A MOBILE LIBRARY MYSTERY: THE CASE OF THE MISSING BOOKS

Book ID/图书代码： 02630507B17615

English Summary/英文概要： THE CASE OF THE MISSING BOOKS was published by Fourth Estate in 2006, the first of Ian’s current MOBILE LIBRARY series of comic novels set in Northern Ireland. MR DIXON DISAPPEARS was published later in 2006; THE DELEGATE’S CHOICE in January 2008 and THE BOOK STOPS HERE in August 2008. Ian is currently at work on a further six novels to complete the series. Ian has recently started work on a new series, also for Fourth Estate, THE NORFOLK COUNTY MYSTERIES.

Israel Armstrong is a passionate soul, lured to Ireland by the promise of an exciting new career. Alas, the job that awaits him is not quite what he had in mind. Still, Israel is not one to dwell on disappointment, as he prepares to drive a mobile library around a small, damp Irish town. After all, the scenery is lovely, the people are charming—but where are the books? The rolling library’s 15,000 volumes have mysteriously gone missing, and it’s up to Israel to discover who would steal them . . . and why. And perhaps, after that, he will tackle other bizarre and perplexing local mysteries—like, where does one go to find a proper cappuccino and a decent newspaper? Israel wants answers...

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 老是被警方當成頭號嫌疑犯的書迷偵探

開著破破小貨車，經營行動圖書館的書迷偵探
強烈的好奇心讓他不務正業一頭栽進案件裡
還常常被警方當成頭號嫌疑犯！
充滿戲謔感，讓人捧腹大笑的推理系列就此登場！

【系列主角介紹】
Israel Armstrong是The Mobile Library系列的主角。他非常喜愛書，開著一台裝滿書籍的破破小貨車在愛爾蘭四處趴趴走。他經營行動圖書館是爲了偏遠地區的讀者服務（雖然他老是抱怨讀者都不準時還書），但是無可救藥的強烈好奇心卻讓他不務正業，常常出沒在犯罪現場調查，搞的警方老是把他列為頭號嫌疑犯！

Tumdrum是北愛爾蘭的一座小鎮，風景秀麗、人們親切和善，
喜愛收藏書的Israel Armstrong歡天喜地的來到當地圖書館工作。
但很快地，圖書館面臨關門大吉的命運，
美夢破滅的他只好每天開著車，經營流動圖書館。
而沒多久離奇的事件發生，1萬5千冊的書一夕間全消失！
Israel著手調查這些消失的藏書，到底是誰偷了這麼多的書，有何目的…？(Chris & Eva)

Awards/获奖情况：Rights sold:UK rights: Fourth Estate; US rights: HarperCollins; German rights: Piper; Italian rights: TEA / Mauri Spagnol; Japanese rights: Tokyo Sogensha; Korean rights: Danielstone Publishing; Norwegian rights: Baskerville; Swedish rights: Massolit Forlag; TV rights: Plain Vanilla.

“Israel (Armstrong) is one of the most original and exciting amateur sleuth around”---The Times (London)

Review
’Ian Samson is as expertly comic as his hero is comically inept, and he plots an ingenious course of mishaps...’ --- The Times

’cripplingly funny...Do not drink a beverage, of any description, while reading...You’ll just end up spilling it.’ --- Independent

’a satisfying and amusing read, and with a second book...on it’s way, I’ll happily climb on board again.’ --- The Guardian

’sharp and witty...it offers an unexpected and engaging final twist.’--- Sunday Times

“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

“[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. [Sansom’s] fish-out-of-water dilemmas and encounters with kooky locals will resonate with Alexander McCall Smith fans” --- Publishers 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

“A humane, big-hearted and sometimes devastatingly funny book.” --- LA Weekly

“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

About the Author/作者介绍： Ian Sansom regularly contributes to the Guardian, the London Review of Books and Poetry Review. He lives with his family in Northern Ireland. His first book THE TRUTH ABOUT BABIES was published by Granta in 2002, and his first novel RING ROAD was published by Fourth Estate in the UK and US.
Ian Sansom於1966年出生於英國，曾就讀牛津及劍橋大學，現於貝爾法斯特女王大學(Queen’s University of Belfast)教授詩歌。他的文章常刊登於《衛報》(the Guardian)、《倫敦書評》(London Review of Books)和《詩歌評論》(Poetry Review)中，著有《The Truth About Babies》、《Ring Road》、《The Mobile Library Series》以及近期新開的系列作品《The County Guides to Murder Series》。他和家人現居於北愛爾蘭。

Format:TRADE PAPERBACK

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：

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