“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.” – Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Funky Friday's Free-For-All: Yep, 'Tis Another Interweb Mash-Up Baloohaha
"Oi! You Birding To My Talk?" Brian McGilloway Gives It Verbals. Again
The Vengeful Virgin (Ahem) Rides Again: Who Else But Hard Case Crime?
The King Is Dead, Long Live Colin Downey
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” # 625: Garbhan Downey
What crime novel would you most like to have written?
I’m pretty torn here. The Big Sleep because it is immortal; Impostors (George V. Higgins) because the dialogue is pitch perfect; or just maybe The Sacred Art of Stealing (Christopher Brookmyre) because the plotline is so sharp, I can even forgive CB for being both younger and smarter than me.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Jack Higgins – and yes, I’d like to be remembered as a champagne-drinker, but when no-one’s looking I’ve been known to lash back flagons of cider.
Most satisfying writing moment?
As a journalist, reporting on Ireland’s opening match in the 1994 World Cup match for the Irish News. Still got the ‘Italy me arse’ t-shirt in the wardrobe. As an auteur, spending hours creating the apposite aphorism to encompass my heroine’s angst at her decision to forsake her true love. As all writers know, there’s an intense feeling of satisfaction in digging out the mot juste. (Settled on: “If only Cinderella hadn’t told the prince to go fuck himself.”)
The best Irish crime novel is …?
Loved Patrick McGinley’s Bogmail.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Running Mates – why do you think I put all the dialogue in?
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst: waiting. Best: when the waiting ends.
Why does John Banville use a pseudonym for writing crime?
Never saw the point in writing under a pseudonym and then telling everybody it’s you. (Unless of course John Banville isn’t his real name either …)
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Fast, sharp, profane.
Garbhan Downey's Running Mates is out now
Crime Fiction: It's Just One Rung Up The Ladder From Your Actual Porn, Isn't It?
"Alibis? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Alibis ... Oh."
This Week We're Reading ... Of Wee Sweetie Mice And Men and Streetwise
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
What KT Did Next: Author In 'Writes Another Book' Shocker!
The Thick Plottens: An Occasional Interweb Mash-Up Thingy
Brought To Book # 29: Ken Bruen On Seamus Smyth’s Quinn
"Life sucks, yadda-yadda, so what else is new? But sometimes it sucks on a level that you want to scream, “Ah for fucksakes!” Being a crime writer always means registering low on the literary barometer but being an Irish crime writer? Just shoot yourself – unless you're plugged into the usual mafia circle of same tired old names. Seamus Smyth wrote a blistering debut titled Quinn back in 1999 and what should have been a major lift-off to a glittering career came to zilch. If he were writing in the UK or USA, he'd be mega. Quinn is a kick-in-the-face wondrous blitz of a novel. No tip-toeing Mr Nice Guy here: this is a first-person narrative of a psycho who operates in the Dublin underworld, the kind of novel Paul Williams would, ahem, kill to have written. The hero, Gerd Quinn, is straight from the tradition of Goodis through Thompson to the wry, sly humour of a Willeford. The writing is a dream, a style all Smyth’s own. He uses his anti-hero to pay homage to the noir genre and yet subvert it in a way only a true dark Irish craftsman could. It's the kind of novel you read and think, ‘Just bloody mighty’, and immediately watch out for his next. But this is not just a great crime novel, it's one hell of a novel, full stop. Quinn should be The Friends of Eddie Coyle for this decade, it's that good and fresh and innovative. Let's remedy one case of criminal neglect and get Seamus Smyth up where he belongs, right at the top of the genre, and allow a rare and unique talent to do what he was born to do - write the provocative novels this country deserves. Gerd Quinn states, ‘There's no malice in what I do …’, which makes it one of the most ironic opening lines of any novel in light of what’s coming down the Smyth pike. Quinn is not only vital, it's damn essential."
Ken Bruen’s Cross is out now
Giving Away Free Stuff: Ain't It Just Wunnerful?
Lost Classics # 239: Death Is A Lonely Business, Ray Bradbury
Monday, May 14, 2007
Dead Man Tells More Tales: Yep, It Has To Be Adrian McKinty
New Hope For The Dead # 14: Kevin McCarthy
Uncle Travelling Critical Mick: No Street Too Mean, No Dick Too Private
“I met Banville there on Saturday. After speaking fluidly on many interesting points, he announced that he is only truly interested in what is going on inside his head. That's in the vein of the Greek philosophers. But remember: if you go far enough up your own ass, you'll ram up against the skullcap. I caught him at the door after the speech. The guy signed the book without even asking who to inscribe it to, and I had to pry hard for what little conversation squeaked out of him. News is that he just finished the sequel to Christine Falls last week. Thanks, John, but I think I'll focus my attentions elsewhere. PS – Latest scores from the Booker Prize race: John Banville 1 – 0 Critical Mick.”Oooooh, get him. For similar wibblings of a bile-induced nature, get yourself over to Critical Mick’s place - you won’t regret it. Actually you will, and you won’t respect yourself in the morning either, but what’s a weekend without a few drunken fumblings after a bucket of ChateauNeuf de Pape, eh?
Always Judge A Book By Its Judge: Cora Harrison
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The Monday Review: The Ken Bruen / John Connolly Slapdown!
A Bruges Too Farrell # 119: Annnnnd ... That's A Wrap, Folks
“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” # 197: Sean Harnett
What crime novel would you most like to have written?
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky or From Hell by Alan Moore.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
I strangely never feel guilty about what I read. What I do feel
guilty about is all those books I haven't read, including most Irish
crime fiction ...
Most satisfying writing moment?
Launching my first novel, Aisling Ltd, in Galway last year.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, although I know that's
stretching the meaning of both 'crime' *and* 'novel' ...
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
My bad, but I haven't read enough Irish crime novels to offer any kind
of decent answer to this question.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst: financial uncertainty. Best: imaginative freedom.
Why does John Banville use a pseudonym for writing crime?
He's just following in a long tradition of 'serious' writers slumming
it in the genre underworld (Cecil Day Lewis wrote detective fiction as
Nicholas Blake). Maybe it's also because he, by his own admission,
has 'never liked fiction'. Could it be that his crime novels are more
valuable to him than his literary novels? Could it be that Benjamin Black is the 'real' writer and John Banville the pseudonym ... ?
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Not yet profitable!
Sean Harnett's debut novel, Aisling Ltd., is available from Hag's Head Press