Our hero is Gary Thorn, a young, somewhat directionless legal assistant living in a bedsit in South London. One evening, after a disappointing pint at a pub called The Satsuma Complex, he strikes up a conversation with a woman named Emily. They share a brief, meaningful chat, and she disappears into the night. The only thing Gary walks away with? Her name, her striking green eyes, and a mysterious, heavy book she leaves behind.
The next day, a fellow regular from the pub goes missing. Gary soon realises he might be the last person to have seen him alive. Suddenly, Gary is tangled in a missing persons case that draws the attention of a dangerous criminal known as “The Caravan Man” and two utterly incompetent hitmen.
To cope with the chaos, Gary retreats into his own imagination, where he holds conversations with a talking squirrel (who is sceptical, sarcastic, and arguably the smartest character in the book). The squirrel serves as Gary’s internal monologue, his conscience, and his comic foil.
Here is the most critical part of this article. You will find many websites promising a free PDF or EPUB download of The Satsuma Complex. Most of these are illegal piracy sites. They often contain malware, broken files, or low-quality scanned pages. More importantly, downloading them denies Bob Mortimer and his publisher (Gallery Books) the revenue they deserve for creating this wonderful story. The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer EPUB PDF
Here are the legal, safe, and high-quality sources for both EPUB and PDF:
Amazon does not use standard EPUB or PDF, but you can get the Kindle version.
For the best user experience, follow this plan: Our hero is Gary Thorn , a young,
Step 1: Go to Google Play Books (or your preferred non-Amazon store). Step 2: Search for “The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer.” Step 3: Purchase the e-book (typically $9.99–$14.99 USD). Step 4: After purchase, look for the “Download” option. Step 5: Choose EPUB (for phones, tablets, Kobos, Nooks) or PDF (for printing or PC reading). Step 6: If your e-reader uses Adobe DRM (like Kobo), open the file with Adobe Digital Editions first, then plug in your device and transfer.
If you are still on the fence about whether to hunt down this EPUB or PDF, consider the reviews. The Satsuma Complex holds a solid 4.2/5 on Goodreads and was a Sunday Times bestseller.
If you know Bob Mortimer only from his surreal comedy partnership with Vic Reeves (The Big Night Out, Shooting Stars) or his gloriously chaotic tales on Would I Lie To You?, you might expect his debut novel to be pure slapstick. You’d be half right. The only thing Gary walks away with
The Satsuma Complex (published 2022) is not a comedy sketch stretched into a book. Instead, it’s a genuinely clever, often hilarious, and surprisingly tender legal thriller—told through the lens of a protagonist who feels like a slightly less manic version of Bob’s on-screen persona.
These stores all sell the book in EPUB format (sometimes with Adobe Digital Editions DRM). You can download the file to your computer using Adobe Digital Editions and then transfer it to compatible devices.
Released in 2022, The Satsuma Complex is the fiction debut of Bob Mortimer—one half of the legendary comedy duo Vic and Bob (Reeves and Mortimer). Known for his surreal humor on Shooting Stars and Gone Fishing, Mortimer surprised fans by pivoting to the crime-fiction genre, though with his unmistakable, whimsical stamp.
The Plot: The novel follows Gary, a young legal assistant in London who is not entirely sure he is good at his job. After a night out, he witnesses a strange encounter involving a woman named Emily, a missing man named Brendan, and—you guessed it—a satsuma (a type of mandarin orange). When Brendan goes missing, Gary finds himself tangled in a mystery involving dodgy gangsters, eccentric neighbors, and his own sardonic internal monologue, which often sounds like a particularly anxious version of Mortimer’s stage persona.
The book is a cozy crime caper, blending laugh-out-loud absurdity with genuine suspense. It has been praised not just by Mortimer’s existing fans, but by crime fiction critics who were surprised by his tight plotting and memorable characters.