As blunt and effective as the average anvil, TS O'Rourke's prose in Death Call was hardboiled, pickled and left out to dry under a post-apocalyptic sun. Set in London, where DS Dan Carroll and DC Samuel Grant shark a psychopath preying on prostitutes, the novel was in the vanguard of Irish crime fiction, albeit a little ahead of its time. "He has caught onto something which will stand him good stead in his following novels – how to gross-out the reader," reckoned one palpably unnerved reviewer, before awarding it five stars. Are we hereby instigating a campaign for it to be republished forthwith and post-haste? Yep, you betcha.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Lost Classics # 2,091: Death Call, TS O'Rourke
As blunt and effective as the average anvil, TS O'Rourke's prose in Death Call was hardboiled, pickled and left out to dry under a post-apocalyptic sun. Set in London, where DS Dan Carroll and DC Samuel Grant shark a psychopath preying on prostitutes, the novel was in the vanguard of Irish crime fiction, albeit a little ahead of its time. "He has caught onto something which will stand him good stead in his following novels – how to gross-out the reader," reckoned one palpably unnerved reviewer, before awarding it five stars. Are we hereby instigating a campaign for it to be republished forthwith and post-haste? Yep, you betcha.
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Declan Burke has published a number of novels, the most recent of which is ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL. As a journalist and critic, he writes and broadcasts on books and film for a variety of media outlets, including the Irish Times, RTE, the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Independent. He has an unfortunate habit of speaking about himself in the third person. All views expressed here are his own and are very likely to be contrary.
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