Author(s): Simon Okotie

Novel | Crime and Thriller | Humour & Satire | London

A detective story set on a Routemaster bus: Simon Okotie's debut novel is as humorous as it is compelling. Marigold, a down-at-heel detective, investigates, in minute and comically digressive detail, the disappearance of Harold Absalon, the Mayor's transport advisor. He follows and then is followed by Harold's wife Isobel and their young child around an unnamed city resembling London. Finding himself cornered by Isobel it emerges that Marigold may be more closely implicated than first appears...

Review:

... charming and fresh; indeed, the only recent comparable fiction would be Will Self's Booker-shortlisted Umbrella, which also features a prolonged, digressive sequence set on a London bus. Simon Okotie's book will receive less attention, but it is equally audacious, and in its own, low-key way, just as compelling.

-- David Evans * Financial Times *

Okotie's protagonist, Marguerite, is an investigator (of some kind) charged (by someone) with following the wife of Harold Absalon after the disappearance (perhaps) of her husband. Hardly a nail-biting procedural, the action such as it is goes no further than up and down in an elevator and onto a bus-a timespan of a few minutes, at most. It's a marvel of compression, not in the manner of Jean Echenoz and others who strip the detective novel down to its bones, but by taking a few minor, even meaningless moments of a larger investigation and exploding them to the point of rewarding absurdity.

* Necessary Fiction *

Author Biography: Simon Okotie is a fiction writer and essayist. He is the author of Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon?, In the Absence of Absalon and After Absalon, an acclaimed trilogy of novels published by Salt. In the Absence of Absalon was longlisted for the 2017 Republic of Consciousness Prize. His work has appeared in FT Weekend and Gorse, and at 3:AM Magazine and The White Review. Two Degrees of Freedom, a short story, is published by Nightjar Press.

Promotional Information: I love your novel... It's very bold ... experimental but accessible. -- Nicholas Royle You embark on this book expecting a certain fictional route, then notice the author has taken a wrong turning, then another... Do you jump off, or stay on and enjoy the slow-motion ride and new perspectives? Okotie here takes the art of digression to a new, surprising and witty level. -- David Rose