“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

Saturday, November 28, 2009

The ‘Crime Always Pays’ Irish Crime Novel Of The Year: The Shortlist

A trumpet parp there, please, maestro …
  Last week (or maybe the week before) I posted about the inaugural but rather less than prestigious ‘Crime Always Pays’ Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award, which was, above all else, designed to remind people of how many excellent Irish crime novels were published in 2009. If memory serves (although more often than not, it stands and waits), the post involved detailing a forthcoming shortlist and what were in retrospect horribly complicated voting procedures. By which I mean, of course, that the voting would have been fairly straightforward, but the collating and counting would have been unnecessarily time-consuming for yours truly.
  Anyway, to cut a long story short, I cheated, and went with a system akin to that of the Professional Football Association’s ‘Player of the Year’ award, in which the players themselves vote on the best player. To that end, I contacted as many Irish crime writers as I know, and asked them to nominate their best Irish novels of the year, and preferably in the order of 1-2-3. Each ‘1’ vote gets 10 points, each ‘2’ vote gets five points, and a ‘3’ vote gets one point.
  The votes are still coming in, but already a pattern has emerged. It’s tight: to date only six novels have been nominated, and the one currently in first place has 32 points, while the one in sixth place has 16 points, a very narrow spread that confirms the quality of the books involved. So – if you’re an Irish crime writer who received a ‘voting’ email, and you haven’t yet voted, please crack on. I’ll be posting the results on this coming Friday, December 4th, and your vote – yes, YOURS! – could make all the difference.
  For the non-writers among you, I’d mentioned in the original post that whoever predicted the 1-2-3 in correct order would go into a hat for a draw for a bundle of rather fine Irish crime novels. The ‘shortlist’ – aka the list of six novels already nominated – runneth thusly, in alphabetical order (by author):
John Connolly – THE LOVERS
Alan Glynn – WINTERLAND
Declan Hughes – ALL THE DEAD VOICES
Gene Kerrigan – DARK TIMES IN THE CITY
Adrian McKinty – FIFTY GRAND
Stuart Neville – THE TWELVE
  If you want to be in with a chance of winning said bundle of novels, leave your 1-2-3 predictions in the comment box below before noon on Thursday, December 3rd. Et bon chance, mes amis …
  I haven’t voted myself, by the way, and won’t be, simply because I know a few of the Irish writers at this point, and there’s a very great danger I’d be biased in favour of those.
  One last thing: I didn’t say anything in the ‘voting’ email I sent out about writers being precluded from voting for themselves, on the basis that to do so would be to insult their intelligence. Happily, no one has voted for his or her own book. Frankly, I’m not surprised.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Dec,

Well... I've only read three of these so I guess will have to vote for them in the order that I liked them (although that was a tough call). So... here goes...

1. Stuart Neville – THE TWELVE (or as it is known here in the US, THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST)
2. Declan Hughes – ALL THE DEAD VOICES
3. John Connolly – THE LOVERS

I'm looking forward to reading the other three as soon as I can get my hands on them... haven't found them in any local bookstores yet.

Bill

seana graham said...

Bill, I just checked and I don't think the Kerrigan is out over here yet, and the Glynn won't arrive till early next year. But Fifty Grand is available now, and you should make that local bookstore carry their weight and order you one in. As I work in a local bookstore, I know that this isn't really too demanding a task to set them.

I'm not voting because I have too much access and someone else should win the prize. But I would just say that this is quite a stellar shortlist. A little light on the distaff side, but Tana French is still holding her own even without a new title out, so I don't think we need worry too much.

Declan Burke said...

Bill - I'd take Seana's advice and grab Fifty Grand if you can - it's terrific stuff. Same goes for Dark Times and Winterland ... It is, as Seana says, a stellar list.

Seana - It's been a quiet year for the ladies, alright. But there's new novels coming from Tana, Arlene Hunt and Alex Barclay next year, and a debut from Niamh O'Connor that should be worth looking out for, and Ava McCarthy's follow-up to The Insider too, and the latest from Cora Harrison ...

Cheers, Dec

BB said...

Hmm, difficult choice but I'm plumping for

1. John Connolly – THE LOVERS
2. Stuart Neville – THE TWELVE
3. Declan Hughes – ALL THE DEAD VOICES

Some great choices and deciding the top three was a tough call.

Anonymous said...

Since my name isn't yet Irishcrimewitch (soon!) I have only read the one, so I'll vote three times for McKinty. OK?

Mike L. said...

I predict it will be
1. All the Dead Voices
2. Fifty Grand
3. The Lovers

Mike L.
http://noirjournal.typepad.com/noir-journal/

Shane said...

Cue Count von Count voice:
1 ha hah ha S.Neville THE TWELVE
2. ha ha ah D.Hughes ALL THE DEAD VOICES
3. ha ha ah A.McKinty FIFTY GRAND

speccy said...

1. The Twelve
2. Fifty Grand
3. The Lovers

Anonymous said...

I guess:

1. Winterland - Alan Glynn
2. Fifty Grand - Adrian McKinty
3. The Lovers - John Connolly

Fiona

fiona.mccartney(at)oceanfree.net

fmk said...

1) The Twelve / The Ghosts Of Belfast - Stuart Neville
2) All The Dead Voices - Declan Hughes
3) Winterland - Alan Glynn

Anonymous said...

Very close here:
1) the Lovers
2) the twelve
3) Winterland

3 superb novels

P