After You with the Pistol

The second of Bonfigliolis' Mortdecai books picks up immediately from the first, with the dissolute and shady art dealer in the clutches of various agencies who wish him harm. He manages to extricate himself by promising to marry the gorgeous Johanna and keep tabs on her activities.

Johanna manipulates Mortdecai into a series of increasingly dubious activities from assassinating the Queen, training at a camp for lesbian warriors and smuggling heroin out of China. As the plot proceeds it just gets sillier and sillier, serving mainly as a vehicle for Mortdecai to toss off a series of acid observations, which keep the laughs coming.

After You with the Pistol is pure fluff, but very enjoyable and well-executed fluff. There's a lot of show more Wodehouse in Bonfiglioli's characters, and he makes reference to Jeeves and Wooster several times, so it's clear they are among his inspirations. These books are a bit more manic than the Jeeves stories, but lovers of Wodehouse would probably enjoy them. show less

Excellent. Humorous. After watching the movie with Johnny Depp as Charlie Mortdecai the narration comes into my head with his voice and accent. The plot isn’t quite up to that of Don’t Point that Thing At Me. Nevertheless a good tale with the reprobate that is Charlie Mortdecai accompanied again by his trusty Jock.

Note: The book is the product of the 1970s and is clearly not sensitive to current views on political correctness from a sex or racial perspective.

I can understand people having a problem with this to some extent, but it’s no different from books of previous eras of other sorts (Haggard, Christie to name but two).

The prevailing stereotypes, attitudes, thoughts and behaviour at the time were not thought to be show more inappropriate. One has to take this into consideration when reading. It doesn’t take much intellectual capacity to sandbox the attitudes, appreciating them for a reflection of dated, less diverse sensibilities. show less

The second Mordecai novel is easier to read and funnier than the first, though I struggled to overlook a distasteful account of what should be a woman’s response to rape. I can attribute this to other times as I’m not one to judge people from the past by today’s standards, but it spoilt an otherwise entertaining read.

This sequel to Don't Point That Thing At Me is just that much weaker than its predecessor, but still has twice the zing of most books of its type.

I found this more readable than the first one but still by the end I didn't really care about what was happening with the characters or the outcome, the minor rant about feminsts trying to take over was yawnsome and the dialogue was occasionally overwrought with dialogue. Particularly the Chinese. Still Charlie getting caught up in assassination and murder after marrying Johanna Krampf was diverting, but it made me want to read some Saint novels to remind myself why I enjoy this kind of book.

After You With the Pistol is the second book in the Mortecai trilogy, and it is no worse than the first one. The story in this book is more coherent than in the first, and makes for a reasonably good genre-parody. Mortdecai has been spared his life in exchange for marrying a slightly crazy, very rich American woman. As part of the deal he also finds himself acting as a double (or triple, or maybe quadruple) agent. His wife then requests something very special from him on their wedding night...

The writing in this second instalment is a little more edgy than in the first book, adding to the general style and atmosphere. Most of the humour from the first book is preserved, though I was left with the impression that it has lost some of the show more playful light-heartedness. Fortunately there is still more than enough left to go around. Overall, a funny and highly satisfying read. show less

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