The Book Stops Here (Mobile Library Series #3) »

Ian Sansom is a regular contributor to The Guardian and the London Review of Books. He lives in Northern Ireland.

Disgruntled, disheveled, fish-out-of-water mobile librarian Israel Armstrong is finally going home to London, rattling along with his irascible companion Ted Carson in their rust bucket book van en route to the Mobile Meet. The annual library convention gives Israel the opportunity to catch up with his family, eat paprika chicken and baklava, and drink good coffee. But they've barely found parking when the unimaginable occurs: their library-on-wheels is stolen!

Who on earth would want to take a thirty-year-old traveling disaster with the words "The Book Stops Here" painted across the back? Israel and Ted are determined to find out. But their search is leading them on a very twisty trail through the countryside in pursuit of a suspicious convoy of New Age travelers. And the hunt is raising numerous troubling questions—such as where exactly is Israel's high-flying girlfriend, Gloria? And is Ted really making a move on Israel's widowed mother?

Publishers Weekly

Despite the minimal crime element, Sansom's third Mobile Library mystery (after 2007's Mr. Dixon Disappears) still succeeds as a light farce. Mobile librarian Israel Armstrong puts his plans to resign on hold when his superiors in Northern Ireland offer him and his irritable companion, Ted Carson, a free trip to London to represent the district at an annual mobile library convention. Armstrong even manages to overcome Carson's initial reluctance by appealing to his pride, betting Carson that their own ratty, aged and broken-down vehicle won't win a prize at the gathering. Soon after arrival in London, the van disappears, and the duo, aided by Armstrong's irrepressible mother, set off on a comic quest to recover it in time for the competition. 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. (Aug.)

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