Israël Armstrong, intellectuel anglais d'une trentaine d'années, a enfin trouvé le métier de ses rêves : il se voit attribuer le poste de bibliothécaire en chef dans une petite bourgade rurale d'Irlande du Nord. Sa déception sera de taille quand il s'apercevra que tous les livres de la bibliothèque en question ont été volés et il devra mener l'enquête.

Le mystère des livres disparus

This is a book about a poet, about a poem, about a city, and about a world at a point of change. More than a work of literary criticism or literary biography, it is a record of why and how we create and respond to great poetry.

 This is a book about a poet - W. H. Auden, a wunderkind, a victim-beneficiary of a literary cult of personality who became a scapegoat and a poet-expatriate largely excluded from British literary history because he left.

 About a poem - 'September 1, 1939', his most famous and celebrated, yet one which he tried to rewrite and disown and which has enjoyed - or been condemned - to a tragic and unexpected afterlife.

 About a city - New York, an island, an emblem of the Future, magnificent, provisional, seamy, and in 1939 about to emerge as the defining twentieth-century cosmopolis, the capital of the world.

 And about a world at a point of change - about 1939, and about our own Age of Anxiety, about the aftermath of September 11, when many American newspapers reprinted Auden's poem in its entirety on their editorial pages.

September 1, 1939 - W.H. Auden and the Afterlife of a Poem

Israel Armstrong, one of literature's most unlikely detectives, returns for more crime solving adventure in this hilarious second novel from 'The Mobile Library' series.

 The second in the 'The Mobile Library ' detective series, 'Mr Dixon Disappears' once again features the magnificently hapless Israel Armstrong - the young, Jewish, duffle-coat wearing librarian who solves crimes, mysteries, and domestic problems all whilst driving a mobile library around the coast of Northern Ireland.

 Dixon and Pickering's, County Antrim's legendary department store, is preparing to celebrate its centenary. But the elderly Mr Dixon - a member of the Ulster Association of Magicians - has gone missing, along with one hundred thousand pounds in cash. It smells, pretty badly, of a kidnap.

 Israel becomes a suspect in the police investigation and is suspended from his job by his boss, the ever-fearsome Linda Wei. He's having to fight to clear his name.

 Does Israel's acclaimed five-panel touring exhibition showing the history of Dixon and Pickering's in old photographs and artefacts perhaps hold the key to Mr Dixon's mysterious disappearance? Will romance blossom between Israel and Rosie Hart, the barmaid at the First and Last? Will Linda Wei stick to her diet? And has nobody here heard of Franz Kafka? All will be revealed in this hilarious and endlessly inventive sequel to 'The Case of the Missing Books'.

Mr Dixon Disappears

Love Miss Marple? Adore Holmes and Watson? Professor Morley's guide to Devon is a story of bygone England; quaint villages, eccentric locals-and murder.Swanton Morely, the People's Professor, sets off for Devon to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Morley's daughter, Miriam, and his assistant, Stephen Sefton, pack up the Lagonda for a trip to the English Riviera. Morely has been invited to give the Founder's Day speech at All Souls School in Rousdon. But when the trio arrive they discover that a boy has died in mysterious circumstances. Was it an accident or was it murder?Join Morely, Sefton, and Miriam on another adventure into the dark heart of 1940s England. A must-read for fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Charles Todd, there'll be plenty of murder, mystery, and mayhem to confound.

Death in Devon - A County Guides Mystery

Pour ce trentenaire londonien, replet, végétarien, féru de littérature, vêtu d'un costume de velours côtelé, portant de petites lunettes rondes cerclées d'or, les poches de son duffle-coat débordant de livres (au cas où...), devenir bibliothécaire était le rêve absolu.Mais quand Israël Armstrong débarque à Tumdrum, en Irlande du Nord, pour prendre ses nouvelles fonctions, il est loin de se douter de ce qui l'attend.Et pour cause : la bibliothèque vient de fermer définitivement pour être remplacée par un bibliobus (en fait, un vieux fourgon rouillé).Mais, pire encore, les 15 000 livres de la bibliothèque ont mystérieusement disparu. Et c'est à Israël, devenu malgré lui le premier et sans doute l'unique bibliothécaire-détective au monde, que revient la charge de les retrouver.Durant cette enquête aussi hilarante que loufoque, Israël devra faire face à une population mal aimable, peu coopérative et dotée d'un accent épouvantable. Sans compter que rouler en bibliobus sur les routes étroites du fin fond de l'Irlande n'est pas chose aisée lorsque l'on possède un sens de l'orientation quasi nul.Allant de quiproquos en fausses pistes, finira-t-il par amadouer les habitants et à éclaircir le mystère des livres disparus ?

Le mystère des livres disparus (The Mobile Library, #1)

A warm, humane, and sharply observed tale of small town life that is by equal turns hilarious and moving.

 Big Davey Jones is coming home. He's been gone almost 20 years now, but nobody's forgotten him. Davey's a local hero - his miracle birth as the seventh son of a seventh son brought fame to this little town and they've been grateful ever since. But Davey's home town has changed much in the intervening years. The traditional family business like Billy Finlay's Auto-Supplies and Calton's Bakery and Tea Rooms have been replaced with 'Exciting New Housing Developments!' and even a nightclub called 'Paradise Lost'.

 The locals haven't changed much though. Bob Savory, who always had it in him, has made a million with his company Sandwich Classics, and he's branching out now, with an Irish themed restaurant on the ring road. Francie McGinn, the divorced minister at The People's Fellowship, is still trying to convert the town through his Fish-and-Chip Biblical Quiz Nights and his Good Friday Carvery & Gospel Night. And Sammy, the town's best plumber, is depressed as ever and looking for solace at the bottom of the whisky bottle.

 Clever, touching and, above all, utterly spot-on in its depiction of small town life, Ring Road is confirms Ian Sansom's status as one of our most perceptive authors working today.

Ring Road - There’s no place like home

Israel Armstrong, one of literature's most unlikely detectives, returns for more crime solving adventure in this hilarious third novel from the Mobile Library series.

 Israel has been invited to attend the Mobile Meet in London, the annual mobile library convention, with his irascible companion Ted Carson. Back in the UK, Israel is reunited with his family, and there is much eating of paprika chicken, baklava and the drinking of good coffee. But within only twenty-four hours of their arrival, the mobile library has been nicked.

 Who on earth would want to steal a thirty-year old rust-bucket of a van, and who can the two men turn to for assistance? Can Mr and Mrs Krimholz, the parents of Israel's childhood rival Adam Krimholz, help them out? Amidst all this mayhem, will Israel and Ted, one of literature's oddest oddball couples, ever make it to the Mobile Meet? In this, his most puzzling, personal and problematic case yet, Israel has never had it so bad. neither has his library.

The Delegates’ Choice

Après Le Mystère des livres disparus, on retrouve avec plaisir le plus drôle des bibliothécaires-détectives !Depuis qu’il a résolu le mystère des livres disparus, Israël Armstrong sillonne les routes du nord de l’Irlande du Nord à bord de son bibliobus, traquant les usagers récalcitrants à rendre leurs prêts. Ce qui plonge ce boulimique de littérature dans les affres du désespoir, lui qui avait toujours cru aux vertus de la lecture. Son existence semble s’éclaircir lorsqu’il est chargé d’organiser une exposition itinérante commémorant les cent ans du légendaire grand magasin Dixon & Pickering. Mais par un hasard dû à la malchance congénitale de notre héros malgré lui, le voici mêlé à une sale affaire : l’éminent M. Dixon, propriétaire de l’établissement et membre de l’Association des magiciens de l’Ulster, vient de disparaître. Tout à l’art d’être au mauvais endroit au mauvais moment, Israël devient le suspect n°1. Menotté, mis en examen, duffle-coat et livres confisqués, il est incarcéré. Il devra pour prouver son innocence se lancer dans une enquête à cent à l’heure à travers le pays, s’aidant maladroitement des techniques de détectives de papier glanées dans quelques polars. Arrivera-t-il à retrouver le magicien et à blanchir sa réputation ?

Le mystère des livres disparus

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