“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, July 31, 2007

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” # 394: Scott Mariani

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...
What crime novel would you most like to have written?
L.A Confidential by James Ellroy.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
M.J. Rose, author of sexy thrillers The Venus Fix and The Halo Effect. One hot lady, and a great writer.
Most satisfying writing moment?
Getting a letter from a female reader telling me she was in love with my main character Ben Hope.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
That’s a hard one. There are lots of good ones. But I really loved The Grounds by Cormac Millar.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Am I allowed to say my own one? I do have a film producer interested ... Seriously, though, I think The Four Courts Murder by Andrew Nugent has a lot of film potential. I’d want to change the title, though - no offence, Andrew.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
The worst: sitting around, waiting, hoping for publishers to get back to you. The best: when the juices are flowing and you know a really good story is coming together.
The pitch for your next novel is …?
Who really killed Mozart? And how is that connected to the brutal murder, two centuries later, of pianist Oliver Llewellyn? Ex-SAS man Ben Hope investigates.
Who are you reading right now?
Nothing. Last thing I finished was another in a long line of John Grisham novels.
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
‘Scott Mariani is ...’ Now, if you’d asked for six words, you might have found out something!

Scott Mariani’s The Fulcanelli Manuscript is available in all good bookshops

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