The Long Shoe

After the second of Mortimer's books I was considering skipping this entry. They're witty and charming, but also repetitive. Once you see the ‘trick’ to the charming and silly dialogue, it's hard to un-see it.

I am so glad that I did go back to the well on this one. This book is clever and charming as the others, but with a better mystery - probably the best in his works so far, and I was happily surprised by the ending.

The story centres on a young couple - Matt and Harriet. He, a useless but well-meaning salesman, and her a stressed-out solicitor. When she suddenly leaves with nothing but a small note, Matt makes a deal with a mysterious figure to try and improve his situation and win her back. Matt goes through a paranoid, surreal, hazy journey to figure out what happened to Harriet and who are the mysterious residents of his new apartment building.

The mystery, combined with narrator switches and a disrupted sense of time mirror Matt's confusion for the reader, and I really enjoyed how it was laid out. I read the audiobook with Mortimer playing Matt, Diane Morgan as Harriet and Arabella Weir as the flirty neighbour Carol.