“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

Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Year Of La French, Part II

I’ve had good reason to congratulate Tana French in the past, and no doubt I’ll be doing so many times in the future, but for now let me congratulate her on winning the LA Times’ Book Prize for Best Mystery / Thriller with BROKEN HARBOUR (and a hat-tip to Joe Long in LA for the early info yesterday afternoon).
  Irish crime writers have fared well at the LA Times’ awards in recent years. Stuart Neville won for his debut, THE TWELVE (aka THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST), and Stuart was also shortlisted for COLLUSION – Eoin Colfer was also shortlisted in the same year, for PLUGGED. Tana French herself was previously shortlisted, for FAITHFUL PLACE.
  The LA Times’ gong is the second Tana has picked up for BROKEN HARBOUR, after the Irish Book Awards gave her the nod in the Best Crime Fiction category last year, and she’s currently shortlisted for the Strand Critics’ Award. Given the way Tana’s debut IN THE WOODS swept the boards, and that BROKEN HARBOUR is in my opinion a superior book, 2013 could very well turn out to be another Year of the French. Here at CAP Towers, we’ll be keeping our collective fingers crossed …

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