“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, June 8, 2007

Sad Song Says So Much

And there was us thinking we had all the Vincent Banville stuff you could ever want to own (including the toenail clippings we salvaged from his wheelie bin late one inspired and possibly drunken night) – but lo! We’d never been told about the novella, Sad Song! Just goes to show, folks, you’re in the hands of degenerate ignorami … Anyhoo, the novella is a small but perfectly formed private eye John Blaine tale, is available on audio (dive into this rabbit-hole for a sample), and comes complete with a short-‘n’-sweet big-’em-up, to wit: “Gripping, funny and stripped to the bone, Sad Song is a short novel that packs a punch like a fist in a velvet glove.” Which is nice … if you like being punched velvetly.

1 comment:

Karen (Euro Crime) said...

Thanks for the tip, I'd seen it in the library and not noticed it was a crime novel. An Accident Waiting to Happen is also a Blaine novella.

I read Courtia Newland's The Dying Wish, part of last year's Quick Reads series, where he brings back his PI - Ervine James.