I have always enjoyed Colin Bateman's writing and had pre-ordered this latest book without knowing anything about it. It appears to have been published previously as 8 individual volumes, each containing a stand-alone story based on the same characters, the owner and employees of a local weekly newspaper set in Bangor, Co. Down. It took a long time for me to warm to the characters, in fact if it had been a writer I was unfamiliar with I would have given up halfway through the first story, but gradually they all came to life and felt like family. It does feel a little disjointed because of the stand alone nature of the 8 stories, and it is nowhere near as good as his best work, there are more wry smiles raised than the actual belly laughs of the Mystery Men books, and the overuse of the word "gotten" really grates, but it is still a wonderful read.