Dan Starkey is a journalist in Belfast, who shares with his wife Patricia an appetite for drinking and dancing. Then Dan meets Margaret, a beautiful and apparently impoverished student, and things begin to get out of hand. And then Margaret is murdered. This novel won the 1994 Betty Trask Prize. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration.

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Divorcing Jack
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, United Kingdom, London
Publication Date: 1995
Language: English
ISBN 10: 0006479030
ISBN 13: 9780006479031
Binding: Paperback
Edition: 5th or later Edition
Condition: Fair
Weight: 222 grams

About this title

Synopsis

320pages. in8. Broch�.

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

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