“[Israel’s] fish-out-of-water dilemmas and encounters with kooky locals will resonate with Alexander McCall Smith fans.” —Publishers Weekly
Author Ian Sansom “clearly loves a good laugh” (Washington Post), as his delightful mystery series featuring rumpled, fish-out-of-water, Jewish vegetarian librarian Israel Armstrong indisputably proves. The Bad Book Affair is Israel’s fourth hilarious adventure as he tools around Ireland in a rattletrap bookmobile trying to solve the mystery of a missing teenage girl while trying to keep his mess of a personal life in order. Sansom’s Mobile Library Mystery series has made a big splash with critics on both sides of “the Pond.” The New York Times Book Review loves their “formidable reserves of insight and humor,” while the London Times calls Israel “one of the most original and exciting amateur sleuths around.”
Industry Reviews
"A clever, affectionate poke in the ribs.. Sansom...discovers an exceptionally lively world." -- Kirkus Reviews "[a] comic masterpiece" -- The Belfast Telegraph ."the dialogue is certainly amusing. Readers who enjoy send-ups of crime novels, talk-radio hosts, city pomposities and rural eccentricities will queue up for the series." -- Kirkus Reviews "A work of tender and bonhomous refraction. ...Sansom is emphatically unpretentious in his portrayal of the ordinary lives of ordinary folk, and his gentle humor buoys their humdrum lives...pleasing, amusing and honest."--New York Newsday "[THE BOOK STOPS HERE] succeeds as a light farce . . . The book's high point is the acerbic portrayal of the personalities making up the Mobile Library Steering Committee, but most every page will elicit a grin, if not a chuckle."--Publishers Weekly "A wonderfully comic novel...Ian Sansom has an acute sense of the absurd, and does not allow sympathetic intimacy to stand in the way of some wicked barbs."--Daily Mail (London) "[Sansom's] fish-out-of-water dilemmas and encounters with kooky locals will resonate with Alexander McCall Smith fans"--Publishers Weekly "An endearing first novel...People cross paths, hook up, split up, say good-bye. Narrative unity derives less from the story than from the amiable persona of the narrator himself, in all his rambling, digressive warmth, and his mild insistence throughout--Daily Telegraph (London) "A humane, big-hearted and sometimes devastatingly funny book."--LA Weekly ."..the dialogue is certainly amusing. Readers who enjoy send-ups of crime novels, talk-radio hosts, city pomposities and rural eccentricities will queue up for the series..."--Kirkus Reviews "A clever, affectionate poke in the ribs.... Sansom...discovers an exceptionally lively world."--Kirkus Reviews "[a] comic masterpiece"--The Belfast Telegraph ..".the dialogue is certainly amusing. Readers who enjoy send-ups of crime novels, talk-radio hosts, city pomposities and rural eccentricities will queue up for the series..."--Kirkus Reviews the dialogue is certainly amusing. Readers who enjoy send-ups of crime novels, talk-radio hosts, city pomposities and rural eccentricities will queue up for the series --Kirkus Reviews" [THE BOOK STOPS HERE] succeeds as a light farce . . . The book s high point is the acerbic portrayal of the personalities making up the Mobile Library Steering Committee, but most every page will elicit a grin, if not a chuckle. --Publishers Weekly" [Sansom s] fish-out-of-water dilemmas and encounters with kooky locals will resonate with Alexander McCall Smith fans --Publishers Weekly" [a] comic masterpiece --The Belfast Telegraph" A work of tender and bonhomous refraction. ...Sansom is emphatically unpretentious in his portrayal of the ordinary lives of ordinary folk, and his gentle humor buoys their humdrum lives pleasing, amusing and honest. --New York Newsday" A wonderfully comic novel...Ian Sansom has an acute sense of the absurd, and does not allow sympathetic intimacy to stand in the way of some wicked barbs. --Daily Mail (London)" A humane, big-hearted and sometimes devastatingly funny book. --LA Weekly" A clever, affectionate poke in the ribs . Sansom...discovers an exceptionally lively world. --Kirkus Reviews" An endearing first novel...People cross paths, hook up, split up, say good-bye. Narrative unity derives less from the story than from the amiable persona of the narrator himself, in all his rambling, digressive warmth, and his mild insistence throughout--Daily Telegraph (London)"
