Review
Gary is an ordinary mild-mannered bloke, just a little bit shorter than the national average, living in London and working as a legal assistant. One evening, he meets a work acquaintance, from a private eye agency, at a local pub. His friend seems a bit nervous and then takes off early, saying he has a work thing to take care of. Gary strikes up a conversation with a pretty woman, who’s reading a book called The Satsuma Complex, and they make a connection; he’s smitten. When he goes to the toilet, she’s disappeared, leaving him the book but not her name.
The next day, he’s visited by two plain clothes police who tell him that his friend has been found dead, and that Gary was the last person to see him alive. With that, he’s plunged into a twisty world of crime, corruption, Battenberg cake and novelty socks.
*
This was great fun. I’d heard that it was a funny novel, which is why I sought it out – I love the funny – but I didn’t realise (clearly having not really bothered to research it) that it would also be an urban crime thriller. Love it; here for that.
The humour is a bit hard to describe. It’s offbeat and whimsical, with everyman Gary making up regular amusing conversations between himself and a local squirrel. Bob Mortimer has said that he originally wanted to write a Murukami-style novel but discovered that he couldn’t, so gave it up*, but I think we can see traces of that magical realism style in the squirrel convos and the general offbeat nature of it. He also says he’s a fan of Spike Milligan and Monty Python, so there’s that English surreal humour influence, lots of lovely nonsense, and sometimes a bit of puerile body humour. He also says he loves Three Men and a Boat, so clearly his humour credentials are impeccable.
And I enjoyed the book-within-the-book conceit. Especially that the cover of the actual book matches the cover of the fictional book.
‘So is the book about ducks?’
‘No, it’s a proper book, so it’s not about anything really. Solid prop, though, got a serious-looking cover.’
It was a thick hardback, and as she turned it towards me I could see its title. The Satsuma Complex. The jacket was dark blue and in the middle of the front cover there was a large satsuma orange, with the silhouette of a squirrel inside. It looked shit.
‘There’s a squirrel on the front, so you never know, he might have some ducks as friends,’ I offered.
‘Do you want to read it and find out?’ She put the book on my table.
‘No, that’s okay. I’m not much of a reader to be honest and if it turned out there weren’t any ducks I don’t know if I could stand the disappointment.’ I placed the book back on her table.
As for the crime plot, it’s great, full of little twists and turns. I found it genuinely suspenseful.
This was a charming read and nice and short too, at 304 pages. I listened to the audiobook (seven hours) and really enjoyed Bob Mortimer’s narration. As a comedian, he knows what he’s doing.
Recommend. Probably more of staff than student interest, so recommend for Year 10 & up on that basis.
> Click here for content info – potential spoilers, enter at own risk!
Adult fiction, but very mild, with everything played for laughs. Some kisses; occasional mild sexual allusions; plenty of English-style casual swearing, e.g. “F– off” as a friendly farewell; police corruption; murder, not described; threats and intimidation; occasional non-graphic violence; coercive controlling relationship; difficult parent-child relationships; badly injured child (backstory); drug taking – backstory, mentioned in passing, not described.
*
Mortimer, B. (2022). The satsuma complex (B. Mortimer & S. Phillips, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Simon & Schuster Audio UK.
Images and quotes are used on this blog post under the “Fair dealing for criticism or review” provision of the Commonwealth Copyright Act, 1968.
I listened to this novel via my school library — support your library!
*Bob Mortimer says that the extracts from the fictional book within his book are from his failed Murakami-style manuscript, which is a cool detail.
