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    Mr Dixon Disappears
    Mr Dixon Disappears
    Mr Dixon Disappears
    Ebook257 pages3 hours

    Mr Dixon Disappears

    By Ian Sansom

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    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’.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJun 10, 2010
    ISBN9780007390328
    Mr Dixon Disappears
    Author

    Ian Sansom

    Ian Sansom is the author of the Mobile Library and County Guides series of novels. He writes for the Guardian, the TLS, and the Spectator and is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. He lives in County Down.

    Read more from Ian Sansom

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    Reviews for Mr Dixon Disappears

    3.5/5

    107 ratings10 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Fun, yes, but rather thin pickings. I liked the first in this series well enough, but this one seemed a bit of a reach. Pretty easy reading, will make you smile in all the right places, but lacking in substance. Maybe one story was enough. I'm about to start the third of the series, and I have an open mind, but my expectations are low after this underwhelming effort.
    • 3/5
      I finished this book, but it wasn't exactly my favorite. I prefer a more serious mystery and this one had too much frivolity. I don't need a lot of humor in my mysteries and British humor in this case just didn't appeal to me.
    • 4/5
      Another fun yarn about Israel Armstrong, the Jewish vegetarian librarian transplanted from London to Northern Ireland to run the mobile library. Will the hapless, insecure Israel ever be able to live a normal life in Northern Ireland? I doubt it. This time he is arrested when the department store owner disappears with the contents of the safe. Even Israel's dithering protestations make him appear guilty. Maybe it's my mothering instinct, but I adore him.
    • 4/5
      Entertaining second installment. I particularly liked the (spoiler warning!) sequence with the police interrogation. That bit was axtremely funny. Not sure there were much detecting done, but still... Israel is a rather hapless detective, so that was probably as expected.
    • 3/5
      These books lost my interest... after the first one Israel's hapless, bumbling, whiny thing gets really old.
    • 3/5
      Israel Armstrong is the librarian for the Tumdrum and District Mobile Library, Northern Ireland. One Saturday morning he arrives at Dixon and Pickering's Department Store to set up his acclaimed five-panel touring exhibition of the store's history to find the store’s proprietor, Mr Dixon, has disappeared and someone’s stolen all the cash from the safe. The Police arrest Israel for the crimes and when he's released on bail he has to try to solve the case using techniques gleaned from a random selection of crime fiction and with the help of Ted the local cabbie (and general odd-job man).

      If you are looking for a book with an engaging and intriguing plot to keep you up past bed time I would suggest you go elsewhere because you won't find one here. Honestly, the entire thing can be summed up in two paragraphs and even then is a bit contrived to be sensible.

      However, if you can put aside your need for story for a couple of hours and just enjoy the beauty of funny, well constructed sentences and some charming characterisations then I highly recommend the book. Sansom was (or possibly still is) a columnist for The Guardian and he brings the same kind of wry, observational wit and love of language to the writing here. Just after he is released on bail Israel is driven back to Tumdrum

      Tumdrum! What can you say about Tumdrum?

      An impartial observer - and indeed Israel himself until this morning - might perhaps have said that the best thing you could say about Tumdrum was that it wasn't actually offensive...Tumdrum was not really the kind of place that inspired you to want to stick around for too long: it was not the kind of place that threw its arms around visitors and offered you a hundred thousand welcomes: it was more the kind of place that made you want to check the bus timetable to find out when the next bus might be leaving.

      But to Israel, now, this morning, Tumdrum was like Shangri-La.

      There are some delightful characters in the book too and even though they initially might present as absurd you really ought not dismiss them as such because they all, in their way, offer insight on their world and the people in it. Whether it be the Reverend Roberts who cheekily introduces an element of showmanship into his Easter service or Robbo the local version of a radio shock jock Sansom uses his characters to make some shrewd observations about people.

      I suspect It's not the sort of book that everyone will like but language lovers and people who've seen enough dead bodies for a while will enjoy this one.
    • 2/5
      Wish I liked this series better because it has all the elements I like in a story, libraries and mysteries. However, I've given up, can't finish this one - I forced myself to finish the first one but this one is just too much of the same thing. All the awful stereotypes of a male librarian, made almost inarticulate just drove me out. It's on to other things for me.
    • 3/5
      I was elated to find this book at TLA as an advanced reader copy. Just as good as book one, I think. Now I wait for number three.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the first book in the series, The Case of the Missing Books, more than I did this second installment. However, Mr. Dixon Disappears does provide some laugh-out-loud moments. From London, Israel Armstrong is currently living in a rural area of Ireland serving as the bookmobile librarian. To say he is a fish out of water would be an understatement. Israel misunderstands and is misunderstood by the local residents, which often leads to those laugh-out-loud moments.Reluctantly, he has gotten himself involved in another local mystery. While setting up his five-panel display of the history of Dixon and Pickering Department Store, he becomes entangled in a missing person case and ends up a suspect himself.The book is a quick, light read, but don't expect any deep philosophical meanings or commentary on social issues. This one is purely for fun!
    • 3/5
      If you liked the first installment of this series, you will like Mr. Dixon Disappears. Israel is just as funny and frustrating, and he does some deep thinking in this one, although I suspect very little will of it help him in the details of his life as he lives it. This series reminds me a little of the Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries by Alexander McCall Smith - they are more about personalities, location, and the meandering thoughts of the main character than they are about the mystery.

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    Mr Dixon Disappears - Ian Sansom

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