown; at least he'd like to think so. He knows a great cappuccino when he encounters one, loves art house flicks and can speak at length on Dostoevsky.
But can he run a small, Northern Ireland public library? Especially when that library happens to have been shuttered for years, is now on wheels, and, most distressingly, all the books have disappeared? It'll take more than a bibliophile's knowledge of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot to recapture the missing library in a hilarious whotook'em that relies more heavily on Sansom's memorable characters than the mystery that envelopes them.
At a time when the literary anti-hero is most often a leather-clad, drinking and smoking, but ultimately big-hearted rebel, the passive aggressive, less than gifted Israel Armstrong is truly enjoyable precisely because he is so utterly unlikable.
Sansom also succeeds in depicting modern Northern Ireland without succumbing to the specter of the Troubles. His junk food munching bureaucrats, small town bullies, knowing baristas and seductress journalists humanize the region in a way that a more overwrought narrative might not. The effects of the Troubles exist in these characters, but they do not dominate their quotidian lives.
Thankfully, my sister passed The Case of the Missing Books on to me, which, after a slow start, I delightedly sunk my teeth into. With a baby at home my recent fiction reading experiences have been filled with false starts, frustration and boredom. For some reason nonfiction has been easier to hang with while sleep-deprived and listening for the tiniest sounds emanating from the nursery. Fortunately, book two of the Mobile Library Mysteries, Mr. Dixon Disappears, is available in the States next month.
On the web:
Ian Sansom for your information
Ballykissangel
1 comment:
Good review. I'll look for it.
More baby pics, too, please!
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