“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, June 14, 2007
Funky Friday’s Free-For-All: Being An Occasional Interweb Bangers and Mash-Up
Captain Kirkus Boldly Goes
Nobody Move, This Is A Review: Cross by Ken Bruen
It’s Millar Time. All The Time
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
This Landy Is Your Landy
“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” # 819: Pat Mullan
What crime novel would you most like to have written?
John Berendt’s Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Too many thrillers and crime novels, I’m afraid: just finished Jim Rollins’ Map of Bones, Lee Child’s One Shot, Simon Kernick’s Relentless, Harry Hunsicker’s The Next Time You Die, Doug Preston’s The Book of the Dead, Stuart MacBride’s Cold Granite, Bob Liparulo’s Germ, Gayle Lynds’ The Last Spymaster, Barry Eisler’s Choke Point … and I’m in the middle of Rob Browne’s (Robert Gregory Browne) Kiss Her Goodbye. To absolve my guilt, I have stacked up and waiting: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, John Berendt’s The City of Fallen Angels, Michael Collins’ The Secret Life of E. Robert Pendleton.
Most satisfying writing moment?
The chapter I just finished this morning in my WIP, Creatures of Habit.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
There are so many that it’s quite impossible for me to select one and call it the best. However, a work that falls into both the crime and the thriller category captured me when I first read it: Victor O’Reilly’s Games of the Hangman.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Well, I don’t know about movie, maybe TV series: definitely Ken Bruen’s White Trilogy series about Brandt and his corrupt, almost comical, associates. Let Jimmy McGovern do the screenplay and I say it’d match the ratings of The Sopranos! So, any film / TV producers reading this – what are you waiting for?
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst: in the beginning the worst thing is rejection – until you find out that every writer, famous and obscure, suffers from the same chronic disease. Best: simply being a writer. I’ve done a lot of other things in my life but being a writer is, by far, the best!
Why does John Banville use a pseudonym for writing crime?
I’d sure like to ask him that! If I run into him at one of the writers’ conventions, I promise you I’ll ask him. And John (er, Benjamin) if either or both of you are reading this, please let me know. He’s not the only one: recently, Peter Cunningham, using the name Peter Benjamin, (what’s with this word Benjamin anyway ?) published a thriller, Terms and Conditions. Why not do what Iain Banks does? For his science fiction, he simply adds a middle initial: Iain M. Banks. Still proud to have his own name on the genre!
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Fast-paced, intelligent, gripping.
Pat Mullan’s The Root of All Evil is on its way to a shop near you
This Week We’re Reading … Hard Cases and Mr Paradise
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The Thick Plottens: Yep, ’Tis Yet Another Mid-Week Mash-Up, To Be Sure
Dear Andrew Pepper – Do You Have Any Idea Of How Hard It Is To Write A Header About You That Doesn’t Contain The Word ‘Salt’?
Flick Lit # 29: Thieves Like Us / They Live By Night
Monday, June 11, 2007
Missing, Presumed Deadly
Dispatch From A Perch On London’s Eye
“David (Fickling) is insisting on publishing my just-finished fourth book ahead of Solace of the Road, so we’ve done a sudden switch in schedule. Number four is called Bog Child and it’s set on the north-south Irish border in 1981 ... and yes, it is eeerieee (I hope). Now it’s off to New York City to research follow-up to London Eye. My publishers are keen to have my young sleuths Ted and Kat back on another case ... and I can’t wait. I have an art heist in mind this time.”You go, gal. Just don’t forget to come back to us, eh?
Crime Writing: Even Real Writers Do It, Y’Know
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The Monday Review: Yet More Baloohaha For Your Buck
We’ll Always Have Paris
“I can’t say I enjoyed reading 12:23: Paris: 31st August 1997, but then I was prejudiced against it before I began. A fictionalised story based on the real life events of that famous car crash in which Diana Spencer lost her life struck me as a bit tasteless, even if it has been 10 years since it happened.”Meanwhile, over at the Sunday Times, John Dugdale was beating a remarkably similar dead horse:
“12:23 is strong on atmosphere and the seedy, humdrum reality of bottom-feeder spying. It seems indecently early, however, to be stitching its central event into fiction (most recent “faction” novels are set at least 25 years ago); and while reliance on a conspiracy theory for the portrayal of the crash is handy for shaping a thriller plot, it does little for the novel’s credibility.”Hmmmm, smells like a conspiracy to us. Two questions, folks: One, it was okay for the Princess of Wails to spin the entire world a fiction while she was alive, but no one is allowed write about her now she’s dead, or at least not for 25 years after the event – is that correct? Two, how come Elton John didn’t get this kind of grief?
“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” # 108: Duane Swierczynski
What crime novel would you most like to have written?
My twenty-fifth.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Kafka, Joyce and Updike. So damned embarrassing – I mean, can you get any more ‘airport’ than that?
Most satisfying writing moment?
Whenever one of my characters does or says something I didn’t see coming. There’s nothing better than that. (Of course, it also suggests that I may need professional help.)
The best Irish crime novel is …?
Anything with Ken Bruen’s name on the spine.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Ken Bruen’s American Skin. It’s like a smart Jerry Bruckheimer movie.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst? The time away from my family. The best? Pretty much everything. I love this job.
Why does John Banville use a pseudonym for writing crime?
Clearly, he doesn’t want the ‘Banville’ name to sully his real work.
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Fast. Crazy. Polish.
Duane Swierczynski’s Severance Package is published by St Martin’s Minotaur in November
The Embiggened O # 403: Trumpets? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Trumpets!
“Declan Burke’s The Big O carries on the tradition of Irish noir with its Elmore Leonard-like style. Here the dialogue is as slick as an ice run, the plot is nicely intricate, and the character drawing is spot on. There is a large list of folk involved, from Karen, who does stick-ups, through Rossi, who is Joe Pesci to a T if the book is ever filmed, through Ray, the phlegmatic hostage keeper, through Frank, who wants his ex-wife kidnapped, through Detective Doyle, who is on the lookout for a man, and through Anna, who is a large dog. Throw them all into the mix and the result is a high-octane novel that fairly coruscates with tension.”‘Coruscates’, eh? Now that right there is a seriously classy verb.