What Fowl Beast, His Hour Come Round At Last …

Leaving aside the Artemis Fowl series for one moment, anyone who has read Eoin Colfer’s (right) HALF MOON INVESTIGATIONS will know that he has a genuine affection for the tropes of crime fiction. The short story ‘Taking On P.J.’ in the Ken Bruen-edited DUBLIN NOIR further suggests that Colfer has the chops to write for an adult audience as well as a YA one. So the news - which comes via The Bookseller, although CAP first mentioned it way back in November 2007 - that Colfer is to publish an adult crime thriller is long overdue. To wit:

Headline has acquired Eoin Colfer’s first foray into adult fiction, a noir crime-thriller entitled PLUGGED, for publication next year. Marion Donaldson bought British Commonwealth rights for an undisclosed sum, in a deal conducted by Sophie Hicks at Ed Victor. The deal was completed yesterday afternoon (9th June). The deal does not affect Colfer’s ongoing relationship with Penguin, which publishes his children’s books.
  Donaldson said: “[Writing for adults] was just something he decided to have a go at, and he has done it completely brilliantly. We were very keen right from the start, as everyone is such a huge fan of his children’s series Artemis Fowl. Obviously, this is intended for the adult market - there is a certain amount of violence in it - but you can still hear his voice in it, and people who have grown up on Artemis Fowl will be drawn to it. It’s very different [to his children’s books], but it has that tone.”
  PLUGGED is set in New York and New Jersey, and the main character is an Irish man “who lives just this side of the law but gets embroiled in things outside of the law”, Donaldson said.
  It will be a lead title for Headline next year, with a paperback to follow later in the year or 2012, she added. Although the deal is just for one book, Donaldson said the team “would hope he would write more”. She added: “We would love to see him continue with the character, although there is no commitment to write more books - we are just very excited to have one.”

  All of which is fine and dandi-o for Eoin Colfer, but that’s yet another quality name to be added to the seams-bursting list of top Irish crime novelists. Think of the fan club meetings, people! Much more of this and we might have to use an open-air phone-box next year …

We Kid You, We Kid You Not

It’s a crazy, mixed-up, upside-down world, folks. Re-released in paperback last month, SURE FIRE sees Jack Higgins team up with Justin Richards to take a stab at the Alex Ryder market. Quoth the HarperCollins blurb elves:

The mother of fourteen–year–old twins Rich and Jade dies in a car crash and they are told they must go and live with their estranged father, who they have never met before. Neither the children nor their father get on, but when Rich and Jade witness him being kidnapped they are drawn into a dangerous crisis that could engulf not just their family but the whole world ...

But probably won’t. Meanwhile, Eoin Colfer (below) – whose work to date has targeted younger readers, via the Artemis Fowl series and the hopefully not for much longer standalone HALF MOON INVESTIGATIONS – is planning to go after that pesky adult audience. Quoth El Colf:

“When I’ve finished [Artemis 6] I’m doing an adult thriller which I’ve been asked to, and I’m hoping to do that very quickly, as it’s quite short … I did a story last year for a collection called DUBLIN NOIR, which is part of a series called NEW YORK NOIR, CHICAGO NOIR, a fantastic series. And I thought ‘Oh my God, all these guys are famous detective writers’, so I thought ‘I’m going to do the funniest story I have ever written,’ and all of the swearwords that have been stored up over the years are going into this!”

And there was us thinking he’d been using Fowl language all along … Oh come on, people, it’s Tuesday!

Yanks, Paddies And Micks. (Well, One Mick. But He’s Generally Plenty)

Dublin Noir, the series of Dublin-based short stories edited by Ken Bruen, has received mixed reactions since its publication last year, with some Irish scribblers harrumphing loudly at the skewed Yank-to-Paddy ratio. Mind you, the pressure brought out the best in Eoin Colfer, in ‘Waiting for PJ’, to wit:

Little Mike hadn’t the strength to laugh. “I hope you lie better than you tell the truth. Jesus, that was shite. He’ll ride us both with the leg of the table if you tell him that.”

Erm, ‘the leg of the table’? Cheers for the mental image, Eoin. Anyhoo, Critical Mick has applied his unique brand of appraisal to Dublin Noir, concluding thusly:

“Critical Mick says: Ken Bruen has done a deadly job of beating these nineteen dodgy chancers across the knees with tire irons until they coughed up nineteen wicked, enraged original stories. Though few are superstars of today’s Irish crime fiction spree, Dublin Noir introduces hot talent and captures a shade of what Dublin’s darker side is like.”

And if it’s good enough for Critical Mick, it’s good enough for us. He is the yin to our yang, after all. Yes, yes, we said ‘yang’ …

We Need To Talk About Kevin

Keep your fingers crossed for Kevin Wignall (right), people – first off, he’s been nominated for a rather prestigious Dagger in the CWA’s Short Story category, for Retrospective (Best British Mysteries, Allison and Busby). Huzzah! Not only that, Irish writer-director Eamon Costello is planning to turn another short story, The Death of Jeffers, from Dublin Noir, into a short movie ... Oh, the glamour! Meanwhile, it's only a matter of time before Wignall's For The Dogs (2004) gets the big screen treatment. Sample quote: “Anyone comes in, you shoot them. If you’re in any doubt, shoot again, keep shooting till they go down, and then shoot them in the head.” Lovely. Jump over here for the first chapter ...