Nuns with Guns (Divorcing Jack - Colin Bateman)

Member Name: freediveheaven

Product:	Divorcing Jack - Colin Bateman
Date:	18/06/06 (165 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hilarious and action packed

Disadvantages: Leaves you wanting more

I have started going back though my old book collection and reading some of them for a final time before they have to head off to the charity shop in town as the number of books I have is beginning to take over my house and I need the space for new books.

Divorcing Jack was one of those books that looked familiar from the cover but when I read the back cover no bells started ringing and at 282 pages it looked ideal for a couple of afternoons reading in the sun.

The Plot

Dan Starkey is a Belfast journalist and he fits very nicely into a familiar stereotype of being a hard drinking hack with a sarcastic tongue even though e has not yet reached his 30th birthday. Starkey writes a column for the Belfast Evening News in which he puts across a humourous pro-unionist position. His column is widely read and very popular with some sections of the community but not all however his notoriety does mean that he is a known face in Belfast.

Looking to earn some extra money he takes on an additional job accompanying foreign journalists around the country whilst the current elections draw to a close. However before he can properly start the job a drunken evening with a young student Margaret finds him getting caught in a compromising position by his wife and his life begins to take a downward spiral which sees him fleeing from the police and a range of criminals and terrorists from both sides of the political divide.

The Characters

The strength of this book is in the wonderfully descriptive characters that it contains and indeed most of the humour is generated by their dry Belfast wit.

Starkey himself is a likeable character no matter how much he appears out of his depth there is a boyish innocence about him and he also seems to be able to come up with a quick one liner no matter how dangerous or desperate the situation.

Some of the other characters from the Belfast underworld are wonderfully described not least one of the main republican criminals Cowpat Coogan and his henchmen who feature heavily in the story.

The only really unconvincing character is Lee, someone who comes to Starkey aid and her character is a bit beyond belief especially her motivation or getting involved which is rather glossed over.

My Opinion

This book has pretty much everything going for it, an interesting plot with lots of twists, some great characters and some wonderful moments of dark humour that will have you chuckling away.

The setting of a Northern Ireland which has not yet moved into the peace process is an interesting one, as it was written in the early 90’s. You certainly get a fell for the menace that existed whilst all of the time people got on with their ordinary lives and there are some great exchanges between Starkey and a cab driver which serve to highlight peoples attitudes at the time especially those who were doing one of the most dangerous occupations (taxi driving that is) when sectarian killings were a common place thing.

The action in this book is fast paced and certainly grabs you at an early stage and I found that the book developed into a real page turner that was very hard to put down. Bateman tells the story entirely from Starkey perspective and this works well as the reader gets a feeling for just how much he is out of his depth and it also helps to build the tension as you know what Starkey is planning to do even though you can make a pretty educated guess that it will all go wrong in the end.

It was good to read a book where I did not see all of the plot twists coming however t the same time all of these twists were very believable and I could find only a couple of small bits in the book which stretched my sense of reality.

There are quite a few laughs in the book and the humour works really well, there is something appealing about the sarcastic self effacing humour used by the characters, often in moments of greatest peril and some of the situations that Starkey finds himself in are very comical.

The Author

Born in Northern Ireland this was Colin Bateman first novel and given that he himself used to write an award winning weekly satirical column for the County Down Spectator you can see a certain similarity between him and his first character Starkey. Following the success of Divorcing Jack he has published 14 additional novels some of which feature Starkey as well as writing the screen play for Divorcing Jack however he is probably best known for Murphy Law featuring James Nesbitt.

For more information on the author check out his website at

http://www.colinbateman.com/

I would definitely recommend reading this book as it is action packed and full of humour and makes for a very entertaining read.

Published by Harper Collins the rrp on my copy is £5.99 ISBN 0-00-6479030 however you can pick up copies at Amazon for £5.59 new or from 10 pence in the new and used section or finally you could go to my local Red Cross charity shop in Duston where it will probably be on sale for 50 pence.

Thanks for reading and rating my review.

Summary: Excellent first novel.