After You with the Pistol

Publisher's Summary

Kyril Bonfiglioli's wickedly fun mysteries featuring the Honorable Charlie Mortdecai, degenerate aristocrat, amoral art dealer, seasoned epicurean, unwilling assassin, and general knave-about-Picadilly, have been cult classics in the UK since their first publication there in the 1970s.

Charlie's back in After You with the Pistol, along with his new bride, Johanna, and his thuggish manservant, Jock. He's also still drinking too much whiskey, and anything else he can get his hands on, which makes it all the more difficult to figure out what the beautiful and fabulously wealthy Johanna is up to when she tries to convince Charlie to kill the Queen. Suffice it to say that Johanna is not quite what she seems. Don't miss this brilliant mixture of comedy, crime, and suspense

©1972 Kyril Bonfiglioli (P)2006 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic Reviews

"We're seduced by Charlie's wit, wordplay, and disarming candor about his vanity and many appetites." (Dallas Morning News)
"Wickedly entertaining....A sure-fire, acid-tongued winner." (Publishers Weekly)

Guilty Pleasure

Amoral art dealer/assassin Charlie Mordecai is Bertie Wooster as imagined by, say, Elmore Leonard. The P.G. Woodehouse connection is made even more obvious by the fact that the excellent reader, Simon Prebble, also narrates some of the "Leave it to Jeeves" stories. The story is trashy, outlandish, and funny in the style of pulp fiction or a graphic novel. The plot is sometimes perplexing and not worth sorting out. "After You" is not the least bit edifying, but it is mindlessly entertaining.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Witty

This is a good listen.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Very Amusing

All three books in the series are wonderful. Highly recommended.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great set of books

loved ever word and laughed my ass off the whole time wish the movie came even 1% of the amount of humour. this is a great book and can just read over and over

Funny, clever, orginal

The first two of Bonfiglioli's books are clever, literate and original. Head's up for readers: The third in the series takes a turn for the grim. For me, No. 3 sort of spoiled the pleasure I had in the first two.

One of my very favorite authors

I love love love Kyril Bonfiglioli, and my only complaint about this author is that he did not live longer to write more. His main protagonist, Mordecai, is a drink-swilling, lying, ridiculous coward - and I could not love him more. While the accent of the narrator makes listening slightly difficult for the American reader, listen closely, because the entendres are hidden so well and happen so quickly that you do have to be paying attention to get them all. These books are hilarious, and while the characters are sometimes spoofs of themselves, each person is truly a portrait of him- or herself in all their too-human imperfection. The plot is believable, unpredictable, and cohesive - there is no need to forgive plot lapses in Bonfiglioli's stories. This writer is brilliant, and if he had more works out there, they would be my first purchases with my coveted Audible credits.

Do you need more reasons to buy from this author? In what other book can you read about the master of the house voicing concern to the butler about a constipated canary? Seriously, buy these books. You will not be disappointed.

maybe it was me

I am usually willing to believe when I do not like a book, that it is my fault. Maybe that is the problem with this one. I did not find it the least bit fun and had to stop listening after a good hour. Not my style.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful