“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

Friday, April 27, 2007

"Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down At The Station, Punk?" # 1,209: Jason Starr

Yep, it's rubber-hose time again, folks, in which Crime Always Pays sweats those shifty-looking usual suspects ...
What crime novel would you like to have written?
My next one.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Lots of graphic novels, comics, etc. Can't get enough.
Most satisfying writing moment?
In my new thriller, The Follower, the scenes with Peter. I think he's my best anti-hero.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
There are so many greats, but I'd have to go with one of the best of the last several years, Ken Bruen, The Guards.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Bruen's Her Last Call to Louis MacNiece, any of John Connolly's, and Alex Barclay's Dark House. I know I'm missing a lot.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst is the unpredictability of it all. There is no set career path for a writer, it's all improv. The best is the flip side of the worst. Since there's no set career path, you don't have to have a boss, you can make your own hours, take vacations whenever you want. You also feel a lot of satisfaction when a book is published so the best outweighs the worst by tons.
Why does John Banville use a pseudonym for writing crime?
I think he does it to differentiate his crime writing from his literary fiction, and that's probably a smart thing. I don't think there's any real difference between literary and crime; there's just good and bad. There are many works of classic literature with crimes in them, such as works by Shakespeare, etc, but do we call these crime plays? It's smart of Banville though because I think booksellers and marketing people need to make this differentiation, and the pseudonym helps.
The three best words to describe your own writing are ...?
Nobel Prize Winner.

Jason Starr's The Follower is due in the summmer; jump on this for regular news updates.

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