Divorcing Jack - Softcover

Bateman, Colin

3.8

2,099 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782922849 ISBN 13: 9781782922841

Publisher: CB Creative Books, 2013

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Fast, funny, scary. A truly up-to-the-minute novel set in Belfast from a brilliant new writer. Now a major BBC/Scala film starring David Thewlis and Robert Lindsay. Dan Starkey is a young journalist in Belfast, who shares with his wife, Patricia, a prodigious appetite for drinking and dancing. Then Dan meets Margaret, a beautiful and apparently impoverished student, and things begin to get out of hand. And then, terrifyingly, Margaret is murdered. Is it because of her liaison with Dan? Is it because she was not exactly who she claimed to be? Is it the IRA? A Protestant extremist group? A jealous lover? Before long, Dan is a target himself, running as fast as he can in a race against time to crack the mystery and save his marriage.

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Review:

In Colin Bateman's first novel, Divorcing Jack, a witty Belfast newspaper columnist named Dan Starkey gets drunk, falls in lust, and finds himself helplessly mired in trouble with his wife and the law. Shortly after Starkey's wife catches him in the arms of another woman, that woman is murdered and Starkey becomes the prime suspect. Turns out the deceased woman was related to an important political figure, and now thugs from several of Northern Ireland's factions are out to get Starkey. The columnist decides he must track down the killer in order to clear his own name. During the investigation, he uncovers a scandal that could potentially alter the outcome of the next national election--and destroy the country's hopes for peace.

Mostly though, this thriller chronicles the beleaguered journalist's lame efforts to stay out of trouble. Starkey isn't exactly a man of action; in fact, he's a likable character partly because he knows he's a weak man. Late in the book, Starkey sums up his predicament: "The world was still after me, Patricia was still missing, I was still a killer on the run, and I had a disturbing tendency to burst into tears, but I wasn't going to let little things like that get me down." He copes with stress by 1) drinking too much and 2) making jokes. When a nun in a miniature car saves Starkey from a hail of gunfire, for instance, he spends a few moments wondering what the proper name of her headgear is and decides to call it a Godpiece. Dan Starkey makes an entertaining guide to war-torn Northern Ireland, even while he discovers again and again that the pen is not mightier than the sword. --Jill Marquis

About the Author:

Colin Bateman worked as a journalist in Ireland before becoming a full-time writer. His first novel, Divorcing Jack, was published in 1995 and won the Betty Trask Prize. Colin later adapted the novel for a film starring David Thewlis and Rachel Griffiths. Colin is the author of many critically acclaimed novels, including several that he has adapted for the screen. He has also written several children's books including Reservoir Pups and Bring Me The Head Of Oliver Plunkett. In May 2010, Bateman won the Crimefest Last Laugh Award for his novel The Day of the Jack Russell. His new book, The Prisoner of Brenda, featuring the return of the inimitable Mystery Man, was published in October 2012.

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