The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom

The Case of the Missing Books is not so much a mystery as a comic novel. To be sure, there is the mystery: who stole the 15,000 books from the Tumdrum Library? And there is grievous bodily harm but only to our hapless hero's wardrobe and dignity.

After traveling by train, ferry, and bus from London, when Israel Armstrong finally arrives in Tumdrum, a coastal town in Northern Ireland, to begin what he thinks is his new career as town librarian, he discovers that the library has closed - permanently. His job, it seems, now entails operating the town's beat-up, rusty - and bookless - mobile library.

Israel is not happy about this. In his mind a mobile library lives at the bottom of a long list of libraries that is topped by the British Library, university libraries, big public libraries, and even falls below libraries in prisons and mental institutions. Of course, a mobile library is not a library if it contains no books and he sets out to find who stole them which leads to many merry adventures. Merry for the reader, that is, but not for Israel who is definitely a stranger in a strange land.

To wit: His living quarters on a family's farm turn out to be an abandoned chicken coop complete with a few straggly hens; he is forced to wear borrowed and too-short camo pants and jacket as his one corduroy suit burned while drying out on the farmhouse stove (along with his credit cards and cash); and just about everyone he meets is suspicious of him and a wee bit combative.

Poor Israel. He just doesn't seem to ever get a break. But all's well that ends well, and he does manage to solve the case.

This book is the first in the Mobile Library Mystery series by Ian Sansom that I referenced in last week's post (here). I loved the characters and the bizarre situations that Israel, the hopeful librarian, finds himself in. (Although he doesn't enjoy them as much as the reader!)

And the cover, a throwback to pre-computer days, is a gem.

There are many literary references that, of course, are always fun, and Mr. Sansom's writing is clever and entertaining. I have to say that I enjoyed this romp a little better than his Norfolk Mystery, but will give the second installments of both series a try.

These books have offered me a literary vacation which has been quite pleasant. What places have you visited via books this summer?

The Norfolk Mystery by Ian Sansom

Start with England in the 1930s. Add the author of tomes ranging in subjects from penguins to ponies, lighthouses to lilies, churches to chimneys. Stir in a war-weary lost soul as the assistant. Send them off across England's thirty-nine counties in search of 'all the good things' of each place to record in a series of guidebooks. Sprinkle in a dead body or two and you have a delicious recipe for a mystery series.

Swanton Morley, known as The People's Professor, knows a lot of things about a lot of things. He often quotes Latin, Shakespeare, and throws in a Bible verse or two for good measure. He would certainly be a winner on Jeopardy. His ongoing prattle about subjects that have nothing to do with the conversation or events at hand is a constant, although brilliant, annoyance to his assistant Stephen Sefton. (As well as, I suspect, to the reader. I know my eyes sometimes race through some of the professor's ramblings although I hope I am not missing any clues!)

Mr. Morley is rigorous in his daily routine. He keeps an egg timer beside his typewriter and types away in spurts of 15 minutes. His writing philosophy: 'Avoid haphazard writing habits. And avoid haphazard writing materials.'  He even has a desk fitted out in his automobile so no time will be wasted while motoring from village to village. 

It is my desire merely to set down a record of this place before its roots are cut and its sap drained, and the ancient oaks are felled once and for all. I do not wish England - our England - to be unknown by future generations... A celebration of England and the Englishman. From the wheelwrights of Devon to the potters of the north, from the shoe-makers of Northampton to the chair-makers of High Wycombe...

Sefton has returned to England from fighting in the Spanish Civil War and has been unable to settle back into British life. He refers to himself as 'impoverished and rootless' until he answers The Professor's help wanted advertisement: Assistant (Male) to Writer; be prepared to travel; intelligence essential.

Ian Sansom, author of this series, has thrown these two fellows together and seems to be having a great time letting their two distinctly different personalities and quirks unfold for the reader. 

The first of the guidebooks, The Norfolk Mystery, finds this unlikely duo in Blakeney where, upon minutes of their arrival, they come across the body of a reverend hanging by the neck from a bell-rope in the tower of St. Nicholas Church. Was it suicide or murder?

I have a ways to go yet to find out the answer to that question. In the meantime, I am enjoying meeting some of the characters that may or may not be suspects and that Morley and Sefton interview in an effort to determine what happened and so be on their way to exploring other spots in Norfolk.

The second book in this County Guide series, Death in Devon, is out and the third installment, Westmorland Alone, will be available in the United States in September. Mr. Sansom also writes the Mobile Library Mystery Series, the tales of which take place in Ireland. I would also like to give those mysteries a try.

There are small photographs included in the book which is quite different for a mystery series. I assume they are of places in Norfolk in keeping with the guidebook theme. I find them to be a nice addition to the story. 

If you are looking for car chases and a dizzying amount of action this series most likely won't be for you. But you can safely add them to your list of Cozies!