A former winner of the Betty Trask prize and a screenwriter whose credits
include the BBC series Murphy’s Law, Bateman is the author of a string of
novels, whose titles %26mdash; aimed, like this one, at a pop-literate readership %26mdash;
suggest their boisterous humour.
Set in present-day Belfast, they describe a society in which bitter memories
of the Troubles intermittently overshadow the cheerful consumerism of
Ireland post the Good Friday agreement. Violence and betrayal are still to
be found %26mdash; even if these are as much to do with organised crime as with
sectarian rivalry. For Bateman’s depressive hero, Superintendent James
%26ldquo;Marsh%26rdquo; Mallow, it is still business as usual in Belfast’s mean streets.
Even so, this novel is less murder mystery than farcical romance, and one is
nearly 300 pages into its rollicking account of mistaken identities and
missed opportunities before the first corpse is discovered.
There are at least three other plot strands running concurrently, the most
entertaining being the disastrous love affair between Walter, a civil
servant, and Margaret, a would-be fashion designer who works as a security
guard. Soon after the two have enjoyed their first date, Margaret nearly
dies from food poisoning after eating a slice of carrot cake. Readers with
low boredom thresholds will enjoy this novel; others might find its
hyperactivity a bit wearing.
I Predict a Riot: Murder, Extortion and Carrot Cake Bateman
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