Everything Goes Better With An E

A missive drops into the Inbox from Mark Coker of Smashwords, announcing that the ‘Annual Read an E-Book Week’ kicks off today, Sunday 6th. Naturally, I’m going to take that as a licence to plug the bejaysus out of my own e-book offering, EIGHTBALL BOOGIE, about which I’m sure the Three Regular Readers are already sick and tired of hearing about. That said, the book did pick up a couple of very nice readers’ reviews over on Kindle UK during the week, and it would be remiss of me - with my Reluctant Self-Promoter’s cap on - not to give them an airing. To wit:

“You want a book with heart, humour and brains then look no further than EIGHTBALL BOOGIE … I am quite frankly in awe of Declan Burke’s ability with a sentence. His writing is at turns lyrical and succinct; his dialogue snaps in your ear and his characters are so real they stay in your head long after you’ve turned the last page. Simply can’t praise this writer enough. Get yourself a copy now!” - Michael Malone

“I loved the book. It wasn’t just the cool dialogue that got me. The twisty-turny plot kept me guessing right up to the final pages. Okay, so that’s supposed to happen in crime fiction, and should be a given rather than a point of praise, but I think Burke is especially adept at this … I hope with a bit of much-deserved interest in this new Kindle release Burke will launch a whole series of Rigby novels.” - Gerard Brennan

  I thank you kindly, gentlemen. If that has whetted your appetite in any way, then please clickety-click here for more information …
  Meanwhile, Adrian McKinty’s new offering FALLING GLASS is also available as an e-book. Scroll down to the post below for yesterday’s Irish Times’ review of same, then clickety-click here for some e-McKinty action …
  Elsewhere, my interest has been piqued by THE RISE AND FALL OF GER MAYES, by Ruby Barnes. Not the snappiest of titles, it’s true, but I do like the cut of Ger Mayes’ jib. Quoth the Kindle blurb elves:

The streets of Dublin teem by day with workers, intertwined with a seamier underside of beggars, criminals and drop-outs. Gerard Mayes, a man with an ego the size of Everest but living a very average life, walks amongst them, bathed in the delusion that society owes him more. Ger is a modern, metropolitan slacker. He considers himself the jester at work but the other bottom feeders that share a cubicle with him think he’s the joke. Ger’s a misfit and malcontent who would never appear on anybody’s radar until, that is, he murders a beggar during a mugging gone wrong. We know that Ger’s life is going to unravel, but the consequences of that murder also bring the Sword of Damocles down upon the heads of those closest to him. This is the story of a common man who steps over the line and commits the seven deadly sins. Someone has to pay the price.

  I hosted a panel discussion yesterday on Irish crime writing on behalf of the Dublin Book Festival, which was graced by Paul Charles, Niamh O’Connor and Gene Kerrigan, and one of the topics discussed was the extent to which crime writers have engaged with modern Ireland, both its precipitous economic rise and disastrous crash, whereas literary Ireland has yet to grasp the nettle. Seems to me that THE RISE AND FALL OF GER MAYES, in prospect at least, stares contemporary Ireland in the eye, although - there being no sampling option available - I have no idea as to how well or otherwise the book is written.
  Still, there’s a bright ‘n’ shiny new Kindle winging its way towards me as you read, courtesy of the ever-generous Mrs Lovely Wife, and I’d imagine THE RISE AND FALL OF GER MAYES will be the first purchase I’ll be making. If anyone out there has read it, I’d love to hear your opinion …