“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 4, 2007

The Route To All Evil

“Another misconception is that thrillers are not well written. Pat Mullan knocks that notion right out of the water. That he is a poet is immediately evident and when you think of that other fine poet, James Lee Burke, you’ll know you’re in the same creative territory.” So says Ken Bruen about Circle of Sodom, Pat Mullan’s (right) previous offering, so bugger knows how he’s going to top that for Pat’s up-comer, The Root Of All Evil. The novel kicked off as a short story, Tribunal, in the Bruen-edited Dublin Noir, and is currently being put to bed – expect to hear a lot more about it shortly. Meantime, here’s an interview with Pat on Up Close and Personal, where he’s intro’d as the ‘John Grisham’ and ‘Clancy’ of Ireland. But don’t let that put you off – he’s a lot closer in spirit to Jack Higgins, and that ain’t no bad thing.

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