Sah-mokin’; And, Twenty Major

It’s all me-me-me around here these days, so thank Criminy for the Sunday Indo, which yesterday published a piece about the veritable tsunami of sah-mokin’ Irish crime novels heading your way in 2009. By my conservative estimate, there’s at least 15 of same in the pipeline, to wit:

The current generation of Irish crime writers had something of an annus mirabilis in 2008, when John Connolly [right], Tana French, Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and Ruth Dudley Edwards were all nominated for prestigious crime writing prizes in the U.S. and the U.K. Connolly, Dudley Edwards and French all took home awards, with French a multiple-award winner, a decent haul for a relatively small group of writers, and particularly as Irish crime fiction has yet to be taken as seriously at home as it is abroad.
  The bumper crop of crime novels by Irish writers due in 2009 can only cement the burgeoning reputation of Irish crime writing. First among equals will be the annual offering from John Connolly …

  For the rest, clickety-click here.
  Disgracefully, I failed to mention the inimitable Twenty Major (“a crude comic genius,” according to the Sunday Times), whose sophomore effort, ABSINTHE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER, is due next month. Quoth the blurb elves:

It’s just days after the Folkapalooza concert and having saved the world, Twenty Major is looking forward to some R&R but little does he know that his murky past is about to catch up with him … Notorious Dublin gangster Tony Furriskey is calling in his marker. Some time ago he helped Twenty and Jimmy the Bollix out of a hole and the time has come for them to repay the favour…or end up swimming with the Dublin Bay prawns. Tony’s youngest daughter, is about to marry a man he thoroughly disproves of and it’s down to Twenty and Jimmy to make sure the wedding doesn’t happen. They must follow the young man and his pals to Barcelona where the stag weekend is taking place, infiltrate the stag party and make sure, one way or another, that the wedding doesn’t happen. But will Twenty’s Barcelona past catch up with him? Which one of the group finds true love at last? And can they put down the cheap mojitos long enough stop the wedding? In the city of Gaudi and Picasso, Twenty, Jimmy, Stinking Pete and Dirty Dave are more gaudy and pickarse-o as they try and enjoy the Mediterranean sun while getting the job done.

  The editors of Crime Always Pays would have it be known that they make no claims as to the good taste, or otherwise, contained therein …