“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, January 6, 2008

The Bitch Is Back

Yet again, the elves being sluggish coming out of their self-inflicted coma after a week-long bash on the Elf-Wonking Juice, we’re a little tardy in pointing you towards the latest leg of the Crime Carnival. So it’s heartfelt apologies to BookBitch (right), who is currently hosting the jamboree. Quoth Ms Bitch:
“This carnival features the reading freak better known as the BookBitch. In years past, I could safely say I read a book a day. While on vacation, I’d been known to double that. But this past year, with graduate school, working on a research intensive book, my job, my family, well, I don’t think I read more than 300 books. Told you I was a freak … I am extremely opinionated (probably no one ever noticed that about me...) and when I find a book I love, I want everyone else to read it, and hopefully love it too – and then tell their friends about it. With that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to some new writers. They all have their first thriller just out or coming out in 2008.”
The full list of break-out writers is CJ Lyons, Susan Arnout Smith, Laura Benedict, Andy Harp and Kelli Stanley, who is currently redefining the concept of ‘Roman noir’ with NOX DORMIENDA, and who got the rubber-hose treatment at Crime Always Pays a couple of months ago. Meanwhile, those of you who reckon free books are the finest thing since, well, free books, should jump over here, where BookBitch is only giving ’em away …