The Book Stops Here: A Mobile Library Mystery (Mobile Library Mysteries)
After more than six months as the mobile librarian of Tumdrum, Northern Ireland, Israel Armstrong yearns to return to London and civilization. He’ll resign to get there, too—until an all-expenses-paid business trip, to a conference of mobile librarians, saves him the trouble. Accompanied by colleague and comic foil Ted Carson, Israel goes home and finds that everything has changed—or maybe he has—except, perhaps, his mother. We criticized Sansom’s last outing (Mr. Dixon Disappears, 2007) for its lack of plotting chops; in retrospect, the problem may have been that he tried to make too much of a mystery out of it. Here, crime takes a backseat to the characters, and the problem is solved. The sleuthing—in search of Ted’s beloved, disappeared van—doesn’t start until halfway through the book, leaving plenty of room for hilarious scenes where nothing much happens. And watching the aggressively mild-mannered Israel try to find himself between the stifling rurality of Tumdrum and the soulless horror of London sprawl is entertainment enough. --Keir Graff