Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Dan Starkey, the dubious hero of Divorcing Jack, is back again. This time, the boozy journalist brings his hilarious sarcasm and misguided action-hero antics to New York, where his mission is to cover a heavyweight championship bout between "Fat Boy" McMaster, an unlikely Belfast boxer, and Mike Tyson, on St. Patrick's Day. When McMaster's wife, Mary, is kidnapped following an unwittingly racist comment McMaster makes at a press conference, Starkey turns sleuth along with ex-cop Peter Smith to investigate the case. In due course, he will take part in a commando attack on a Muslim temple, serve as a punching bag for a troupe of homosexual waiters, and be saved from the jaws of death by a large Minke whale. With characteristic imaginative flair, Bateman works an astonishing number of issues into the plot, including racism, bigotry, religious extremism, alcoholism and inter-ethnic romanceand that's just for starters. This is indeed an extended romp, but not as tight and focused as Bateman's previous work. It also reflects a distinct political and religious bias, which will surprise readers who appreciated Starkey's earlier, more tongue-in-cheek approach to Northern Ireland sectarianism. Nevertheless, Bateman delivers the kind of humor and sense of the ridiculous that his fans will relish. (May)
Library Journal
Get past the odd title and you'll find some of the wittiest mayhem in printbecause Dan Starkey is back. Belfast journalist Starkey, introduced in Bateman's Divorcing Jack (LJ 11/1/95), writes a satirical column, drinks too much, and bemoans his failing marriage to Patricia, who's newly pregnant by another man. So Starkey takes off to write a book about the heavyweight title fight scheduled for St. Patrick's Day in New York between Mike Tyson and the Irish hope, Bobby (Fat Boy) McMaster. Never has a contender had more distractions: McMaster's inadvertent remark about blacks ignites the wrath of the militant Sons of Muhammad; his beloved wife, Mary, is kidnapped; Irish terrorists issue demands; and gays picket his training camp in Provincetown. With his sure touch and crisp prose, Bateman explains Irish political passions as deftly as he handles his wise-cracking protagonist, all the while overlaying violence with humor and charm. Essential for fans of Dan Starkeymay their numbers increase.Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Kirkus Reviews
Knockabout journalist Dan Starkey leaves the mean streets of Belfast for a season of even more violent insanity in the world of professional boxing.
Meet Bobby "Fat Boy" McMaster, the heavyweight champ of Ireland. Haven't heard of him? That's just the reason Bobby's mentor, Geordie McClean, needs to hire Starkey to do public relations for Bobby's upcoming world championship bout with Mike Tyson (!) and write a book about it all after the champ's given Bobby, a wee sweetie who reads novels and has a sly sense of humor, a decent burial in New York. It looks like a great chance for Starkey to make some money and get out of the war zone he covered so hilariously in Divorcing Jack (1995) while enjoying a much-needed second honeymoon with his estranged wife Patricia. But Patricia, pregnant by her married lover, isn't about to book passage for the New World, so Starkey packs a few clean shirts and takes off with Bobby's entourage for the Big Apple, where Bobby will run rings around Tyson in a joint press conference and immediately incur the wrath of the Sons of Muhammed, a splinter group as violent as the Provos but a lot more inept. Then Bobby's wife Mary is kidnapped, presumably by the Sons of Muhammed, and Starkey is dragged into the fray by two heavyweight ex-NYPD detectives who dwarf even the Fat Boy. But how can Starkey really be sure that it's the Sons who are behind the snatch, when Bobby, training in Provincetown, has also managed to antagonize the gay community, the IRA, and the ferocious sparring partner who keeps threatening to end his career before he even makes it into the ring with Tyson?
More relaxed and less wildly funny than Divorcing Jack or Cycle of Violence (1996)—but then that's what you'd expect when the brutality is only a game.
