THE CASE OF THE MISSING BOOKS by Ian Sansom
I got this book out on the recommendation of a daily newspaper and opened it with excitement. There is nothing better for a whodunnit fan than finding a rich new seam to mine. Israel Armstrong, an unlikely Jewish librarian in Northern Ireland, sounded ju
I got this book out on the recommendation of a daily newspaper and opened it with excitement.
There is nothing better for a whodunnit fan than finding a rich new seam to mine. Israel Armstrong, an unlikely Jewish librarian in Northern Ireland, sounded just right.
What I hadn't catered for, and should have done thanks to that brief description, is that Sansom is aiming more at humour than characterisation. That would be fine but it didn't hit my funny bone.
If you like the Malcolm Pryce Aberystwyth detective books, I think you'll rate Israel. He's endearingly inept, and the premise of the book is charmingly surreal - villagers have hidden their mobile library to stop the council axing it and then they end up selling it back to them. Israel is appointed as the new mobile librarian only to discover that the books have vanished. Just think comedy not conundrum.
Thanks to Waterstones of Hitchin
2/5
Most Read
- 1 BID releases official statement after cancelling Christmas lights switch-on
- 2 Yellow warning for snow and wind in Herts as Storm Arwen sweeps in
- 3 Villagers left waiting over an hour in cold for Arriva buses demand better service
- 4 15 adorable rescue pets in Hertfordshire looking for loving new homes this Christmas
- 5 Hitchin named as happiest place to live in the East of England
- 6 Hertfordshire zoo Paradise Wildlife Park to temporarily close to the public in January
- 7 Here's what we know so far about the new Covid variant
- 8 How Hertfordshire’s coronavirus figures compare to last year's lockdown
- 9 Tranmere Rovers against Stevenage off after Storm Arwen damage
- 10 Driver assaulted in racially aggravated attack following car crash
