The Prisoner of Brenda

Mystery Man #4

by Colin Bateman

When notorious gangster 'Fat Sam' Mahood is murdered, the chief suspect is arrested nearby. But he seems to have suffered a breakdown. Incarcerated in a mental institution, he's known only as the Man in the White Suit. The suspect remains an enigma until Nurse Brenda calls on Mystery Man, former patient and owner of No Alibis, Belfast's finest mystery bookshop, to bring his powers of investigation to bear... However, before our hero can even begin, the Man in the White Suit is arrested for the murder of a fellow patient. But is he a double murderer or a helpless scapegoat? Intrigue, conspiracy, and ancient Latin curses all combine to give the Small Bookseller with No Name his most difficult case to date.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Humor, Irish Literature

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 25, 2012

About the author

Colin Bateman was a journalist in Northern Ireland before becoming a full-time writer. His first novel, Divorcing Jack, won the Betty Trask Prize, and all his novels have been critically acclaimed. He wrote the screenplays for the feature films of Divorcing Jack, Crossmaheart and Wild About Harry. He lives in Northern Ireland with his family.

Reviews

[Ruby Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you're down and weary, and you need a hand to hold ... just reach out for a Bateman book. The prisoner of Brenda will make your (face) cheeks ache from smiling and your ribs hurt from the belly laughs. Best read alone to avoid the 'just listen to this bit, just listen to this other bit' phenomena. What I took from this story is that electro-convulsive therapy is an effective, albeit temporary, treatment for hypochondria. I'm not sure if I preferred our Mystery Man with or without his hang-ups but Bateman has given me lots of new ideas for general misbehaviour. I particulalry enjoyed the breaking of all the forks in Purdysburn because I agree that plastic cutlery is an abomination. Looking forward to the next Bateman.

[Shirley Revill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version of this book and I really enjoyed listening.
Really made me smile. I will look for more from this author.

[Henry Sheppard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another with the Nameless Protagonist. The Pregnant Girlfriend is now a mother. Other things are as loopy as ever. The NP ends up in the loony bin, a mixture of mental breakdown and an ambitious attempt to reach an isolated mute patient who might hold a useful clue in a series of murders. The NP springs the mute psych patient from custody, and a series of increasingly difficult-to-believe events follow, culminating in another Agatha Christie-like unmasking of the murderer(s) at a funeral.

A long way short of Colin Bateman's best work and difficult to recommend, unless you're already a fan.

[Lizva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the series. I would give it 4 stars for all the bizarre humor but give the fifth because I loved the ending of the book and series. Perfection 🤣

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3584811.html

One of Bateman's mystery novels, set in Belfast, the protagonist being the proprietor of the No Alibis bookshop on Botanic Avenue, investigating the murder of a well-known gangster in the course of which he spends some time in Purdysburn, Belfast's mental hospital. I really enjoyed the sense of place; I think I could locate almost every scene on the map. I also enjoyed the effective way Bateman captures the black humour of Belfast. But the actual plot was too convoluted to be credible, and the ending (which apparently closes off the prospect of any more books in this four-book series) felt ungraceful and out of harmony with what had come before. I'm told that the earlier books in the series are better.

[Nick Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colin Bateman's novels can be a bit over-silly at times, but here (as with one or two others of his I have enjoyed) he manages something where the humour and characters are better balanced, something akin to Chris Brookmyre at his lightest, something witty and Irish and compelling and unusual.

This forms part of the 'Mystery Man' series, the first of which I enjoyed previously. Yes, the strange protagonist can feel a little cartoonish at times, and there is a need to suspend critical thought and just run with it, but this was a fun caper following the part-time bookshop owner, part-time detective hero as he an friends unravel a quirky series of murders associated with a mute 'man in a white suit' incarcerated in a nearby psychiatric hospital. Quick, original, entertaining. Not literary, but the writing was good quality in terms of weaving a good tale.

[Vivienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in this quirky series in which the crime/mystery genre as well as crime writers and writing are sent up with Bateman's wry, dark humour. He loves taking swipes at the Scandinavian crime writers, James Patterson, and novels in which the mystery is solved by a cat. Whenever Brendan Coyle appears, a pretentious writer of literary novels who dabbles in crime fiction under a pen-name, I am certain he is having a dig at Irish novelist John Banville, who writes crime fiction as Benjamin Black.

I would stress that the series should be read in order, this is not a novel that works as a stand alone as Bateman's running jokes, such as the Small Bookseller with No Name's relationship with his on-off girlfriend Alison and his Mother along with his various health issues and the like could leave a new readers puzzled or frustrated.

I have to admit the closing chapter left me wondering what Bateman was up to though he's done this before with the series and then a year or so later another Mystery Man book appears. Still I have since found an interview with him on The Belfast Times website in which he said this was to be the last book in the series. So that's that then. Sad but preferable to a great series becoming stale. Bateman has penned plenty of other novels and I look forward to reading more of his work in due course.

Overall, strange and lots of fun. I shall miss Mystery Man.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 4th book about an unnamed man who runs a crime bookshop in Belfast, and works as a PI because he enjoys solving puzzles. He has a surprising number of illnesses, and has, in the past, spent time in the local asylum. Nurse Brenda walks into his shop one day and calls in a favour - she has a patient who won't speak, nobody knows his name, and he's accused of murder. She wants the Mystery Man to get himself admitted to the asylum for 24 hours to find out who the Man in the White Suit is. Unfortunately, when the Mystery Man gets involved in a case, it tends to get complicated, in this case leading to him uncovering a series of unsuspected murders, and he gets his moment of Agatha Christie-style unmasking, aided by his girlfriend Alison, and his gormless shop assistant Jeff. I've read the first two books, but not the third, so there were a few jumps I'd missed, and I'd suggest reading the first one, at the very least, before getting to this one, because all the character development already happened. It's fast paced, really well written, and then the sudden unexpected development in the final pages had me swearing out loud in surprise. I have no idea if it's even possible to write another one in this series! I don't even have words!

[Sarah Goodwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favourite of the series so far. This installment saw the return of the confused and drawn out revelation at the end. Very similar to book two. The process of solving the case was also very slow and much of it seemed to occur in exposition at the end.

I also felt that the mystery man's usual uneven character was wearing thin in this book - and frankly the ending just didn't make much sense to me. It also didn't answer the question of what was up with Alison and the pictures.

There was also no exploration of Nurse Brenda and her history with the MM, which, given that she's the titular character, seemed strange. We didn't really learn anything about her, and, in fact there were so many characters intruduced that I couldn't keep up with them all. Six murder victims? Seven? Plus three killers, two femme fatales and an assortment of living relatives, witnesses and randomers met during the investigation.

It also relied heavily on running jokes from the previous novels, which I'd started to find dull.

Not the best, but worth a read. I still rate book three the highest.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read, the fourth in the Mystery Man Series.
The “Mystery Man” is a deeply damaged, incredibly superior hypochondriac who owns the No Alibis bookstore in Belfast.
There is a murder in a gym and the murderer is apparently captured, but appears to be totally out of it, which means he ends up in an insane asylum.
The “Mystery Man” is asked to go undercover as an inmate in an asylum that he used to be incarcerated in many years before--the nurse there, Brenda, has a compelling way with her. Additionally, with many murders starting to happen, he wants to work out the connections and find out who is behind all this.
Colin Bateman is a darkly funny author. This is the fourth book in the series and finishes with a bang—deeply creepy.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Needs to be read in order with the other Mystery Man novels as I don't think it makes sense stand alone. There is a section in the middle which is slightly surreal but in keeping with the lead character and eventually the plot moves on. The ending of the mystery is great lots of humour and a good conclusion to the book. The epilogue is then very bizarre. I'm not sure if this is meant to be the end of the series.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a committed fan of Colin Bateman and especially love the Mystery Man series. This book is the fourth in that series and although there were some hugely funny moments/lines and the main characters are really developing, I feel this lost its way slightly in some parts. The epilogue was bizarre....I'm not sure I really understood what was going on! :-/ An enjoyable enough read but not really comparable to the others in the series to be honest.

[Abbie Ennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Bateman you have done it again. This new installment in the mystery man series has truly made up for the long wait and has satisifed all my expectations for this novel and has left me wanting more.

Mystery man taken off medication and treated for his medical issues and he is still insane. I love it and cannot wait for the next one. Hopefully it will not be to long till the next one. =]

[Samuel Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the time of ‘The Prisoner of Brenda’, Colin Bateman’s Mystery Man creation has been around for a few books. The enigmatic book store owner is a great creation; sarcastic, neurotic and quite likely psychotic. In his previous adventures he has been threatened plenty of times, but has always managed a jammy escape; usually with the aid of his girlfriend or lacklustre helper. However, ‘Brenda’ puts him up against his most dangerous foe yet, himself. We learn more in the pages of this book about Mystery Man than in all the previous novels combines. ‘Brenda’ in parts takes place in a psychiatric hospital, a place that MM spend some of his formative years in.

To start with ‘Brenda’ appears to be the normal breezy Mystery Man book as a client enters the bookstore asking to hire him to investigate the murder of his brother. A prologue does hint that this is a darker tale than normal, but it is not until the mental institution that the book really takes a turn for the macabre. Although MM never comes across as a confident character, he is actually very smug and assured. When he places himself in the hands of the authorities he is forced to examine what he has become and deal without the pharmacy of drugs that he has come to depend on.

For the middle section of the book, the crime story takes a back seat and instead the character of MM comes to the fore. How did he become so damaged and does his bitter exterior hide a brittle interior. There are moments of real dread in the mental institution as MM feels his ability to control things slip away. The book almost takes a horror turn as our hero fears being returned back to a life of institution.

As a fan of the series and the character I found this elements very interesting. Bateman is a wonderful writer and he is able to get very dark laughs out of any material. The books are narrated from MM’s point of view and some of the best elements are when he thinks of something so dark that you don’t know if he is kidding or not. ‘Brenda’ is the first book in the series that hints that these thoughts may actually come into fruition.

With such a great character study in the centre of the book, the crime bookend struggles to hold its own. The deaths may be gruesome, but the solution is a little flat. At least MM gets to have a little Poirot moment as he gathers all the suspects together. For fans of the series ‘Brenda’ gives a great insight into the character of Mystery Man and may just be the best book in the series, but for readers new to the books; it will be flatter.

[Kagan Goodliff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, obviously I’ve missed a few books in between mystery man and this one but what the heck has happened?! He went from a hypochondriac with quirks to someone with serious mental health problems. It started fine but by the back half, I just couldn’t get on with it. The ending was completely mad, not in a good way. The writing is very good but I’ll not read another.

Plot for my memory - he has to go undercover into a mental institution to find out the identity of a mute. This mute kills another man and is a suspect in the murder of a local enforcer. Others are dying and they’re all connected to a building project. They killed one man and made it look like a hit and run and his wife arranged to have everyone else killed. I don’t know if I missed the bit where it explains how she got other people to do it for her, I was over it by then.

[Binky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read, but it didn't make me want to read more by this author. I own the next book in the series anyway but it will be a while before I pick it up.

I liked the main characters humorous asides, his thoughts and underhand manoeuvres in daily life and while solving a pretty unlikely crime. I would never want him as a friend though, and I consider it a wonder that he has not been killed yet by his long suffering family!

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a great blend of humour and as you are laughing the very next word is a ‘what?’ Bizarre is a little harsh but there certain are some unexpected twists. Enjoyed it so I can recommend to the normal crew.

[Jevgenij · Rating 4 out of 5]

In exactly same vein as all previous books in the series, so at that point it was becoming pretty repetitive. Also the mystery man became more "normal" = less interesting/funny. Probably the right time to stop the series indeed.

[Daniel Henshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely hilarious. Laughed out loud many times throughout. Bateman has cemented his place as my favourite comedic author.

[Jo Sidaway · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible

[Ra-ra · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read but jumped around a bit and could be quite difficult to follow at times.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the Mystery Man series. I liked the fact he was off all his meds and he felt fine.

[Martin Willoughby · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ending has one hell of a kick.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another mystery man story that u can read stand alone or in order. I like Batemans witty writing style and the small character ensemble.

[Brian Gowthorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exuberantly different.

[donna_ehm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that was an ending.

[Neil Seymour · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly not one of his better books, but with the main characters madness maybe it hit a little too close to home!

[Jo Prince · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange little book, particularly the epilogue.
It has intrigued me enough to go back and read book one in the series.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fairly enjoyable read, but the solution was disappointing with a long list of things we couldn’t have known about proving whodunnit.

[Rich B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read and enjoyed this series when it came out, so this was a re-read. It’s fun and funny with some cracking dialogue, and I’d say overall, it’s aged well. I enjoyed it reading it again although it has a few obvious rough edges that meant I liked it rather than loved it.

The Mystery Man of the title runs a crime bookshop in Belfast and does some Private Investigator work on the side. He’s hired by a nun / nurse who knows him from way back to identify a mysterious uncommunicative patient who’s been admitted to her ward. This Man in the White Suit is suspected of being involved with the murder of a gang land enforcer which makes this book sound far heavier than it is.

Mystery Man investigates though his approach is quite quirky and unorthodox, to say the least. He pulls in the help of his girlfriend Alison and employee Jeff to unravel who the mysterious man in white is and who’s behind a series of killings linked to the original death of the enforcer.

The ending is a bit convoluted but just about works. However, there’s also a very odd epilogue that takes the story in an unexpected direction and didn’t seem particularly necessary.

It’s a little too OTT / deliberately chaotic at times to be great, but there’s enough fun / humour to lift it above your average crime read.