Product Description

Charlie Mortdecai is a louche art dealer with some distinctly dubious friends in the London underworld and some great connections to the British upper classes. He features in the three brilliant black-comedy thrillers originally published in the 70s and collected in this volume: "Don't Point That Thing At Me", "After You With The Pistol", and "Something Nasty In The Woodshed." 'A writer capable of a rare mixture of wit and imaginative unpleasantness' - Julian Barnes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #212229 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

From the Publisher
Collected into a single volume for the first time, Don’t Point that Thing at Me, After You with a Pistol, and Something Nasty in the Woodshed chronicles the misadventures of the Honorable Charlie Mortdecai: degenerate aristocrat, amoral art dealer, seasoned epicurean, unwilling assassin, and general knave-about-Piccadilly.

About the Author
Kyril Bonfiglioli died in his fifties in 1985. After Oxford, he worked as an art dealer. He described himself as "a marrier of beautiful women and a fair shot with most weapons". He wrote four Charlie Mortdecai novels, and left a fifth unfinished which has recently been completed by Craig Brown. They have become cult books, with admirers ranging from Julian Barnes to Craig Brown and Miles Kington.

Customer Reviews

70's dissolute art-dealer thriller
Comic thrillers written in the early 70s. Slightly but charmingly dated, like many of the women in the story. As the previous reviewer notes, this is Chandler meeting Wodehouse; if both sat down to write a "Lovejoy" episode, or maybe the next Austin Powers, this is what it would be like. I read it on a plane ride and it was perfect. Bonfiglioli is unashamedly a Wodehouse fan, even quotes the great "Plum". I think there is a Mortdecai revival under way in the UK, so you might find stock at Amazon.co.uk. A friend from England gave me my copy.

The Mortdecai Trilogy
A fine blend of Chandler and Wodehouse. Wicked violence, convoluted plots and sharp humor by the bucketload.

An literary gourmet's delight
Kyril Bonfiglioli knows how to mix a perfect cocktail of a book like no other. While others may sacrifice one quality for the sake of privaledging another, with the result of overwelming dryness or uninspiring wetness (lacrymose), Bonfiglioli knows how to stir up all the ingredients (a nice bit of brutality here, a sardonic observation there, a bit of satire elsewhere, and just a rumor of pathos) with the result of something of overall satisfaction and with the miracle of the individual flavors not being lost. His hero, the Hon. Charlie Mortdecai, I would rank even over the immortal Flashman for candid, rakish charm, and for a easy offhand (and yet pointed) manner of wit that would not have embarrassed you know who.