This guy just writes the funniest mysteries in the world. The two I have read have been excellent, interesting, and parts of them are just hysterical. ( )

Divorcing Jack by Colin Bateman is the first in his series that features a witty Belfast newspaper columnist named Dan Starkey who excels at drinking and partying. One night at a party he is caught by his wife kissing another woman, and this misdeed leads him into a horrendous week of murder and politics with both the police, the IRA and the Loyalists all after him.

Divorcing Jack is a wonderful combination of Irish noir and black comedy with a highly likeable anti-hero as the main character. As he stumbles and bumbles his way around Belfast at the height of the Troubles he runs into gangsters, politicians and thugs and while not always entirely credible, the story is always entertaining.

I have had this book sitting on my shelves for more years than I care to count. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to finally start this series, but I will be continuing on with Starkey’s adventures in the near future. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2508355.html

I picked this up at a Brussels literary event last year, at which Bateman himself spoke and autographed a couple of his works for me. I had previously read a couple of his thrillers set in Belfast, usually involving struggling journalists who get into political and criminal difficulties, though I don't think I had looked at any of them this century. Divorcing Jack is more political, but it is a slightly different politics to our time line, set in an alternate 1995 where the Alliance Party is about to win the elections and take power. (I read this bit with particular interest because in our timeline, the real Alliance Party's central Director of Elections in 1995 was, er, me; and we were struggling to hit the 6.5% we got in 1996, never mind win outright. A significant subplot revolves around the party's candidate for North Belfast, who in 1995-96, in our timeline, was, again, me; but Bateman's fictional McGarry had a much more successful political career than I did.)

As with the other Bateman novels I've read, the narrator is a journalist down on his luck. Here, his marriage is on the rocks, two other women appear on the scene, and he unleashes a criminal scandal which threatens to rock the political world to its foundations. Bateman's Northern Ireland is a small world. There is only one taxi driver in the whole of Belfast, apparently. The least credible element of this alternate Northern Ireland is that everyone at the top level of politics has known each other practically from childhood, and that the battles of young love are still being fought a decade or two later, along with all the other political battles. I do actually know of a couple of countries where this is a decent explanation of a lot of the political dynamics; but Northern Ireland, given its internal division and also relative permeability to outside influences, is not one of them.

But I'm far enough away in time and (usually) space to appreciate that not every detail of the fictional politics of Bateman's Northern Ireland needs to be convincing to make it an entertaining book; and it is an entertaining book - in particular, he catches the caustic Belfast wit very well, also showing how it can link to a cynical worldview where scepticism even of the apparently heroic is always justified. It's not a terribly attractive approach, but at least it means that, by assuming the worst in advance, you are more likely to get pleasant surprises than unpleasant surprises.

It's also striking, to a visitor from the 21st century, how much the plot of this book set in 1995 depends on old technology - the McGuffin is a cassette tape of which there is only one copy; when your spouse goes missing you have to call round all imaginable relatives and friends and ask if they know where your loved one is, because nobody has a mobile phone.

Anyway, it's of its time, but it brought me back to places which were very important to me once, and showed them to me from a different angle and in a different light. I don't know how well it would be received outside Northern Ireland - the humour is very local - and I'm not even sure how well it was received here - rather too close to the bone in some cases. But I liked it. ( )

Après ma lecture du livre Les couleurs de la ville de Liam McIlvanney, LibraryThing m’a conseillé de lire le premier tome de la série des Dan Starkey, écrite par Colin Bateman, journaliste irlandais comme son héros. LibraryThing m’a aussi indiqué que ce livre a été adapté au cinéma sous le titre Divorcing Jack. Je ne connaissais bien sûr ni le livre ni le film.

Le cadre est le même que celui du roman de Liam McIlvanney. On est au début des années 90, à Belfast. Dan Starkey est un journaliste polémiste, engagé mais surtout connu pour son humour irrésistible et son goût pour la boisson.

Un soir, il boit un peu trop, s’allonge sur un banc dans un parc. Quand il se réveille, une jeune femme, Margaret, le regarde et se propose de l’aider. Dan la ramène chez lui sous prétexte que l’on est vendredi soir et que c’est le jour où lui et sa femme reçoivent des vieux amis. La soirée dégénère quand la femme de Dan surprend Dan en train d’embrasser Margaret. Pourtant très ouverte, elle vire Dan de la maison. Il n’a plus d’autres choix que de coucher avec Margaret chez elle. Cela n’arrange bien sûr pas les choses. Sa femme va jusqu’à jeter des pommes de terre dans les fenêtres de la maîtresse de son mari.

Le problème est que Margaret est assassinée le soir-même alors que Dan est parti acheté des pizzas. Dan soupçonne sa femme (bien évidemment) et pense que la police va le soupçonner lui vu qu’il était le premier sur les lieux et qu’il a tué par accident la mère de Margaret. Il préfère prendre la fuite. La suite lui donnera raison puisqu’il se retrouve embringué dans une véritable machination car ce que Margaret a oublié de dire à Dan avant de mourir est qu’elle est (était) la fille d’un cadre supérieur du parti l’Alliance, parti qui veut la réconciliation des deux camps et qui est à deux doigts de gagner les élections qui se tiennent dans quelques jours (ce qui n’arrange absolument personne).

Ce livre est un très bon roman noir. Comme le livre de Liam McIlvanney, Belfast est décrite comme une ville où tout se règle avec des armes et des bombes, une ville où il ne fait donc pas très bon vivre. Avec l’humour de Dan, ce caractère noir est atténué car cela ressemble beaucoup à un film américain avec des acteurs bras cassés.

Ce livre est aussi un très bon roman d’actions et de suspens. Vous aimez l’action, vous serez servi car il y a un retournement de situation toutes les dix pages à peu près. Pour le suspens, le dénouement ne se fait que cinq pages avant la fin du livre et personnellement, je n’avais rien compris.

Là où le livre est vraiment bon, c’est dans l’humour. Le problème est que j’ai lu le livre dans le RER et que je n’ai donc pas noté de phrases illustrant cela (il faut que je trouve une solution pour remédier à cela). Pour vous donner une idée, normalement, quand un livre me fait rire, je me contente de sourire en lisant (surtout en public) mais là visiblement j’ai rigolé. J’en ai déduit cela au fait que les trois personnes qui étaient dans mon wagon se sont retournées pour me regarder.

Il y a au moins quatre volumes déjà publiés de cette série et à mon avis cela promet (surtout vu le caractère explosif de la femme de Dan Starkey). ( )

This is a very entertaining book by Colin Bateman an author from my hometown of Bangor, so a lot of place names and expressions well used here in Northern Ireland!! It is however for everyone, it is very funny and fast paced.
Dan Starkey is a journalist with a Belfast Newspaper, he is married to Patricia, both live a life packed with drink and parties. One night Dan meets Margaret, and in a drunken blur ends up having a one night stand with her, after Patricia throws him out. That is when the fun starts!, mystery is afoot as Margaret is murderd, but not before giving Jack a cassette tape and whispering Divorce Jack before she snuffs it!!
Dan ends up all over Belfast with all sorts of dodgy characters, wondering what the heck he has got himself into and whats it all about.
A very good read, lighthearted in a macabre sort of way!! You really should give it a go. ( )