“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

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The St. Patrick’s Day Steal

Okay, ‘steal’ might be pushing it a little, but the lovely people at Severn House are celebrating the week that’s in it with a St Patrick’s Day eBook offer, i.e., selected titles by Irish authors at knockdown prices. One of said titles is mine own CRIME ALWAYS PAYS, with the Severn House blurb running thusly:
Author and journalist Declan Burke, described as a “comic genius” by Booklist, is on his usual hilarious form in the mad-cap caper, Crime Always Pays. Let Declan whisk you away to the Greek islands as cops and robbers, losers and hopers, villains, saints – and a homicidal Siberian wolf called Anna – all collide.
  With the eBook reduced to £4.99 / $7.99, why not give it a whirl?
  The offer runs from 16th-18th March 2016. The UK edition can be found here; and the US edition can be found here. And if the spirit moves you to spread the word via a simple click on one of the buttons below, I – and all my saintly and scholarly ancestors – will be deeply appreciative …
  Oh, and while we’re on the subject of my books, you can read a sample from any of them courtesy of the fine folks at the Los Angeles Public Library

Monday, March 14, 2016

First Look: A TIME OF TORMENT by John Connolly

The latest Charlie Parker offering from John Connolly is one of those sumptuous annual treats. A TIME OF TORMENT (Hodder & Stoughton) is the 14th in the Charlie Parker series, which – as of the previous outing, A SONG OF SHADOWS – features a Charlie Parker ‘reborn’ to a new purpose. To wit:
Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings and in doing so damned himself. His life was torn apart. He was imprisoned, brutalized.
  But in his final days, with the hunters circling, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death but was saved, of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade.
  Parker is not like other men. He died, and was reborn. He is ready to wage war.
  Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation, and murder.
  All in the name of the being they serve.
  All in the name of the Dead King.
  A TIME OF TORMENT will be published on April 7th. For more, clickety-click here