Book Review: Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men

I was putting together my reading list for the year, when I discovered I'd forgotten to review the third Colin Bateman novel I read this year - Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men. We're re-introduced to Dan Starkey, Belfast journalist extraordinaire, and although the book begins in Belfast, he's soon on his travels to the Big Apple, New York.

Starkey has been hired to write the book of a heavyweight boxing world title fight in which a nobody from Belfast is taking on the world champion. But, as you might expect, when Starkey is around, lots of extraordinary happenings occur. You can take the Belfast men out of Belfast, but you can't take Belfast out of the men - with hilarious consequences. There are kidnappings, spying missions, romance, mayhem, politics and hardmen terrorists and everything else as the crazy cast career from one scenario to the next.

As always with Colin Bateman, there are puns galore, lots of slick one-liners and plenty of laughs. It's a clever novel, which keeps speeding on towards the memorable conclusion.

If you're looking for a laugh, don't mind a little bit of foul language, and appreciate a local Northern Irish author telling great stories, then this might just be what you're after.