Book description
Israel Armstrong, one of literature's most unlikely detectives, returns
for more crime solving adventure in this hilarious second novel from
'The Mobile Library' series.
The second in the 'The Mobile Library ' detective series, 'Mr Dixon
Disappears' once again features the magnificently hapless Israel
Armstrong - the young, Jewish, duffle-coat wearing librarian who solves
crimes, mysteries, and domestic problems all whilst driving a mobile
library around the coast of Northern Ireland.
Dixon and Pickering's, County Antrim's legendary department store, is
preparing to celebrate its centenary. But the elderly Mr Dixon - a
member of the Ulster Association of Magicians - has gone missing, along
with one hundred thousand pounds in cash. It smells, pretty badly, of a kidnap.
Israel becomes a suspect in the police investigation and is suspended
from his job by his boss, the ever-fearsome Linda Wei. He's having to
fight to clear his name.
Does Israel's acclaimed five-panel touring exhibition showing the
history of Dixon and Pickering's in old photographs and artefacts
perhaps hold the key to Mr Dixon's mysterious disappearance? Will
romance blossom between Israel and Rosie Hart, the barmaid at the First
and Last? Will Linda Wei stick to her diet? And has nobody here heard of
Franz Kafka? All will be revealed in this hilarious and endlessly
inventive sequel to 'The Case of the Missing Books'. 'Israel is one of
the most original and amusing amateur sleuths around…' The Times
'Bibliophiles will instinctively warm to Israel Armstrong, Jewish
librarian, duffel-coat wearer and part-time detective. The fact that he
drives his mobile library around the coast of Northern Ireland, moaning
non-stop about people who do not return books on time, only makes the
character more deliciously esoteric. This yarn about an ageing magician
who has gone missing with £100,000 is the second in what promises to be
a must-read series.' Sunday Telegraph Ian Sansom reviews regularly for
the Guardian and the London Review of Books. His first book, The Truth
About Babies, was published by Granta in 2002, and his second, Ring
Road, by Fourth Estate in 2004.
