THE CLEMENTINE COMPLEX by Bob Mortimer sounds funny and cute; it did not receive any starred reviews but it is compared to The Rosie Project and The Maid which are two of my personal favorites. Written by a successful comedian (half of the duo Reeves and Mortimer), this newer novel does have some funny moments (the main character, Gary, frequently converses with the local squirrels) but as always that depends on the reader's sense of humor. Sitting in a car and having to pee, using an empty drink cup – OK, there's some opportunity for laughs there, but then offering the contents as a drink to someone? Ewww ... With so many books to read, I gave finishing this a pass. If you like quirky British humor, a missing person case, and a bit of romance you might enjoy this title which was previously published in the UK as The Satsuma Complex and positively reviewed by The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/16/the-satsuma-complex-by-bob-mortimer-review-the-sleuth-is-out-there

Very interesting read! The book pulled me in from the start and I wanted to see how it ended. Try it and see if this book is for you!

I didn't really care for this book. The Main Character was a little odd talking to the squirrels in his yard. It added some humor, but it was awkward. I skimmed through most of the book because it was a bit boring with all the added descriptions and stories from the past that didn't add to the story. I felt the last thirty minutes of the book was the best part with all the action going on trying to catch the killer and others involved.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Gary and Brendan work together and while having a pint one night after work Gary notices a beautiful woman at the bar. When Brendan leaves unexpectedly, Gary and this mystery woman strike up a conversation. He doesn’t get her name, only remembers the book she’s reading called The Clementine Complex.

This one is billed as a mystery, but it’s actually a really weak crime dramedy. It’s funny, if you like silly, ridiculous toilet humor or a man pretending a squirrel can talk to him. I do not. In fact, the story was so poorly written and the characters so shallow that I found myself not caring about what happened at all.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Murder and alibis!

A different cosy mystery read with some comic aspects thrown in. Pacing is a tad slow but wait for the punch lines. Gary Thorn is a fairly anonymous legal assistant who talks to squirrels. He's trying to trace the woman he’d bought a drink for at the pub. His ‘sort of’ mate Brendan ends up being murdered after leaving the place. Gary needs an alibi and he rather liked Clementine so he tries to find her. Life becomes a bit more dangerous than Gary had anticipated. There’s the rub!
As a comic murder read this was ok. Not a rave though.

A Gallery Books ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Gary Thorn is a quiet man with a quiet life. He’s a legal assistant, putting together wills and helping out clients when they get arrested. He lives alone, in a small apartment. He doesn’t date. He does have a friend in his apartment building, Grace, a retired IT worker, who lives with her dog Lassoo. Every weekend, Gary will stop by her place with some premade meals, and they sit down together to eat.

Grace is the one he tells about what happened in the pub.

Sometimes at work, the law firm Gary works for uses a private investigator, and the one Gary usually works with is named Brendan. Brendan can be a little much, but Gary is grateful for his hard work and amused by his novelty socks. He’s asked Gary out for a beer before, but something made Gary say yes this time. When the end of the day had rolled around, Gary didn’t really want to go to the pub. He just wanted to go home. But he’d promised, so he went.

When Gary got there, he saw Brendan sitting at the bar, so he headed over to join him. But Gary also saw a beautiful woman sitting alone. He joined Gary and had a couple of drinks. They talked and laughed, and when it was time for Brendan to head out, he slipped his phone number into Gary’s pocket. And Gary noticed the beautiful woman had moved to a table, still by herself.

Gary sat at the tale next to her, and they chatted about her book. It’s a mystery that lots of people are talking about, The Clementine Complex. At one point, Gary excuses himself to go to the bathroom, and when he comes back, the beautiful woman is gone. But she left the book behind for him. He takes it with him, hoping to find that she’s left him her number in it.

The next day, Gary is visited by two men in suits. They say they are investigators and that Brendan is dead. Gary may have been the last person to see him. Gary tells them about his encounter with Brendan at the bar, not believing that he was dead. When he recounts the story to Grace later, she is dubious about the police officers. She puts her IT skills to work trying to find them and comes up with no detectives with the names Gar gave her.

Then Gary realizes that Brendan had also slipped a dongle into his pocket. Grace tries to figure out what’s on it while Gary goes to the apartments that the beautiful woman had talked about, trying to find her again. If nothing else, she might be able to provide him with an alibi, if he needs it. But when he finds her, she says she can’t help. He wants him to forgot all about her. She asks him to leave. He does. But he can’t stop thinking about her.

As Gary tries to put together what is happening, with Grace’s help, he can’t help but worry about the beautiful woman he thinks of as Clementine and how she could be in danger because of all this. He wants to help her, but she pushed him away. Is there a way for him to solve Brendan’s murder, get the cops off his back, and get the girl? Or is he just stuck as a sad, lonely legal assistant?

The Clementine Complex is a comedic mystery from one of England’s favorite comedians, Bob Mortimer. The story is charming and a little absurdist, with a mystery filled with secrets, lies, puzzling connections, and conversations with a local squirrel. There is a lot of talk of pies (meat) and cake (Battenberg), and Lassoo tends to steal his scenes.

There is a lot to lie in The Clementine Complex, but I have to admit that I struggled. The mystery wasn’t too difficult, but it is convoluted, and I had some trouble keeping my attention in the story enough to unravel things easily. I liked it. It has some good characters and a lot of heart. I just didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped it to. Good, not great, but still fun.

Egalleys for The Clementine Complex were provided by Gallery/Scout Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

If you're a fan of Bob Mortimer's shaggy dog tales and his appearances on Would I Lie to You and Taskmaster, you'll enjoy The Clementine Complex. And if you're not a fan, that's probably because you've never heard of Bob Mortimer—that's the only reason I can think of not to love his humor. The Clementine Complex isn't a humor book per se; it's a novel about an awkward man, a woman he falls in love with at first sight, and the murder of an acquaintance of his that he somehow gets tangled up in. But while it's not laugh-out-loud funny, it definitely serves up chuckles as well as warmth, wit, and insight. The "mystery" at the center is a bit weak, but I didn't really care. I just enjoyed spending time with these characters.

Thank you, NetGalley and Gallery Books, for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Gary, a legal assistant, is kind of a boring guy. One afternoon he goes to the pub with Brendan and while there meets a woman reading “The Clementine Complex”. She leaves before he gets her name and shortly thereafter Brendan disappears.
A bit romance and more than a bit mystery with some laughs thrown in combine to make a fun read.

The Clementine Complex by Bob Mortimer
Simon and Schuster Publishing
320 Pages
Trade Paperback
Fiction/Mystery

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for this advance copy.

A bushy tail squirrel, a murder, and a suspicious flash drive. What else could go wrong?

Gary Thorn is a legal assistant in London, who handles cases like mediocre traffic stops and the occasional drug deal gone wrong. He dresses simply and talks to the squirrels on his way to the car, usually responding for them too.

One night, things get interesting at the pub. With no real friends outside of work, he meets an acquaintance to talk shop, just to be distracted by her.

Clementine distracts Gary and when his co-worker leaves, they end up hitting it off and talking in the corner booth about The Clementine Complex. A book that strikes up a conversation and makes a great hiding spot for inconspicuous notes.

As the book continues, you learn of a staged murder, then a real one, then all hell breaks loose. This book had its quirky moments while at the same time, keeping the story moving.

I'm American and have no idea who Bob Mortimer is, but apparently he's some comedic genius across the pond. Now he's written a book that is supposed to be as good as Richard Osman and Nita Prose's works, whom I both love.

It's not. I love British humor, but this book just didn't do it for me. The squirrel parts weren't funny at all. I thought I knew a lot of British slang but had to look quite a bit up to make sense of it all

There's a mystery involved, but it's so drawn out with so many tangents by Gary, the main character, that I found myself bored and not caring about the mystery.

I gave up at 75% and DNF. I'll never know the end of the mystery and I'm okay with that. I endured as much as I could before deciding this book was not giving me any joy in reading it.

In keeping with my policy, any books I read that do not get 3 or more stars will not be reviewed on my blog or shared on social media. I will only be posting on NetGalley and Goodreads.

I received an ARC of this from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Clementine Complex is promoted as quirky mystery, and it is. Bob Mortimer creates a kind of schlubby British protagonist looking for purpose and companionship who find a simpatico person in a bar and then loses her when he turns his back. Then he’s detained for the murder of a former work colleague who had originally been at the bar with Gary Thorn, our protagonist. Apparently after the colleague left, he was abducted and later killed, and the police believe Gary was the last person who saw him that night.

Gary later searches for the bar companion, who can provide his alibi. He had not learned her name, though they talked for hours before she whizzed out of the bar. She left her book, the Clementine Complex, so Gary seeks clues in the book to help him locate her. Therein is the mystery: who killed the colleague and who and where is the Clementine book woman?

Mortimer is a well-known comedian, although I had not heard of him. I expected faster pacing, which stand-up comedy requires. And I thought I would laugh or at least smile at the sad-sack Gary and other “quirky” characters, but I did not. Part of this may be due to the slow pace which includes many long descriptions of places and people who aren’t really relevant to the storyline or main characters’ development.

This book would undoubtedly be more greatly appreciated by British readers who would be more accustomed to dry humor and English vocabulary (fish slice, palaver). Emily, the woman at the bar, is given a narrator spotlight in thie book, as well as Gary, and a lot of attention is given to a talking squirrel who summarizes the clues and evidence Gary has found and pushes the plot to the next step.

All this may be just perfect for many, but, unfortunately, it didn’t appeal to me. But I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read this book, which was provided to me by the publisher and NetGalley. This is an honest review.

I am a fan of the comedian Bob Mortimer and The Clementine Complex is written very much in his voice. Sometimes this is a success and sometimes not so much. If one character such as Gary was a ‘Bob’ style character that would have worked but they all seem to have the same way of speaking which was a bit off putting.
I did enjoy the quirky humour and as a British reader (in America) I enjoyed the UK references and language. The story rolls along with enough action and mystery to keep the reader guessing what is going on along with Gary, Grace and Emily.
It made me keen to finish and see what the outcome was and I enjoyed the book!

Not bad. Humor is tough to pull off and it didn't always work for me. But this is entertaining at times, and a decent effort overall.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!

Gary is living a lonely life. He has finished his coursework but was unable to pass the final exams, so he can't work as a solicitor, but he does work in a legal office, interviewing witnesses and dealing with paperwork. His only friend is his neighbor Grace. He's therefore open to meeting a work acquaintance, Brendan, for drinks one evening. Brendan works for a private investigation firm that the legal office sometimes uses on cases. After noticing Brendan has two cell phones, Gary asks him about it and wonders if he's on both. Brendan offers to give Gary his "personal number" and writes it down on a slip of paper he puts in Gary's coat before leaving. Now alone at the bar, Gary notices an attractive woman sitting alone. She's reading a book called The Clementine Complex. Although shy and not usually successful with women, Gary begins a conversation with her and they seem to hit it off. When he returns to their table after getting more drinks, he discovers the woman has left. She's gone, but she left the book behind. Using clues from their earlier conversation, Gary decides to try to track her down in order to return the book to her (but also to ask her out on a date). Before he can do that, he's visited by some police officers who tell him Brendan, the man he met with the evening before, has been murdered. Now Gary has another reason for tracking the mystery woman down: she can be his alibi for the time after Brendan left the bar. There are also chapters narrated by Emily, the woman from the bar, to explain how she came to be there. It turns out that Brendan was involved in something that could be very dangerous for both Gary and Emily.

I enjoyed the book, but the pacing was a bit slow. Everyone was a bit of a sad-sack and it was hard to get excited about anyone or to root for them to be successful. The book did pick up in toward the end, but it was a long and slow journey to get there!

Bob Mortimer is hilarious as a comedian; and as an author of this book, The Clementine Complex, he does employ some wit. It was a pleasant, but unremarkable read.

I'm glad I took a chance on this book by this new to me author/comedian. I thought the author did a great job bringing Gary, something of a loser, to life. He becomes hero of this book, and I found him very likable and relatable. I found it sad that he had such difficulty making friends until the events of this book. I was pleasantly surprised that a comedian was able to do so well letting us understand what made the various characters tick.
Nevertheless, there was plenty of humor in the story, particularly knowing Gary's thoughts. Gary becomes embroiled in a mystery, and I enjoyed that part of the story as well. Some events didn't seem very likely, but I was able to disregard that. I found the whole book a nice change of pace, and I highly recommend it.

I adore Bob Mortimer as a comedian and general celebrity personality these days, so I had high hopes for his fiction debut (even though I generally don't like the quasi-cozy mystery trend of British celebrities, seemingly spurred by Richard Osman's success). I did not entirely love this book, sadly, and I found the narrative voice not to my taste.