“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

Monday, January 14, 2013

A Perennial Blume

All Three Regular Readers will be aware that I’m rather fond of Conor Fitzgerald’s Rome-set Commissioner Blume novels, which have been described by the Sunday Times as filling the gap left by Michael Dibdin – no mean feat, I’m sure you’ll agree. The fourth Blume novel, THE MEMORY THEATRE (Bloomsbury), is due in April, with the blurb elves wibbling thusly:
On a freezing November night in Rome Commissioner Alec Blume is called to the scene of a shooting. The victim, Sofia Fontana, the sole witness to a previous shooting, had been under the questioning of Magistrate Principe, whose deteriorating health is affected by the sad fate of this attractive young woman he had become fond of. Sidestepping protocol, Blume takes the case from Principe. His enquiries lead from a professor with a passion for the Art of Memory to a hospitalised ex-terrorist whose injuries have left her mind innocently blank, and back twenty years to a murderous train station bombing in central Italy. But Blume’s disregard for authority, and refusal to kowtow to the politics endemic to the Carabinieri, look set to derail not just the investigation, but his troubled relationship with colleague Caterina Mattiola ...
  I’m very much looking forward to THE MEMORY THEATRE; Conor Fitzgerald’s books tend to be among my reading highlights in any given year. For those of you interested in such things, and have the patience to click through, I’ve reviewed the Blume novels THE FATAL TOUCH here and THE NAMESAKE here. If you’ve reviewed any of Conor Fitzgerald’s novels yourself, please feel free to leave a link …
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