“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, August 21, 2007

From Potter’s Field

Hmmm. Seems we might have been a tad unfair to Mr Books To The Ceiling last week, when we gently rubbished his theory that John Banville turned to writing crime because it was the final and greatest challenge to his Saturn-sized intellect. For lo! T’would appear that one JK Rowling (right) – you may have heard of her Barry Trotter books – is now planning the definitive Scottish crime novel. Quoth the Sunday Times:
Speaking to a reporter at the Edinburgh book festival, [Ian] Rankin told how his wife Miranda had seen Rowling “scribbling away in a cafe recently”. “My wife spotted her writing her Edinburgh criminal detective novel,” he said. He declined to elaborate on how he knew about Rowling’s new direction, but conceded he had not discussed it personally with her. […] Rankin … said her experience of writing fantasy adventure would help with crime fiction. “Her process is classic crime writing - the set-up, the red herrings, the characters who change as they are revealed, the twists and turns, and finally the big line-up at the end.”
It looks like circumstantial evidence to us, folks, but Rankin appears to have a sure touch when it comes to understanding his female peers, especially the bloodthirsty lesbian ones. The clincher? Rowling’s Mr 25% denies all knowledge of a crime novel in the pipeline. An agent playing coy? Now there’s a mystery begging to be unravelled …

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