“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, July 19, 2013

In Case Of Emergency, Unleash Spies

‘A quiet master of the genre,’ is how the Philadelphia Inquirer describes Joe Joyce, and I’m certainly looking forward to his next title, ECHOLAND (Liberties Press), which is set in Dublin during WWII – or ‘the Emergency’, as we Irish rather quaintly liked to call it. Gorgeous cover, by the way. Quoth the blurb elves:
  June, 1940.
  France is teetering on the brink of collapse. British troops are desperately fleeing Dunkirk. Germany is clearly winning the war. Its next target is Britain . . . and Ireland.
  In neutral Dublin opinions are divided. Some want Germany to win, others favour Britain, most want to stay out of the war altogether. In this atmosphere of edgy uncertainty, young lieutenant Paul Duggan is drafted into G2, the army’s intelligence division, and put on the German desk.
  He’s given a suspected German spy to investigate, one who doesn’t appear to do anything other than write ambiguous letters to a German intelligence post box in Copenhagen. As Duggan begins to investigate, however, he is diverted by a request from his politician uncle to try and find his daughter, who’s gone missing, possibly kidnapped.
  Enlisting the help of witty Special Branch detective Peter Gifford, the two lines of inquiry take Duggan into the double-dealing worlds of spies and politics, and lead him back to a shocking secret that will challenge everything he has grown up believing.
  An addictive thriller that will keep you glued to the page to its heart-pounding finale.

Monday, July 15, 2013

A Matter Of Some Purgency

The latest – the 10th, I believe – Jack Taylor novel arrives from Ken Bruen early in August, when PURGATORY (Transworld Ireland) hits a shelf near you. Quoth the blurb elves:
Someone is scraping the scum off the streets of Galway, and they want Jack Taylor to get involved. A drug pusher, a rapist, a loan shark, all targeted in what look like vigilante attacks. And the killer is writing to Jack, signing their name: C-33.
  Jack has had enough. He doesn’t need the money, and doesn’t want to get involved. But when his friend Stewart gets drawn in, it seems he isn’t been given a choice. In the meantime, Jack is being courted by Reardon, a charismatic billionaire intent on buying up much of Galway, and begins a tentative relationship with Reardon’s PR director, Kelly.
  Caught between heaven and hell, there’s only one path for Jack Taylor to take: Purgatory.
  The more eagle-eyed among you will note that the cover for PURGATORY features an inset of Iain Glen, who plays Jack Taylor in the TV series adapted from Ken’s books. The box-set of the series is now available, with all the details available here