Humour and mystery struck me as an odd pairing, and it doesn’t get any odder than the unnamed narrator of Colin Bateman’s Mystery Man. Obsessive hypochondria, excessive phobias, and complete social ineptitude paired with an unlikely knack for solving crimes make for a protagonist who is as idiosyncratic as he is astute.

After his neighbor, a private investigator, goes missing, the narrator’s bookshop suddenly becomes a beacon for those citizens of Belfast who need a mystery solved. A number of crimes are solved throughout the tale, but none so dangerous as “The Case of the Dancing Jew.” This case forms the overarching plot of the narrative. Murder and, of course with our peculiar narrator, mayhem ensue in the bid to solve this case, which spans from Belfast to Frankfurt to the horrors of Auschwitz decades ago. Even with the more serious content matter, racing and bumbling along with the narrator was laugh out loud funny.

This is an eccentric tale, darkly humorous, refreshingly irreverent, and slyly witty. The writing is solid and insightful, and the storyline is clever. Credit has to be given to Bateman for making me root for a character who is appalling and obnoxious. Mystery Man is a riot of a read and a homage to literature and crime fiction.

My favorite quote from the book: “You cannot look from light into dark, you cannot see the devil coming. If you dwell in the darkness, you can see in the dark, and look into the light. But in choosing the darkness, you know you are destined to walk alone.” Said as the protagonist lurks outside of the home of his dream girl—who is determined to be his crime solving sidekick—in the middle of the night.

Highly recommended for fans of blackly funny stories, uproarious mysteries, and classic crime fiction