Colin Bateman (1)Besprekingen

Audiobook

I found this compulsively readable and almost equal parts funny and cringe. The Man with No Name who runs No Alibis, a crime fiction bookshop in Belfast, is a walking bundle of neuroses, and it was distressing how many of those I could relate to. (The sheer number of everyday things that the Man nopes out of, I have noped out of at least once in my life with precisely the same sort of self-protective anxiety.) It’s definitely a darker brand of humour but not darker in terms of crime: it’s mostly a puzzle sort of crime with a reasonably low body count. I would read another book in the series if I could get a hold of it.

Napínavá detektivka irského autora. Dan Starkey, zkrachovalý belfastský novinář, se zas jednou ocitl v pěkné šlamastyce, kterou si podle svého názoru ani nezavinil, ani nezasloužil. Sadistický gangster zvaný Plukovník po něm chce, aby zabil holywoodského herce Seana O'Toola. Aby Dana přinutil, unesl mu ženu a dítě.

Mystery Man by Colin Bateman is the first book in his series about the owner of an Irish book store that specializes in mysteries who also takes on the duties of a private investigator for some clients. It started when the private investigator next door to the bookshop disappeared and his clients appealed to him for help. I have read Bateman before so was quite aware that his books are always darkly funny and full of satire so I was prepared for the many laugh out loud moment that this book provided.

Our main character is a whiny hypochondriac with OCD and still lives at home with his mother. Surprisingly, he has a crush on the pretty girl who works in the jewellery story across the street and actually manages to start a relationship with her. His cases start off simple, having to track down a pair of stolen leather pants or locate a missing girlfriend who disappeared after her boyfriend compared her ears to jugs. But the cases take a very serious turn when he finds himself surrounded by murdered victims and looking for Nazis.

I thoroughly enjoyed this first book and have already picked up two more for the future. I am looking forward to the humorous literary references, the outlandish cases, and the many twists and turns that this author provides his readers.

Private detective Dan Starkey has taken on a new case to find the missing son of a political activist. In Northern Ireland, anything political is bound to involve some "tricks" and this one didn't disappoint. Dan risks his well-being when he finds himself searching on the other, unfamiliar side of the fence, as well as being deep in the sex trade. Ribald, and filled with typical Ulster humour. His searching is so inept that at one point police suspect him of murder. I have a hunch that one of the most villainous characters is a parody of a well-known politician who will remain unnamed. Although this is darker than usual for Bateman, I had many laugh-out-loud moments, helped by the excellent audio narration. Not for anyone easily offended.

A novel with a title as cool as “Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men” is just begging to be at least taken off of the shelf. If that catchy handle isn’t enough, the boxer throwing a jab on the cover, with a little mouse atop his glove, should certainly get your attention. If I hadn’t already been directed to this book by my friend, Glenn, that title and cover art would have gotten me to give this one a try.
Bateman grabbed a hold of me with the first paragraph.

“Peace had settled over the city like the skin on a rancid custard. Everybody wanted it, just not in that form. The forecast remained for rain, with widespread terrorism.”

Boy, Howdy! I think this was the most fun I’ve had with a book in all of 2021. I love boxing, comedy, and weird characters. This page-turning thrill ride is the crazy misadventures of unlikely, heavyweight contender, Fat Boy McMaster and his entourage preparing for a mismatch of a title shot with the champion, Mike Tyson. Fat Boy “can’t fight, he has the charisma of a bag of sugar and more in common with tripe than hype. He is the Great Fat Hope”.
Our motley crew welcome the chance to leave the atrocities of Northern Ireland behind for the more settled conditions of New York City. Ha! Right from the frying pan, and into the fire.

Special thanks to Glenn Russell for introducing me to Colin Bateman’s work.

Giving a nod of his head to John Steinbeck, Northern Irish author, Colin Bateman delivers Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men, the second novel featuring Dan Starkey, a boozy, sarcastic and often misguided journalist. In this outing we are presented with a fun story line, some bizarre twists, plenty of shady characters and a considerable amount of dark humor.

We find Dan joining the entourage of the Irish heavyweight champion “Fat Boy” McMaster, and heading to New York to cover the upcoming fight between McMaster and Mike Tyson. When McMaster’s wife is kidnapped and the fighter is misunderstood and becomes labelled a racist, Starkey tries his hand at detective work and along the way gets involved in an attack on a Muslim temple and manages to insult and get beaten up by a group of gay waiters before zeroing in on the Irish political and religious troubles.

Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men is a fun romp, not to be taken too seriously, but simply enjoyed for it’s tongue-in-cheek style, fast pace and sharp humor. I am already looking forward to the next book.

Another great book in the Dan Starkey series.
“The Troubles” are over in Northern Ireland, but not everyone is happy about this.
The fun loving private investigator Dan Starkey seems to get tangled up with ever bad person in Northern Ireland, but because he is such a goofball and the dialogue is witty and fun without being annoying this is a great book series.

Bateman reminds me of a Belfast version of Christopher Moore, ribald, rude and brimming with black humour. This portrayed a different Belfast, one with drugs and gangs instead of sectarian violence. I enjoyed the jaunts around some neighbourhoods and streets that I know well, even though the denizens of those sedate neighbourhoods would be aghast at Dan Starkey's shenanigans and his exploits as a PI. His old job as newspaper reporter was safer. OK, but not as good as the Mystery Man series.½

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One of Bateman's mystery novels, set in Belfast, the protagonist being the proprietor of the No Alibis bookshop on Botanic Avenue, investigating the murder of a well-known gangster in the course of which he spends some time in Purdysburn, Belfast's mental hospital. I really enjoyed the sense of place; I think I could locate almost every scene on the map. I also enjoyed the effective way Bateman captures the black humour of Belfast. But the actual plot was too convoluted to be credible, and the ending (which apparently closes off the prospect of any more books in this four-book series) felt ungraceful and out of harmony with what had come before. I'm told that the earlier books in the series are better.½

Quite funny with a very quirky narrator. The narrator is the owner of a mystery book store who starts investigating small cases when the P.I. next door closes his business suddenly. He gets involved in a case that might involve murder which is really too much for this paranoid, hypochondriac wants to handle. Sometimes I just wanted to shake the narrator but the voice is strong, clear, and FUNNY!

I almost dropped a star b/c it ends on a cliffhanger. Right after the narrator talks about how he hates when mysteries end on a cliffhanger.

Second in the Mystery man sereis. Enjoyable black comedy crime fiction.

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read - honest. It's a mystery set in war torn Ireland and I know that does not sound funny. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

This guy just writes the funniest mysteries in the world. The two I have read have been excellent, interesting, and parts of them are just hysterical.

Irish Journalist Dan Starkey is back in his second appearance. The first, [b:Divorcing Jack|163144|Chicken Soup for the Single's Soul - 101 Stories of Love and Inspiration for the Single, Divorced and Widowed|Jack Canfield|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172314570s/163144.jpg|157478], was great and this one may be better. Bateman who is a wonderful and hilarious story teller has moved his story this time out of Ireland, to the Northeast part of the U.S. Semi-decent heavy weight boxer, Bobby McMasters is pitted as the great white hope against Mike Tyson for a St. Patrick's Day match. Starkey's been hired to write a book about the whole thing. Ireland meets New York in the 1990's itself is a set up and Bateman takes it all the way. Bateman's next novel is already out in the U.K. I hope it swims across the pond at a fast clip!

This may be Colin Bateman's best so far. Nathan Young, and illegal from Ireland is not a sterling character. He drifts here and there wondering what life is doing to him. He lands a job as a security guard at the Empire State Building and the President of the United States is coming to visit. In true Bateman fashion, a presidential assassin gets usurped by Nathan through a comedy of errors. Bateman's books just don't stand up to synopsis. You just have to go there yourself and you should - really. He's a twisted tale teller for sure.

Niagra Falls, the Canadian side. It's a quiet sleepy town most of the time but now there's a new Inspector, fresh from the unpleasantness in Ireland and there's a convention of florists (or are they really florists) and there's a woman who's gone over the Falls and lived to tell about it. But, mostly, like any Colin Bateman novel, you just need to read it because describing you just can't explain it. He's a master.

If you like Bateman's other books, you'll like this one. Freelance reporter/writer Dan Starkey is off with his new wife and baby to a remote island off the Irish coast to see if the island's new baby is really the second coming… It's full of Bateman's usual very clever wit and plot.

Belfast journalist Dan Starkey is off to New York to cover a fight between Mike Tyson and a little-known Irish fighter, nicknamed Fat Boy McMaster, or sometimes Marshmallow McMaster who has somehow become Ireland's champion. After a series of misunderstandings McMaster's wife is kidnapped. This slapstick farce is loaded with humour that is hardly likely to be fully understood outside Northern Ireland. However, Bateman gave me several laugh out loud moments and a happy memory of "wee sweetie mice", a favourite candy of my childhood.½

Divorcing Jack by Colin Bateman is the first in his series that features a witty Belfast newspaper columnist named Dan Starkey who excels at drinking and partying. One night at a party he is caught by his wife kissing another woman, and this misdeed leads him into a horrendous week of murder and politics with both the police, the IRA and the Loyalists all after him.

Divorcing Jack is a wonderful combination of Irish noir and black comedy with a highly likeable anti-hero as the main character. As he stumbles and bumbles his way around Belfast at the height of the Troubles he runs into gangsters, politicians and thugs and while not always entirely credible, the story is always entertaining.

I have had this book sitting on my shelves for more years than I care to count. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to finally start this series, but I will be continuing on with Starkey’s adventures in the near future.

The Dead Pass has a beginning, middle and an end. It keeps its feel throughout. The lead character, an unpaid private detective, found himself in a lot of horrible situations seemingly with no escape. Even though there was murder, violence and blood, the main character always seemed to have a snarky attitude with occasional references to punk rock. The story took place in a very cold Ireland with many references to the old Ireland that is no more. The book is recommended and why it was given four stars here.

I heard that Colin Bateman is one of Ian Rankin's favorite authors. This is the first Bateman book I have read. At first I was a little disconcerted by the "stand up" comedy aspect already mentioned by another reviewer, but as I persevered I came across some genuine moments of comedy and the realisation that the whole thing hangs together. I guess he is the sort of writer you either love or hate.

There was an exhilarating originality about this novel - an isolated community off the coast of Northern Ireland becomes convinced one of its number is the second coming of Christ. Journalist Dan Starkey arrives to investigate. It becomes clear that this is one of a series of books featuring Starkey, and given that I've not encountered him before it was a bit like crashing a party halfway through, but it was one where I felt welcome, and everything the reader needs to know about what has gone before is economically conveyed without disturbing the narrative. There's a lot of drinking (despite the fact that the island is "dry") and a lot of wisecracking. The humour reminded me of my husband - frequently corny to an almost unbearable degree, but amongst it some really cracking humour that makes wading through the corn that bit less painful. And you really have to applaud the one-liner at the end of chapter 20, whilst acknowledging the complexity of the scaffolding that had to be erected around it to permit it to be delivered.

I was hoping the book might bring me a tiny bit closer to understanding Northern Ireland and the whole religious divide. "Protestantism never has and never will be about religion" remarks Starkey in chapter 1. "It's about property and culture and spitting at Catholics". I was none the wiser, but that observation summed up in a nutshell everything about sectarianism that is baffling to outsiders.

I enjoyed the first half more than the second - there was a lot of good personality-driven plot and a lot of good humour. From halfway on, though, something happened. It became like a screenplay in waiting. Guns and fisticuffs and overwrought near-death experiences took over. Despite some pretty graphic action, you knew everything was going to be broadly OK: is the author really going to allow his serial character to be killed off? There are surely plenty more wisecracks to come.

I have never read a book by this author, but after reading Fire and Brimstone I will certainly seek the rest in this series out.
Not much Irish slang so it was an easy read, and the story moved along at a good clip. The main character reminded me of the smart ass behavior of hJoe R Lansdale's characters Hap & Leonard, just without the access to multiple firearms.

This was just what I needed! Funny, witty, with quirky characters, it reminded me of a cross between Jonathan Creek, "The curious incident of the dog in the night time" and Black Books. A light, likeable read-in-one-sitting novel.