“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, August 20, 2007

The Unbearable Likeness Of Being

The word around the pastry table is that the rather sultry Tana French (right) is whipping up a tasty dessert to complement her meaty debut In The Woods. Quoth Glenn Harper of International Noir:
“Unlikely as it may seem (to anyone who has read Irish writer Tana French’s In the Woods), French is working on a sequel or maybe a series. The next volume, titled The Likeness, is due out next spring, featuring the female partner (Cassie) of Ryan, the detective narrator of In the Woods. Cassie has her own dark past (to match Ryan’s childhood secrets), both in her college years and in her undercover work prior to joining the fictional murder squad. I have to say I’m intrigued ...”
‘The Likeness’, eh? Could the title be a tongue-in-cheek nod to all those writers who simply replicate the formula of their first success? Only time, that notoriously doity rat, will tell …

4 comments:

Doug said...

Wow. A follow up novel. That is good to know. I wonder if she will answer any of the looming questions? Or try to repair the relationship between Rob and Cassie. I truly loved that book. Working in a library, I am surely going to suggest it to my readers!

Pageturners said...

I loved In the Woods. I particularly loved the 'down ending' - the fact that French didn't take the sugary option, but rigorously brought her flawed, lovable detective to the perfect conclusion.

Anonymous said...

I'm so happy to hear that a second book is coming out! I thought Into the Woods was fantastic until i got to the ending and was still stuck with questions i had asked from the very beginning.

Anonymous said...

I was truly disappointed by the conclusion of In The Woods. And I don't want to hear I needed a sugar-coated Hollywood ending. No, open endings are fine, but I didn't believe this.

In addition, the relationship between the two detectives comes across more like that of a pair of late teen-agers. No wonder Rob couldn't resist the almost 18-year-old mixer.