“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

Saturday, June 29, 2013

EIGHTBALL BOOGIE by Declan Burke

Down in the Old Quarter, you flip a double-headed coin, two out of three it comes down on its edge.
  ‘Last time, it doesn’t come down at all ...


When the wife of a politician keeping the Government in power is murdered, freelance journalist Harry Rigby is one of the first on the scene. But Harry's out of his depth: the woman’s murder is linked to an ex-paramilitary gang’s attempt to seize control of the burgeoning cocaine market in the Irish northwest. Harry’s ongoing feud with his ex-partner Denise over their young son’s future doesn’t help matters, and then there’s Harry’s ex-con brother Gonzo, back on the streets and mean as a jilted shark …

Praise for EIGHTBALL BOOGIE:
“Harry Rigby, the ultimate anti-hero, fights his own demons (including a death wish except for protecting his son) and some of the corrupt and powerful in and around his home town when murder comes a knockin’ at Christmas ... nothing short of brilliant writing is the highlight of EIGHTBALL BOOGIE ... absolutely brilliant writing.” - Charlie Stella

“There’s a lot to like in Declan Burke’s debut, including some cracking plot twists. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants an entertaining way to spend a few hours.” - Val McDermid

“I have seen the future of Irish crime fiction and it’s called Declan Burke. Here is talent writ large - mesmerizing, literate, smart and gripping. If there is such an animal as the literary crime novel, then this is it. But as a compelling crime novel, it is so far ahead of anything being produced, that at last my hopes for crime fiction are renewed. I can’t wait to read his next novel.” - Ken Bruen

“Burke writes in a staccato prose that ideally suits his purpose, and his narrative booms along as attention grippingly as a Harley Davidson with the silencer missing. Downbeat but exhilarating.” - The Irish Times

“Harry Rigby resembles the gin-soaked love child of Rosalind Russell and William Powell ... a wild ride worth taking.” – Booklist

“One of the sharpest, wittiest books I’ve read for ages.” - The Sunday Independent

“Eight Ball Boogie proves to be that rare commodity, a first novel that reads as if it were penned by a writer in mid-career ... (it) marks the arrival of a new master of suspense on the literary scene.” - Hank Wagner, Mystery Scene

“The comedy keeps the story rolling along between the sudden eruptions of violence … Burke’s novel is not just a pulp revival, it’s genuine neo-noir.” – International Noir

EIGHTBALL BOOGIE on Kindle UK (£3.99)

EIGHTBALL BOOGIE on Kindle US ($4.99)

Friday, June 28, 2013

Blink Murder

The latest offering from Niamh O’Connor, BLINK (Transworld Ireland), hits the shelves on August 15th, and features a very snazzy cover indeed. It also features Niamh’s series heroine, DI Jo Birmingham, who finds herself in yet another fascinating scenario. To wit:
  A hitman
  DI Gavin Sexton is looking into a spate of teenage suicides when he encounters a young girl, paralyzed with locked-in syndrome. Unable to communicate in any other way, she blinks the words: ‘I hired a hitman’.
  Was it suicide?
  Recovering from loss of sight, Sexton’s old partner DI Jo Birmingham is keeping her promise to investigate the apparent suicide of Sexton’s own wife, Maura. But why does he no longer seem to care?
  Secrets thrive on stigma
  Sexton believes the girl who cannot move has suffered enough. But how far should he go to protect her? And what if Jo discovers an uncomfortable truth?
  For more, clickety-click here

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Stranger Danger

Jane Casey’s THE STRANGER YOU KNOW (Ebury Books) is published next week, July 4th, the fourth in her London-set police procedural series to feature Maeve Kerrigan. Quoth the blurb elves:
  He meets women.
  He gains their trust.
  He kills them.
  That’s all Maeve Kerrigan knows about the man she is hunting.
  Three women have been strangled in their homes by the same sadistic killer. With no sign of a break-in, every indication shows that they let him in.
  But the evidence is pointing at a shocking suspect: DI Josh Derwent, Maeve’s colleague.
  Maeve refuses to believe he could be involved, but how well does she really know him? Because this isn’t the first time Derwent’s been accused of murder.
  For a review of Jane’s most recent Maeve Kerrigan title, THE LAST GIRL (2012), clickety-click here

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Observe The Sins Of Ulster

Now living in Canada, Patrick Taylor was born and raised in Bangor, Co. Down. His latest offering, PRAY FOR US SINNERS, is another in what is a rapidly growing number of novels set during ‘the Troubles’. Quoth the blurb elves:
A British Army bomb-disposal expert goes undercover to try to identify the source of the bombs being used by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in PRAY FOR US SINNERS, a thrilling novel by New York Times bestseller Patrick Taylor.
  In Belfast in 1973 the Troubles are raging. Two Ulstermen. Two sides. On one, British Army bomb-disposal officer Marcus Richardson; on the other, Davy MacCutcheon, Provisional IRA armourer who has been constructing bombs since his teens. Both men are committed to their causes until events shatter their beliefs, leaving each with a crisis of faith and an overpowering need to get out—but with honour.
  When he is nearly killed by an exploding car bomb, Marcus welcomes the offer of a transfer to the elite SAS—provided that he first accept an undercover mission to infiltrate the Falls Road ghetto, join the Provisional IRA, identify their upper echelon, and expose their bomb-maker.
  When Davy’s devices are used for civilian disruption rather than military targets, the bomb-maker begins to question what he’s doing. His work is being used to maim and kill innocent people. His request to be discharged is countered by an order that he go on one last mission. Success will bring Davy redemption and permission to leave Ireland with Fiona Kavanagh, the woman he loves.
  When the paths of the two men cross, Davy realizes that he can use Marcus’s expertise in plastic explosives. A runaway series of events leaves both men in an abandoned farmhouse in the middle of a plot to kill the British Prime Minster. Can Marcus find a way to thwart the plan and escape with his life?
  For all the details, clickety-click here

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

We’re Talking About Kevin

If you’re around Dublin city centre tomorrow evening, Wednesday June 26th, you could do a lot worse than drop into the Gutter Bookshop at 6.30pm, where Kevin McCarthy will be launching his latest novel, IRREGULARS (New Island Books). Quoth the blurb elves:
Dublin, 1922, as civil war sets brother against brother and Free State and Republican death squads stalk the streets and back lanes of Dublin, demobbed RIC-man, Sean O’Keefe, takes a break from life as a whiskey-soaked waster to search for the missing son of one of Monto’s most powerful brothel owners.
  Hired to find the boy amid the tumult and terror of a country at war with itself O’Keefe soon finds that the story is not as simple as it first seemed and that the truth can be hard to pin down.
  The second book in the O’Keefe series, IRREGULARS explores a fascinating and complex period of Irish history.
  For all the details, clickety-click here

Monday, June 24, 2013

Toy Story

Louise Phillips’ debut novel, RED RIBBONS (2012), was shortlisted for the Ireland AM Irish Crime Novel of the Year award, and the heroine of that novel, criminal psychologist Dr Kate Pearson, returns in THE DOLL’S HOUSE (Hachette Books Ireland). Quoth the blurb elves:
Clodagh Hamilton has never questioned why she can’t remember large parts of her childhood. But when she’s released from rehab following the death of her mother she’s visits a hypnotherapist who, through deep regression, delves into her subconscious - unleashing disturbing childhood memories.
  Meanwhile criminal psychologist Dr Kate Pearson is called in to investigate a murder along a Dublin canal. She is soon convinced that this murder won’t be the killer’s last but is now in a race to stop him before he strikes again.
  But what links Clodagh Hamilton and a horrific accident 35 years ago to the murder of a television celebrity? As Clodagh grows closer to the truth about what happened to her father - and her sister Emmaline - she unravels a web of lies and deceit over thirty years old. The killer is ready to strike again. Will Kate Pearson discover the vital link to save Clodagh before it’s too late?
  THE DOLL’S HOUSE isn’t published until August 1st but if you’re of a mind to pre-order, you can clickety-click here …

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Ulster Says Noir

There’s some very interesting news over at Adrian McKinty’s (right) interweb lair, the gist of which runneth thusly:
“I am very pleased to announce the forthcoming book, BELFAST NOIR, part of the prestigious and award-winning Akashic City Noir series, the volume to be published in 2014. The book will be edited by myself and Stuart Neville and will feature the cream of Northern Ireland’s fiction writing community as well as crime writers from further afield who happen to have a Belfast connection. Confirmed for the volume so far are: Glenn Patterson, Eoin McNamee, Garbhan Downey, Lee Child, Alex Barclay, Brian McGilloway, Ian McDonald, Colin Bateman, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Claire McGowan, Tammy Moore, Lucy Caldwell, Sam Millar and Gerard Brennan. Which is a pretty impressive list I think you’ll agree.”
  I do agree, sir. Looking forward to it already …