Divorcing Jack - Softcover

Colin Bateman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006510639 ISBN 13: 9780006510635

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, 1998

Synopsis

Fat Boy McMaster is a hopeless heavyweight boxer (but nonetheless champion of Ireland) on his way to a monstrous payday in the form of a Saint Patrick's Day fight in Madison Square Garden with Mike Tyson. Belfast journalist Dan Starkey comes over to write a book about the event, eager to escape the bloody conflict of his homeland -- and his home itself, where his marriage is dissolving as quickly as the cease-fire. But the Irish team's arrival in New York sets off racial and political mayhem, along with a problematic romance for our married hero. Starkey's holiday may be ruined, but his loser sports chronicle has morphed into a quick-paced thriller complete with kidnappings, inner-city commando operations, and an elaborately sinister whale-watching cruise.

About this title

Review

In Colin Bateman's first novel, Divorcing Jack, a witty Belfast newspaper columnist named Dan Starkey gets drunk, falls in lust, and finds himself helplessly mired in trouble with his wife and the law. Shortly after Starkey's wife catches him in the arms of another woman, that woman is murdered and Starkey becomes the prime suspect. Turns out the deceased woman was related to an important political figure, and now thugs from several of Northern Ireland's factions are out to get Starkey. The columnist decides he must track down the killer in order to clear his own name. During the investigation, he uncovers a scandal that could potentially alter the outcome of the next national election--and destroy the country's hopes for peace.

Mostly though, this thriller chronicles the beleaguered journalist's lame efforts to stay out of trouble. Starkey isn't exactly a man of action; in fact, he's a likable character partly because he knows he's a weak man. Late in the book, Starkey sums up his predicament: "The world was still after me, Patricia was still missing, I was still a killer on the run, and I had a disturbing tendency to burst into tears, but I wasn't going to let little things like that get me down." He copes with stress by 1) drinking too much and 2) making jokes. When a nun in a miniature car saves Starkey from a hail of gunfire, for instance, he spends a few moments wondering what the proper name of her headgear is and decides to call it a Godpiece. Dan Starkey makes an entertaining guide to war-torn Northern Ireland, even while he discovers again and again that the pen is not mightier than the sword. --Jill Marquis

About the Author

The author was born in Northern Ireland in 1962 and educated at Bangor Grammar School before joining the County Down Spectator, where he was deputy editor for many years. In 1990 he received a Journalist's Fellowship to Oxford University for his reports from Uganda, and he has received a Northern Ireland Press Award for his weekly satirical column.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0006510639
• ISBN 13: 9780006510635
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282