“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, September 13, 2011

Who Is This Man Joseph Hone?

It’s fair to say that the world - niche as it is - of Irish crime writing never fails to surprise me. Late last week, it came to my attention that Lilliput Press has just published a novel called GOODBYE AGAIN by Joseph Hone, with the blurb suggesting that the novel might - just might, mind, given Lilliput’s predilection for publishing literary fiction - be considered a crime thriller. To wit:
Ben Contini, a disenchanted painter of considerable talent, has just buried his mother. Rifling through the attic of her Kilkenny house he stumbles across a Modigliani nude, worth millions. Determined to learn the provenance of the painting, he and Elsa, a disturbed and secretive woman who accosts him at the funeral, become embroiled in the sinister world of Nazi art theft. But they are not the only one with an interest in the painting ... Together they set off on a frantic journey that leads them from Dublin to France via the Cotswolds, down the Canal du Midi into Italy. The intrigue surrounding the shadowy half-truths about their exotic families becomes increasingly sinister as Ben and Elsa are forced to confront their pasts and their buried demons. Set in the 1980s, this is a fantastic new book from established thriller writer Joseph Hone, who weaves a breathless, galloping intrigue packed with narrative twists and sumptuous evocations of Europe’s forgotten past.
 ‘Established thriller writer’? Surely not, thought I, being so well-versed (koff) in all things Irish crime fiction. But lo! A little investigation - very little, to be perfectly frank - unearthed the following on Wikipedia:
Joseph Hone (born February 25, 1937) is a writer of the Spy Novel. His most famous novels featured a British spy called Peter Marlow. The first of the series was THE PRIVATE SECTOR (1971), set in the Six Day War. Marlow’s story continues in THE SIXTH DIRECTORATE (1975), THE FLOWERS OF THE FOREST (a.k.a. THE OXFORD GAMBIT) (1980), and THE VALLEY OF THE FOX (1982). Today, Hone’s novels are out of print. During his heyday, in the 1970s, however, he was favourably compared with writers such as Len Deighton, Eric Ambler and John le CarrĂ©.
  Impressive enough, but over at the Faber Finds blog, Jeremy Duns waxes rather more than lyrical about one Joseph Hone. Quote:
“A third of the way through THE PRIVATE SECTOR I thought I was reading a beautiful marriage of Orwell’s BURMESE DAYS (in its evocation of profound British colonial torpor) and John Fante’s ASK THE DUST (in its rendering of a hopeless, near-rebarbative love affair). But that is before the spy game truly gets underway, and Hone shifts gears to show his expertise in that department too.”
  Crikey. Elsewhere, Duns quotes a Washington Post review of THE PRIVATE SECTOR:
“There are moments in this book – indeed, whole chapters – where one is haunted by the eerie feeling that Joseph Hone is really Graham Greene, with faint quarterings of Lawrence Durrell and Thomas Pynchon. His tone is nearly perfect – quiet, morbidly ironic, beautifully controlled and sustained, moodily introspective, occasionally humorous and more often bitter, with a persistent undertone of unspeakable sadness and irrecoverable loss.”
  So that’s me and my ignorance well and truly told. Sounds like Joseph Hone might be one of the great lost Irish thriller writers, and that GOODBYE AGAIN is well worth a whirl. I’ll keep you posted …

7 comments:

John said...

Crikey, I'd never heard of him either. Sounds very interesting. Thanks for this!

Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King) said...

Judging by the cover of The Private Sector you have there, looks like you stumbled upon my post on Joseph Hone, which Jeremy Duns helped out on. Nice to see the word on Hone spreading further!

lil Gluckstern said...

I have come to great pleasure since finding your books, and blog, so I will check this author out. However, totally off topic, I feel like an idiot for my comment yesterday. I am now sailing through AZC and loving it. And of course, the characters have a life of their own. I can not put this down, and I stayed up way too late. Once again, your humor and humanity is showing. You do life with children like no other, as well as the other stuff. What a pleasant experience.

Richard L. Pangburn said...

Wow, nice cover art. Thanks for that.

----

I also would like to say: thanks again, Dec, for having the copy of ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL my way. I've now added to the number of lauding reviews, in my small way, on my blog and in the customer reviews at Amazon.

I expected it to be good, but I was simply floored by its excellence and obvious literary value. I plan on reading it again next week and posting more on it then, without duplicating the gushing praise it has already received--yet without spoiling its surprises for other folks.

My link, by your grace, is here:

http://trackofthecat.blogspot.com/

John Hall said...

But is he Irish? T'interweb tells me he was educated in Dublin. Fantastfiction.com has him as an Englishman. The jig-saw thickens as Kinky Friedman might say.

John Hall said...

Born in England it seems but was given up to a friend aged 2 and moved to Dublin. Raised by his Grandfather and friends Hubert and Peggy Butler. His grandfather was a biographer of Yeats and George Moore. Wicked little Joe was published by Lilliput Press in 2009

Declan Burke said...

John - From the sounds of things, Hone was to all intents and purposes Irish, although it also sounds as if his style / influences are very English / British. All of which is entirely irrelevant, of course; what matters is that the books sound terrific. I've been promised a copy of THE PRIVATE SECTOR, and hopefully it'll arrive soon-ish ... I'll keep you posted.

Cheers, Dec