So, Mystery Man. Bloody great book. The funniest Bateman has written to date. For more of my opinions on this book, see my review in the post below. By the looks of things, it’s going to be his most successful book to date. There’s been a real flurry of promotional activity in the last couple of days.
Just yesterday, it happened to be one of the rare occasions where I stayed late at work. So I caught Arts Extra on BBC Radio Ulster on the way home. Quite fortuitous, because David Torrans who owns No Alibis in Belfast was on the show talking about Mystery Man, which is largely based in his shop. This was cool for two reasons. One, because I love to hear Northern Irish crime fiction discussed on the radio. Two, because Crime Scene NI got a mention. They even read out a comment Stuart Neville had made on my Mystery Man review. You can catch the whole interview on Listen Again. I think it’s the second or third piece (about fifteen minutes in).
Bateman himself will attend readings galore. There was one tonight in Bangor Library. Tomorrow night at seven, he’ll read at No Alibis. And on Monday at six, he’ll read with Gene Kerrigan at the Black Box in Belfast. Great stuff! I’ll be at the No Alibis one.
But here, there’s more. And this is VERY good news for Bateman. He’s made it onto a list of eight books that will only get the Richard and Judy treatment. This is akin to an American writer catching Oprah Winfrey’s interest. I think there’ll be an audible KABOOM in sales after it features on their show on the 17th of June.
And all it cost him was his first name.
4 comments:
So nice. I think I've only read one Bateman title, but I thought it was pretty wonderful.
That's great that that bookstore is featured so prominently. Though it comes up often on various blogs, I've never been anywhere near.
Seana - Something Bateman mentioned at his reading -- he revealed that Richard and Judy (a British TV duo with quite a bit of sway in the publishing industry) had taken an interest in it for their summer show and thought it a little ironic that the novel he'd written which champions independent publishing might be the first of his to be made available in the likes of ASDA (Wallmart).
That's life, eh?
gb
It doesn't sound like we have anything quite like Richard and Judy over here, unless it would be Oprah. It's funny how these days, rooting for authors and rooting for independent bookstores and such can put you in very conflicting camps. But more power to Bateman in any case. And I don't imagine he'll stop appearing at No Alibis, do you?
Nah, he'll be back in November, when part two of the No Alibis series is due out. And before that again for Adrian's launch, no doubt.
gb
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