MALCOLM PRYCE – Aberystwyth Mon Amour. Bloomsbury, UK, 2001.

    This has been on my must read list since it was first published and Maxim Jakubowski told me how funny it was. I have been looking forward to reading it for 8 years now and, in the meantime, acquired the three sequels (and a fourth has just been published).

    It is a private eye tale narrated by Louie Knight who operates in the eponymous Welsh town, though this is a sort of parallel universe version of it. Knight is approached by Myfanwy Montez, singer and night club entertainer, to investigate the disappearance of her cousin, the schoolboy Evans the Boot.

    The investigation uncovers the deaths of other schoolboys including Brainbocs [sic], the school swot. The investigation leads to a wholly unbelievable (to be fair it is not meant to be believable) conspiracy.

    Humour is subjective (as with most other qualities) but I’m afraid I didn’t find this to be funny in the slightest and, without that, there is absolutely nothing in the book to like. The good news is that I can now make the pile of books in the loft smaller by four volumes.

Bibliographic data — the Aberystwyth series:

      1. Aberystwyth Mon Amour (2001).
      2. Last Tango in Aberystwyth (2003.
      3. The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth (2005).
      4. Don’t Cry For Me Aberystwyth (2007).

      5. From Aberystwyth with Love (2009).