Belfast's and Bateman's little shop of crime
The estimable Gerard Brennan of Crime Scene NI gives a thumbs-up to Colin Bateman's upcoming novel Mystery Man:"There’s a new PI in Belfast. His qualifications? He owns No Alibis, a bookshop specialising in crime fiction. Is he a fast-talking, hard-drinking, skirt-chasing tough guy? Um, no. Not at all, really. He’s a bit ... well, he’s cut from a different cloth. Oh, and he most definitely is not David Torrans."
Now, Mr. Brennan is always worth a listen when the subject is Irish crime fiction, but that's not why I bring the matter up. No, I mention Mystery Man because I have not only visited No Alibis (may its sales increase!), but I have met its real-life owner, the same David Torrans on whom the protagonist of Mystery Man is definitely not based. I offer photographic evidence here. I'm the one with the beard (I looked so much older then. I'm younger than that now.)(Read the first two chapters of Mystery Man here, and learn what a good author can do with a pair of leather women's trousers.)
© Peter Rozovsky 2009
Labels: Belfast, bookstores, Colin Bateman, independent bookstores, Ireland, No Alibis, Northern Ireland
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 2:03 AM
16 Comments:
Such a nice beard...
Peter
I forgot to tell you to do a Benny Hill style baldy slap on Dave, he loves it. Ger and me do it all the time. He cant get enough...
Hmmm though I wonder if thats why our stuff is at the back of the shop under the box marked "plague bacillus do not open."
Great shop though if you like mystery novels and cool jazz and I ask you, ladies and gentlemen of jury, who doesnt?
The first two chapters are a laugh-a-paragraph, sometimes more. I hope Mystery Man comes to the States (eventually?).
Those first two chapters are brilliant. Looking forward to the rest. Thanks much for posting the link.
A beard, alas, is so fleeting unless one is Alan Moore.
Funny.
Grisham was on Charlie Rose last night, self-deprecating all over the set. T'was messy.
Adrian, I slapped him on the head just seconds after Gerard snapped this picture. The echo resounded in the hills and the valleys.
I didn't hear music there, but I saw that he had some top-flight people lined up to perform. And I smiled at the scene in Mystery Man where our hero serves the Grisham guy coffee. I got served coffee and biscuits. Between that and the chatting with staff and customers, it got to be well past closing time before I remembered I was out shopping, and not visiting a particularly hospitable friend. Everyone should stop in there. They can visit the botanical gardens on the way.
Brian, Bateman was huffing on his blog about not having had a U.S. deal in a while. Philistines! he called us. I hope this gets him one.
Linkmeister, I could afford to be self-deprecating, too, if I'd sold that many books and had as much money as he probably has.
You're welcome, Tim. I want to get hold of the rest of the book, too. It's due for April release in the UK -- and I plan to be in the UK in May.
Hi Peter. I've been jonesing for internet access all day and have only just spotted this. Thank you for the shout out. I'd say both Colin and Dave would be very pleased with this too.
Incidentally, I'm a better writer than photographer. Can't believe how much I blurred that. Sorry.
Still, you both look good.
Cheers
gb
You think Dave would be pleased even with the head-slap suggestion?
And I don't think that's blurring, I think the right side of the photo is just bathed in light.
Well, Adrian knows him better than I do. So we could just blame him.
gb
Ah, he was such a gracious host that I'd feel funny slapping him in the head.
You must teach me how to grow younger one day.
Like the quotation; it is the kind of thing that makes me want to read the book (and I presume that was quite unintentionally?)
I can't tell you how to grow younger, but I can tell you I steal lines from Bob Dylan. That one's adapted from "My Back Pages," a song about shrugging off the mantle of protest singing and discovering what really matters. It's a fine song, and the odd thing about the "I was so much older then" line is that he was in his early twenties when he wrote it.
Your desire to read the book is a gratifying by-product of my post.
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