Mr Dixon Disappears (The Mobile Library)

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'.

Ian Sansom is the author of Paper: An Elegy and the Mobile Library Mystery series of novels. He is also a frequent contributor to the Guardian and the London Review of Books, and a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. The Sussex Murders is the fifth in his County Guide series, following The Norfolk Mystery, Death in Devon, Westmorland Alone and Essex Poison.

Praise for 'The Case of the Missing Books': 'Cripplingly funny. Sansom ! enjoys himself with impossibly long sentences that leave you gasping for breath, largely because you've been laughing while you follow them. Do not drink a beverage, of any description, while reading 'The Case of the Missing Books.' You'll just end up spilling it.' Independent 'A satisfying and amusing read, and with a second book in 'The Mobile Library' series on its way, I'll happily climb on board again.' The Guardian Praise for 'Ring Road': 'A "Tristram Shandy" for our times ! The tone is part elegy, part satire, part howl and very, very funny. I laughed more times than I can remember over a novel for years !' Observer 'A wonderfully comic novel.' Daily Mail 'It reminds me most of Jerome K. Jerome ! Mellow, intelligent and very funny, a perfect antidote for melancholy.' Michael Moorcok, Guardian