“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, February 14, 2011

The Best Things In Life Are Free … Books

The ever generous Katrina Alvarez gets in touch to offer free copies of Noah Boyd’s new thriller, AGENT X, the sequel to Boyd’s New York Times bestselling debut, THE BRICKLAYER. Quoth the blurb elves:
FBI-agent-turned-bricklayer Steve Vail once helped the FBI solve a brilliant extortion plot. It was supposed to be a one-and-done deal. But when he’s in Washington, D.C., to see Kate Bannon—an FBI assistant director—on what he thinks will be a romantic New Year’s Eve date, suddenly things get complicated. The FBI has another unsolvable problem, and it has Vail’s name written all over it.
  A man known as Calculus, an officer at the Russian embassy, has approached the FBI claiming that he has a list of Americans who are selling confidential information to the Russian SVR. In exchange for the list, he is asking for a quarter of a million dollars for each traitor the FBI apprehends. But then Calculus informs the FBI that he has been swiftly recalled to Moscow, and the Bureau suspects the worst: the Russians have discovered what Calculus is up to, probably have access to his list, and will be hunting the traitors to kill them unless the FBI can find them first.
  The FBI realizes that it has to keep the operation quiet. Once again, Vail is the perfect man, along with Kate Bannon, who would be anyone’s first pick for help on an impossibly dangerous case. But finding the traitors isn’t going to be easy. In fact, it’s going to be downright deadly. And if the Bricklayer survives, he will have to come up with a few tricks of his own.
  AGENT X is a heart-pounding thrill ride with an authenticity only a writer who’s an FBI veteran can provide, and Steve Vail—a man Patricia Cornwell calls a “new American hero”—is one of the smartest, toughest, and most compelling new characters to come along in many years.

  Noah Boyd is the author of the New York Times bestseller THE BRICKLAYER and a former FBI agent who spent more than twenty years working some of the Bureau’s toughest investigations, including the Green River Killer case and the Highland Park Strangler case (which he’s credited with solving). He currently works on cold cases when he’s not writing.
  So there you have it. To be in with a chance of winning a copy of AGENT X, just answer the following question:
What’s the best spy thriller you’ve read to feature those pesky Russians?
  Answers in the comment box below, please, along with a contact email address (using ‘at’ rather than @ to confound the spam munchkins). The competition closes at noon on Wednesday, February 16th; et bon chance, mes amis.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

My favorite featuring the "Pesky" Russians I think, is Old Boys, Charles MacCarry Love all his books, but this looks very interesting

recarraher at comcast.net

Rick Ollerman said...

The first book of the first trilogy of the ten book Bernard Samson series, "Mexico Game" by Len Deighton.

rick at ollerman.com

Dan Blackaby said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dan Blackaby said...

Seventeen Moments of Spring by Semyonov. Interesting shift in point of view

secondlayer01 at yahoo.com

Rob Kitchin said...

Red Sqaure by Edward Topol and Fridreikh Neznansky (Corgi, 1983)

Rob.Kitchin at nuim.ie

Kathy said...

Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith

ksales1023 at gmail.com

lil Gluckstern said...

Do the East Germans count? The book that left an indelible effect on me was "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" by John LeCarre.

lilhmbatsbcglobal.net

Neal Kristopher said...

Man, so many choices! For some reason, the one that seems most persistent to me is the Winter Queen by Boris Akunin.


neal[at]nealkristopher.com

Declan Burke said...

Hmmmm, an interesting point of order raised by Lil - do we allow the dastardly East Germans to sneak in under the wire, or over the wall? I'm going to rule in favour, and allow for novels in which the bad guys are East European Cold War Commies of any and all stripes.

Cheers, Dec