Alcoholic, unethical, and having received a good, if abusive, British education, Charlie Mordecai is an art historian who writes on the subject and facilitates sales of great art. But he's also willing to dabble in blackmail and murder.
In this first of the series, Mordecai is persuaded, through extreme torture, to travel across America in a Rolls Silver Ghost that will be delivered to the man who is the hit.
If you enjoy the snappy British dialogue of Wooster and Jeeves but would like it raunchier and more violent, Mordecai is a fun alternative. ( )

Don't Point That Thing at Me is the first of a series of novels about the Hon. Charles Mortdecai, a dissolute and amoral art "dealer" (read "thief") who lives in Piccadilly with his thuggish valet Jock. Mortdecai comes from the landed gentry but is more likely to be involved with far more disreputable and often illegal activities.

In this first instalment, Mortdecai gets his hands on a stolen Goya on behalf of a wealthy and shady American client. This client has also decided to go in for a bit of blackmail, the consequences of which rebound on the unsuspecting Mortdecai and spectacular and often painful fashion.

The plot is wildly improbable from start to finish, but Mortdecai is a brilliant character that the reader warms to readiy. The narration is droll and arch, with some acid comments on matters such as the aristocracy, sex and airline food that provoke sputtering laughter. The Mordecai books are not easy to find, but worth seeking out. ( )

Charlie Mortdecai is an art dealer, but one of the immoral kind. The book is very funny, above all it has a good language joke. I'm actually good at English, but here I would have even preferred the book in German. Because although I often had to laugh: I'm afraid that I missed some of the gags. ( )

Too self satisfied/ridiculous for me to finish. Maybe read 1/3rd, but when Charlie gets the police blighter back to his house and hangs him out a window, I got a bit tired. Yes, it is clever and well written... but archness should only go so far - at least for me I can't bear 300 pages of it. Still, as a sometimes Wodehouse homage with dirty crime in it, it is fun and I may take it up again, but.... it's like he doesn't trust his story to be good enough so spend his energy on cute jokes instead. ( )

Don’t Point That Thing At Me (1972) by Kyril Bonfiglioli. There is a tradition in British writing for the past hundred years or so, that of the titled man (Lord so and so or the Earl of Witsend) and his manservant. The pair make up a team. The titled character, in this case some far detached member of the royal family, has larceny in his heart, soul and every other part of him. He is Charlie Mordecai, part time dealer in “shady provence” art, full time drinker, womanizer when possible, and always looking for quick money. But he is also a “good” guy, funny, not as charming as he thinks, and usually ready to take a chance.
His manservant is named Jock Strapp (you can start to see the kind of humor this series is built around) and Jock manages to be a bit smarter than Mordecai, faster on the pick-up in daring situations, and ready to lend his large physical presence to the situation when needed.
It might remind you of Jeeves and Wooster, with a more larcenous Wooster, and you would be right. This author freely admits to the coincidence of character, but admitting is one thing and having the characters be duplicates is another. This pair might be images from a fun house mirror.
The thin plot consists of Mordecai getting his hot little hands on a stolen painting by Goya and then trying to foist it on the wrong rich American. There are some dirty British cops who might be helping him, or perhaps they want the painting for their own ends. The story ends up somewhere in the desert southwest of the U.S. after plowing through a short selection of locations along the way. There is also a murder, a fabulous Rolls-Royce, a beautiful young woman (naturally) and whiskey, whiskey, whiskey.
You don’t read this book for the story but for the characters as this is entirely character driven. Mordecai is smart, witty, and daring, but he is none of those things to the degree he thinks he is. There is a lot to be said for the rude, unconsciously funny and almost always desperate lead, but he is such a twist on the leading man trope that it is no wonder Johnny Depp played him in the movie Mordecai.
If you want to try and wedge this book into a genre, good luck with that. It isn’t a comedy nor a drama, a caper story or a nobility tale, or just about any one thing. It is several categories at once but the main thing that it is, is fun. You read this to hear about a scoundrel doing the thing he THINKS he does best and mostly ignoring the realities of the situation unto the point he gets conked on the head or his life is truly threatened. Just rise the tide and enjoy the twisted humor you find in Mordecai.
If you like this, seek out the follow-up stories about this character. ( )