“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

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Hidden In Plain Sight: Casey Hill Returns With Another Reilly Steel Tale

HIDDEN (Simon and Schuster) is the third offering from the husband-and-wife / wife-and-husband partnership of Casey Hill, following on from TABOO (2011) and TORN (2012), the first of which was shortlisted for the crime fiction category of the Irish Book Awards in 2011. All three feature forensic investigator Reilly Steel, a Quantico-trained pro negotiating Dublin’s mean streets, and all three are very firmly in the serial killer sub-genre. To wit:
A Fallen Angel. A Devil on the Loose. When a young girl is discovered dead on an isolated Irish country road, it seems at first glance to be a simple hit and run. Then the cops see the tattoo on her back - a pair of beautifully wrought angel wings that lend the victim a sense of ethereal innocence. Forensic investigator Reilly Steel is soon on the scene and her highly tuned sixth sense tells her there is more to this case than a straightforward murder. But with almost zero evidence and no way to trace the girl's origin, Reilly and the police are at a loss. Then the angel tattoo is traced to other children - both dead and alive - who are similarly marked, and Reilly starts to suspect they have all been abducted by the same person. But why? And will Reilly get to the bottom of the mystery and uncover what links these children together before tragedy strikes again?
  The TV rights to the Reilly Steel series have been optioned by a UK production company, by the way, so expect to see her coming to a screen near you very soon. For more on Reilly Steel and Casey Hill, clickety-click here

2 comments:

seana graham said...

Your "easing back on the blogging" is following its typical form, luckily for us.

Declan Burke said...

Erm, yes. Sorry about that ...

But what am I supposed to do with so many good books floating about?