The Bad Book Affair

November 23, 2009
In Sansom's satiric fourth mobile library mystery (after 2008's The Book Stops Here
), Israel Armstrong, an English Jewish vegetarian mobile librarian and amateur sleuth, embarks on yet another bumblingly endearing case in Tumdrum, “on the northernmost coast of the north of the north of Northern Ireland.” The day after Israel allows 14-year-old Lyndsay Morris to borrow a “bad book” (i.e., Philip Roth's American Pastoral
), Lyndsay, daughter of prominent Unionist candidate Maurice Morris, disappears. The coincidence is enough to make Israel suspect in the eyes of his boss, Linda Wei, a lesbian Chinese single mother, as well as the police and a nosy newspaper reporter. Never mind the thin plot and minimal detection. Sansom uses the naïve Israel to poke fun at politics, religion, prejudice, and pretensions of all sorts. Readers will particularly enjoy the passages devoted to the efforts to keep books like American Pastoral
out of the hands of the young and impressionable.

December 1, 2009
Ireland's only English Jewish vegetarian mobile librarian suffers through a bout of melancholia.

Why bathe? he wonders. Why even get out of bed? Israel Armstrong, days away from turning 30, months away from having his former girlfriend Gloria answer his calls, has taken to his fetid bed in the rented, barely livable, redone chicken coop he now calls home in the relentlessly boring town of Tumdrum in the north of the north of northern Ireland. Ted, his Malaprop-spouting bookmobile partner, chases Israel out of bed and back to work, where the unthinkable happens: Israel lets a 14-year-old girl borrow one of the Unshelved, books deemed too unseemly for young eyes. Did Philip Roth's American Pastoral convince young Lyndsay to run away? Library director Linda Wei blames Israel, and so does Lyndsay's pa, ousted Unionist politician Maurice Morris, now campaigning for reelection. Veronica, the sultry reporter who earlier dangled herself before Israel, makes him an offer he can't refuse: Find Lyndsay or become the tabloid headline of the day. So off he goes to interview Lyndsay's mum, ex-boyfriend, fellow members of a charismatic religious group, and so forth. Their conversations allow the puckish author to satirize food, church, politics, kids, the Irish, the English, J.K. Rowling, audio cassettes and everything on earth that deserves a punch line.

Whither the mystery? one might ask. But that would be churlish in light of all the rollicking wit from satirist Sansom (The Book Stops Here, 2008, etc.).

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 29, 2010
Israel Armstrong (The Book Stops Here) is in a bad way-the Jewish, vegetarian, city-bred librarian is still stuck in rural Northern Ireland, still despised by his boss, and still battling the demands of his book mobile patrons. And now that his girlfriend has left, Israel has taken to his bed and new depths of pseudo-existential despair. There are many funny scenes and some horrifyingly realistic portrayals of the challenges in serving the reading (or nonreading) public that anyone who has worked a reference desk will relate to all too easily. But Israel's haplessness pales a bit in this fourth installment by Guardian contributor Sansom. Like others in the series, this entry features a mystery of sorts-a missing teen last seen checking out restricted material, which makes Israel a suspect-but the real point is the interplay between fish-out-of-water Israel and the colorful supporting characters.Verdict Fans of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series will appreciate the local color and a less-than-admirable hero, but first-timers will prefer the earlier books, where Israel isn't such a pill.-Devon Thomas, DevIndexing, Chelsea, MI

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2009
Israel Armstrong, the English, Jewish, vegetarian mobile librarian, is back for his fourth despondent slog (after The Book Stops Here, 2008) through the north of Northern Ireland. Hes as out of his element as everhed hoped for a brownstone in Brooklyn and breakfast with Paul Austerand the mystery is as incidental to the craic as ever, too. This time, Israels lending of a book from The Unshelved, a selection of under-the-counter books that includes both Philip Roths American Pastoral and Bret Easton Ellis American Psycho, makes him a suspect in the disappearance of the borrower, the daughter of a redemption-seeking political candidate. A reluctant Israel investigates only to clear his name, with colleague and comic foil Ted Carsonthe two are surely one of the genres great comedy teamsdoing the driving. But whats different this time is that Israels ongoing existential crisis, while played for laughs, isnt only played for laughs. The death of a dear friend forces Israel into meaningful introspection, and Sansom offers genuinely affecting scenes of aging, death, and grief that make his still-generous humor all the more sweet. Though this series hasnt always lived up to its terrific potential, The Bad Book Affair augurs very well for the future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)