The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer.
Intriguing title, right? It’s an intriguing plot too, put together by the inimitable brain of English comedian Bob Mortimer of Reeves and Mortimer and Taskmaster fame. If you’re familiar with Bob, you’ll read this in his Middlesbrough accent. If you’re not, strap yourself in for a bizarre and entertaining ride.
Gary Thorn is a 30-year-old legal assistant. He doesn’t have many friends, is a bit lonely and aware he should make more of an effort. A private investigator from a firm he deals with has been asking him to go for a pint so, eventually, he does. Brendan is one of those guys who laughs at the end of every utterance, even when nothing is funny. When Gary returns to the bar after a nip to the gents, Brendan has received a phone call and is no longer laughing. He also needs to leave.
During the same visit to the pub, Gary gets chatting to an attractive young woman. They chat late into the night and Gary thinks he might be in love, but when he returns after getting a fresh round of drinks in, she’s gone, leaving only the novel she was reading: The Satsuma Complex.
The next day, Gary is visited by plain-clothes police officers who inform him that Brendan is dead. Gary now has a mission in life; he will reluctantly try to find out what happened to Brendan, and more willingly try to track down the woman he has dubbed Satsuma, in the absence of having asked her actual name.
The scene is set for a comedy of errors, one in which Gary will learn a bit about himself through an internal monologue facilitated by a squirrel (it makes sense when you read it), get out into the world a bit, and challenge his self-image as a complete coward. It is written with Bob’s blend of oddball humour, much of which must be taken at face value, as it is quite weird.
