“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

Monday, June 11, 2007

Crime Writing: Even Real Writers Do It, Y’Know

Call it reverse snobbery if you will, but there we were last week banging on about how the Listowel Writers’ Week fiction prize had ignored Irish crime fiction bar Benjamin Black’s (aka John Banville’s) Christine Falls. How wrong were we? Erm, very. Since then it’s been pointed out to us (ad nauseum) that, of the other four nominees, Claire Kilroy’s thriller Tenderwire (right) has garnered Patricia Highsmith comparisons, Gerard Donovan’s Julius Winsome might well be the crime novel of the year, and Patrick McCabe’s Winterwood is a first-person(s) account of schizophrenic psychosis. Which means that only the winning novel, Roddy Doyle’s Paula Spencer, wasn’t a crime novel … Hmmm, consider us suitably chastened. All of which is a roundabout way of reminding you that the Dublin Writers’ Festival kicks off tomorrow, with Gerard Donovan and Rose Tremain opening proceedings at The Project, Temple Bar, at 6pm. Will the dreaded phrase ‘crime fiction’ be uttered? Probably not …

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