Starkey Rides Again (for the first time)

While it was a bit strange reading things out of order, with character’s future events influencing your reading of what happened to them before instead of the other way around, Colin Bateman’s first outing with reporter Dan Starkey was another excellent and engaging read. While not a book that will change your outlook on life, it very well may make you laugh our loud and keep you turning the pages. Filled with witty bits, gritty bits, drunken bits, tragic bits, sexy bits, this book has just about all you could want. Here is our hero:

When I was thirteen I woke up in the middle of the night and found my brother pissing in my typewriter case. I decided there and then that there must be something wonderful about alcohol. As my artistic interest grew I discovered that many of my heroes had had impassioned affairs with what my old da referred to as the devil's vomit: Brendan Behan, Dylan Thomas, George Best, Pete Townshend. It had not adversely affected any of them, with the exception of the first two, whom it killed

It was the most natural thing in the world for me to hit the pub as soon as I finished lunch. My embarrassment with the chopsticks needed diluting.

In this book, Dan has a bit of an affair with Margaret, a geology student, which gets him kicked out of his house. Margaret gets murdered and his wife, Patricia, kidnapped and Starkey is left to run from the police, the IRA, the UVF, and everyone in between. With the help from a visiting American reporter, a stripper who dresses as a nun and drives a crappy red Mini but is really a student nurse, a Catholic priest with a Protestant heart (Father Flynn, who plays a key role in “Turbulent Priests”), and a politician who is pretty much a shoe-in to become the next Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Starkey is able to sort out what is going on, save himself, his wife, and even his country.

The only two things I remembered from the movie were perhaps the two most important bits – what “Divorcing Jack,” the dying words of Margaret and what happens in the end. While the suspense was a bit diluted, there was enough going on that kept me reading to find out how Dan would solve the mystery and how things would work out in the end. So, I repeat my earlier sentiments. Looking for a good, but not too taxing read? Colin Bateman is your man.

Now I just have to get my hands on the second and fourth books in the series ("Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men" and "Shooting Sean", as I have (read) the third and have the fifth, "A Horse with My Name") which no library in the city seems to have.
rgsc