The author of widely admired The Impartial Recorder returns with first volume in a droll and enteratining mystery series featuring a most unusual and compelling detective

From an author with “an acute sense of the absurd” (Daily Mail) who is “emphatically unpretentious in his portrayal of the ordinary lives of ordinary folk” (New York Newsday) comes an eccentric series of mysteries, set in the Emerald Isle, that combines the offbeat soulfulness of Nick Hornby with the quirky cheerfulness of Alexander McCall Smith.

Israel Armstrong is an intelligent, shy, sensitive, and passionate soul: he’s Jewish, a vegetarian, and could stand to lose a few pounds. A new job has lured him to Ireland: the librarian of a mobile library The scenery is lovely, the people are charming, but where are all the books? The library is missing 15,000 volumes. But who on earth would steal them—and why? And is there anywhere in this damp and ridiculously green place to get a proper cappuccino and a decent newspaper? The clever Israel is determined to find out.