“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Gerard Brennan

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
DIVORCING JACK by (Colin) Bateman. It was the first Northern Irish crime fiction novel I read and everything about it seemed real, familiar and exciting. I’ve reread it a few times and it’s aged well. It’s everything a Northern Irish crime novel should be and, as a writer who wants to produce convincing and commercial crime fiction with an NI slant, it’s the perfect yardstick. I’ll never be as funny as Bateman but I can aim to be as good.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Inspector Ben Devlin from Brian McGilloway’s series, but with my real-life wife, kids and dog. He’s just a good guy.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
My daughter’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID books. They’re amazing. Generally I don’t feel guilt for reading anything but in this case it stems from the fact that I refuse to read Mr Men books to her in favour of Jeff Kinney’s work. Selfish.

Most satisfying writing moment?
Those rare days when you read over the work you’ve produced and think, this is actually pretty good.

The best Irish crime novel is …?
This week? THE BURNNIG SOUL by John Connolly. There’s a tonne of great Irish crime out there and each time I read a new one it jostles to the top to become king of the castle. I’ve a feeling that Adrian McKinty’s COLD, COLD GROUND will snatch the crown next.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Stuart Neville’s COLLUSION. The Traveller is the perfect villain. A foul-mouthed terminator.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
The worst is the anxiety, heartache and self-torture that I’ve put myself through along the way. The best is taking all that negative crap and making positive use of it (i.e. putting it into the current work-in-progress). Cheap therapy.

The pitch for your next book is …?
‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ with Belfast accents. They use movies and TV shows to pitch books quite a lot these days. Have you noticed that?

Who are you reading right now?
Just finished HALF BLOOD BLUES by Esi Edugyan. Great book. I read the Booker shortlist for an event at Derry Central Library the night the winner was announced. It’s something I haven’t done before but it’s been a very interesting exercise. I’m mostly surprised by how much I enjoyed some of them. Next up are STOLEN SOULS by Stuart Neville and an ARC of COLD, COLD GROUND by Adrian McKinty. Score.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
Read. Definitely read. I love writing but it’s hard work and a compulsion that carries a lot of guilt. ‘Why aren’t you writing? Why aren’t you writing. Hey, Gerard, Why aren’t you writing?’ If God takes that voice away with my ability/permission to write, then fine. I’ve a lot of reading to catch up on.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
“Dark but fun.”

Gerard Brennan’s THE POINT is now available on Kindle. You can catch Gerard Brennan at Belfast’s No Alibis this evening, 6pm, where he will be launching THE POINT alongside Arlene Hunt, who will be launching her latest novel, THE CHOSEN.

Make Mine A Nun With A Gun

As all Three Regular Readers will be aware, The Artist Formerly Known as Colin Bateman published NINE INCHES this month, and terrific it is too: very, very funny, but very dark too. A tough combination to pull off, but then Bateman has been doing so ever since very first Dan Starkey novel, DIVORCING JACK. The good news for those who haven’t had the pleasure is that DIVORCING JACK is back in print, with a spanking new cover, and an irresistible subtitle: ‘Vodka, Violence and a Nun With a Gun’. Anyone interested in this beast we call the new wave of Irish crime writing, or ‘Emerald Noir’, need look no further for its seminal text. Quoth the blurb elves:

I was upstairs with a girl I shouldn’t have been upstairs with when my wife whispered in my ear, ‘You have twenty-four hours to move out.’ The book that started it all, Bateman’s first novel published in 1995. It introduced the world to the hapless, endlessly wily and witty Belfast journalist Dan Starkey. Dan shares with his wife an appetite for drinking and dancing. But when he meets Margaret, things get seriously out of hand. Terrifyingly, unbelievably, she is murdered. Before long Dan is a target himself, racing against time to crack the mystery.

  I’ll always have a very soft spot for DIVORCING JACK, because it was the book that allowed me believe that I might be able to make a stab at crime writing. Not for the usual reason - ‘Jayz, that’s crap, I can do better than that.’ No, it was the winning blend of hard-boiled prose and humour, a Chandleresque take on the Troubles, catnip to a wannabe writer for whom Chandler was where it started and ended (although now I know that Bateman was more influenced by Robert B Parker). A brave book too, given that the mid-’90s was a particularly fraught time in Northern Ireland, and DIVORCING JACK takes no prisoners as it paints all sides with the stupid brush. Anyway, I’m delighted to see it back in print, not least because it’s all the excuse I need to give it yet another read. I believe the phrase is ‘unalloyed joy’ …

A Drop Of The Hard Stuff

Is it just me, or are more and more of the top class crime authors coming into Dublin these days? In the last couple of months I’ve got to interview Dennis Lehane, Val McDermid, Robert Harris, Lynda LaPlante, Liza Marklund and Lee Child, and today I’m off to have a chat with Michael Connelly, who’s currently doing the rounds to mark the publication of his latest Harry Bosch novel, THE DROP. Quoth the blurb elves:

Harry Bosch is facing the end of the line. He’s been put on the DROP - Deferred Retirement Option Plan - and given three years before his retirement is enforced. Seeing the end of the mission coming, he’s anxious for cases. He doesn’t have to wait long. First a cold case gets a DNA hit for a rape and murder which points the finger at a 29-year-old convicted rapist who was only eight at the time of the murder. Then a city councilman’s son is found dead - fallen or pushed from a hotel window - and he insists on Bosch taking the case despite the two men’s history of enmity. The cases are unrelated but they twist around each other like the double helix of a DNA strand. One leads to the discovery of a killer operating in the city for as many as three decades; the other to a deep political conspiracy that reached back into the dark history of the police department.

  I read THE DROP during the week, by the way, and superb stuff it is, too.
  I have to say, it’s a pretty nice buzz sitting down with top class writers. It’s not universal, by any means, but my experience has been that the better a writer is, and the more successful, then the nicer a human being they tend to be. Not that that should matter, really - all that really matters is whether they’re producing good books - but it does.
  I’m particularly fond of Michael Connelly, even before I meet him, not only because he qualifies as an Irish crime writer under FIFA’s grandparent ruling, but because he agreed to write the Foreword to DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS (Liberties Press), which was pretty damn sweet.
  Anyway, Michael Connelly will be doing a book-signing event in Eason’s on O’Connell Street, Dublin, on Saturday, October 29th, at 12.30pm. Why not drop along, say hello and treat yourself to one of the finest crime novels of the year?

Suffrage, Little Children

It’s all about democracy on Crime Always Pays today, as Ireland heads to the polling booths to vote on our next President, and a couple of constitutional amendments, the latter being far more important than the former, in my humble opinion. Far more important than either, of course, is the public vote in the Irish Book Awards, for which ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL has been short-listed, so anyone who isn’t Irish today, but feels like voting for something, or against something, should clickety-click on this link and exercise their suffrage.
  Incidentally, I’ve had a complaint or two - two, to be precise, both of them from Ms Witch - that the voting process isn’t as straightforward as it should be. Anyone else have a problem with the system?
  Anyway, and while I’m on the subject of ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL, I was very pleased indeed to read the inimitable Charlie Stella’s verdict on said tome during the week. The full piece can be found here, but the gist runneth thusly:

“ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL is an absolutely wonderful read, start to finish. Declan Burke has penned the most original work of cross-genre fiction I’ve read in a long time. Literary, socially conscious, journalistically cynical … an absolute must-read.” - Charlie Stella

  I thank you kindly, Mr Stella. Oh, and if you’re even remotely interested in hearing my witterings on a variety of random subjects, Tony Black hosts a Q&A with yours truly over at Pulp Pusher. Why not drop on over and say hello to Tony? He’s Scottish, after all, and that can get a bit lonely at times.
  Right, that’s me away to vote. See you on the other side …

To Hell And Basque

UPDATE: New comes in hot off the Twitter that THE INSIDER by @ava_mccarthy has just been optioned for film by Jeremy Wall of Polaris Pictures. Excellent news, ma’am, and hearty congrats.

It’s been a busy, busy time for Irish crime launches recently, folks. John Connolly, Arlene Hunt, Alan Glynn, John Galvin and Stuart Neville have all offered their latest tomes in the last month or so (John Galvin publishing his fiction debut), and Ava McCarthy joins their ranks tomorrow, Thursday October 27th, with her third novel, HIDE ME. First, the blurb elves:

Feisty security expert Henrietta ‘Harry’ Martinez puts her life on the line when she goes undercover to expose an international criminal gang in this heartstopping thriller. In a game without rules, the winner takes all … Security expert Henrietta ‘Harry’ Martinez has arrived in beautiful San Sebastian, birthplace of her Spanish father. But she’s not here to explore her roots. She’s been hired by glamorous casino boss Riva Mills to expose a scamming crew, headed by ruthless conman Franco Chavez. When the crew’s expert hacker is brutally murdered, Harry goes undercover as his replacement. As she infiltrates the dangerous criminal organization, she begins to understand that Chavez’s schemes reach far beyond the casino sting. Suddenly trapped in a deadly global underworld that encompasses international terrorism, organized crime and drug cartels, Harry learns that when you play this game, you play for your life …

  I’m looking forward to seeing this one, I have to say, not least for its Basque setting, which is an unusual international setting for an Irish crime author. I’m not the only one - McCarthy’s previous offerings have garnered some very nice reviews indeed. To wit:

‘Gripping … the tech details ring frighteningly true, the twists in the tight plot are smart … a storming debut thriller … in Harry Martinez, the writer has a strong, attractive and super-smart central character who is ripe for another adventure.’ - Irish Times

‘An edge-of-your-seat thriller…McCarthy cranks the tension like an experienced pro … Harry Martinez is one of the most likeable heroines I’ve read in a long time, plucky, stubborn, vulnerable and smart … McCarthy gives readers plenty to think about throughout her smart debut.’ - Irish Independent

‘An absorbing thriller … a fast-moving story makes this Irish writer’s first novel a very good start.’ - Literary Review

  So there you have it. The launch of Ava McCarthy’s HIDE ME takes place at Raven Books, Main Street, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, at 7pm on Thursday, October 27th. For all the details, clickety-click here …

Nobody Move, This Is A Review: BLOODLAND by Alan Glynn

A tabloid star is killed in a helicopter crash. Three years later, a young freelance journalist, Jimmy Gilroy, is warned off the story by a political ‘fixer’, who has long been associated with the disgraced ex-taoiseach, Larry Bolger. Meanwhile, a private security contractor goes postal in the Congo whilst escorting an American politician with presidential ambitions, with deadly consequences.
  The story’s central spine is Jimmy Gilroy’s investigation of the death of the tabloid star, a young woman who is overly fond of her cocaine, and who bears more than a passing resemblance to Katy French. His original investigation, however, is a thread that, once pulled, begins to unravel an international conspiracy to cover up the murder of another passenger on the helicopter.
  This passenger is an Italian man who has threatened to blow the whistle on an American corporation which is mining a very precious metal in the Congo. That American corporation has links, via the American political fixer James Vaughn, to the proposed presidential election campaign of a US senator, JJ Rundle. James Vaughn, in turn, has links to ex-taoiseach Larry Bolger, who was party to a botched property deal in Glynn’s previous novel, WINTERLAND.
  Spanning three continents - or four, if we admit the peripheral activities of the Chinese in the Congo - BLOODLAND is a sprawling, labyrinthine thriller which has strong echoes of the classic 1970s paranoid crime thrillers, and particularly movies such as Three Days of the Condor and Chinatown. It explores the legacy of corruption in big business, the West’s fear of China, the role of back room political players and the question of who controls what we know.
  Ultimately, Jimmy Conway’s investigations, which take him from Dublin to Italy and on to New York, result in the downfall of the US Senator JJ Rundle and his businessman brother, Clark.
  While this appears on the face of it a happy ending, Glynn leaves us in no doubt that even if some of the players on the board will change, the game will remain the same, particularly in terms of the backroom fixers with their hands on the levers of power, such as the Machiavellian James Vaughn.
  BLOODLAND isn’t exactly a sequel to WINTERLAND, even if it employs some of the characters that appeared in that novel; it’s obvious, though, that Glynn is returning to some of the themes he touched on in WINTERLAND, and painting them on a broader canvas.
  I liked the style and the context, that of the hard-bitten thriller in the paranoid mould. I was very impressed with the scale of Glynn’s ambition, too; I found the scenes set outside of Ireland very vividly drawn, especially those set in the Congo.
  I did wonder - as a freelance writer - about the extent of Jimmy Gilroy’s motivation, particularly at the start of the novel. He’s not particularly idealistic, and most freelance journos, especially in these straitened times, would be happy enough to be ‘bought off’ by a plum job, particularly as Jimmy doesn’t have any real inkling of the scale of the cover-up when he is first approached by the political fixer and warned off.
  Overall, I very much liked the book, and warmly recommend it. Apparently it’s the second in a loose ‘trilogy’, and I’ll be first in the queue when the third instalment appears. - Declan Burke

Alan Glynn’s BLOODLAND has been short-listed for the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award in the Bord Gais Irish Book Awards. To vote for it, clickety-click here …

Hate In A Cold Climate

I was at the launch of the Irish Book Awards short-lists last Thursday morning, during the course of which I was introduced to a PR lady who, on hearing that I’m a crime writer, began babbling about this terrific new book coming in January of next year by Adrian McKinty. “I’ve heard of him,” sez I. “Rumour has it he’s not half-bad …”
  The new book the lady was referring to is THE COLD, COLD GROUND, a standalone title from McKinty that I’m very much hoping will become the first in a series; I read it a couple of months ago, and it’s superb. Herewith be the blurb elves:

Northern Ireland. Spring 1981. Hunger strikes. Riots. Power cuts. A homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera. A young woman’s suicide that may yet turn out to be murder. On the surface, these events are unconnected, but then things - and people - aren’t always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Sean Duffy is trying to get to the bottom of it all, but it’s no easy job - especially for a Catholic policeman at the height of the Troubles.

  His publishers are calling McKinty ‘the David Peace of Northern Ireland’, which is lavish indeed, and they’re not the only ones to be lauding him. Ken Bruen opened up his brand new blog with a post about COLD, COLD GROUND, calling it ‘riveting, brilliant, and just about the best book yet on Northern Ireland’.
  COLD, COLD GROUND is published on January 5th; if I were you, I’d get it on my Christmas wish-list now. Meantime, why not drop on over to Ken Bruen’s blog and welcome him to the blogosphere? He loves a good chat, does Ken …

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Tom Galvin

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain. It’s got so many elements that make it such a tragic and emotional read. Of course the lesson is there -- regardless of circumstances, you don’t profit from crime, even crimes of passion. Not that everyone would agree with that, particularly in the current climate. But this is a story that pulls you in so many directions but ultimately breaks your heart. It is a crime story, but a very credible and human one. If a story lacks humanity, somewhere, then it struggles to be told.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Where to start . . . lots of fictional characters I love as fictional characters, but then there are characters in fiction that are so vividly portrayed that they sit better in an everyday world. One jumps out, the character Ed in James Dickey’s novel, DELIVERANCE, so brilliantly played Jon Voight in the film. He is the one who rises above the horror of the situation the group find themselves in -- not only against their pursuers, but against the natural elements -- and comes out the cool hero. Although in the book Ed is a balding, pudgy character in his forties somewhere; so I would prefer the Jon Voight version if that’s okay.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
My last ‘guilty pleasure’ was Stephen King’s FULL DARK, NO STARS. Why King is classified as a ‘guilty pleasure’ is a mystery to me. As he is one of the greatest story tellers there is and while there were a couple of tales in this collection that disappointed the first, 1922, is one of the darkest and most original stories I’ve read in years. My only other crib here . . . the cover image of the night sky? There were lots of stars on it. Something in that perhaps?

Most satisfying writing moment?
There have been a couple. In terms of actual writing, there was a ‘eureka’ moment in a novel called THE RUSSIAN DOLL, which came to me when I went to a Russian exclave called Kaliningrad to research the book. I needed a strong plot twist and couldn’t come up with one. I spent a fortune getting there and it was the weirdest place I’ve ever visited. But while I was there I got what I needed and finished the book. It’s on the way . . . I hope. In terms of satisfaction as a writer, getting the first copy of GABRIEL’S GATE home. It was almost three in the morning and I was soused and pickled but I sat up and savoured the moment. That book has a long history, a long wait, and I had actually abandoned it a long time ago. So holding a physical copy I thought I would never get to hold was incredible. Of course, the hard work starts now. But at least it gets the ball rolling at a time when I was literally on the verge of dropping out of the game altogether because of so many other commitments.

The best Irish crime novel is …?
Martin Dillon’s THE SHANKHILL BUTCHERS still makes me shudder every time. I normally read a book that grips me several times; but this could only be read once. Of course it wasn’t fiction, so in terms of a novel, I’ll give it to John Banville’s THE BOOK OF EVIDENCE. I was reading a lot of Camus at the time as a student and this sat comfortably with the mood I was in.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Quite a few now ... but will take a punt on something by Declan Hughes being grabbed soon; maybe Tana French.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
You’re never satisfied. Even when you reach a goal, you don’t even want to stand long enough to give yourself a round of applause. All you’re thinking is . . . now what will I do?

The pitch for your next book is …?
It’s set in Mexico and concerns a group of travellers on their last trip as a circle of friends who unwittingly become involved in, how should I put it, an ‘existential kidnapping’ in the jungles of the Yucatan. Have I coined a new phrase? Perhaps a new genre?

Who are you reading right now?
Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy; it was on my list for some time as I have read so much of this great man’s work. I began it before revising GABRIEL’S GATE but had to drop it because there was no time. As with all of McCarthy’s books, it kicks, punches, shocks and caresses the soul all in equal measures. Also at my elbow is Arlene Hunt’s new book, THE CHOSEN, and Declan Burke’s ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL. One at a time folks . . .

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
Drink.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Read me please.

Tom Galvin’s GABRIEL’S GATE is published by Book Republic.

Souls For Sale

Get ’em while they’re hot, they’re luvverly, etc. Stuart Neville will be in Dublin on Tuesday, October 25th, to launch his latest tome, STOLEN SOULS, and a fine night it should be, too. Few writers of recent times have had such a vertical ascent to stardom - THE TWELVE, Stuart’s debut, as all Three Regular Readers will be aware, was a runaway bestseller, and nabbed the LA Times’ gong for Best Crime / Mystery Novel for that year. He followed that up with COLLUSION, which featured DI Jack Lennon, and Lennon returns for STOLEN SOULS, with the blurb elves wittering thusly:

Galya Petrova travels to Ireland on a promise that she will work for a nice Russian family, teaching their children English. Instead, she is dragged into the world of modern slavery, sold to a Belfast brothel, and held there against her will. She escapes at a terrible cost—the slaying of one of her captors—and takes refuge with a man who offers his help. As the traffickers she fled scour the city for her, seeking revenge for their fallen comrade, Galya faces an even greater danger: her saviour is not what he seems. She is not the first trafficked girl to have crossed his threshold, and she must fight to avoid their fate. Detective Inspector Jack Lennon wants a quiet Christmas with his daughter, but when an apparent turf war between rival gangs leaves bodies across the city, he knows he won't get it. As he digs deeper into the case, he realizes an escaped prostitute is the cause of the violence, and soon he is locked in a deadly race with two very different killers.

  Nice. The launch of STOLEN SOULS takes place on Tuesday, October 25th at The Gutter Bookshop, Temple Bar, with festivities kicking off at 6.30pm, and those of you impressed by such things will be duly impressed to learn that the novel carries an encomium from one James Ellroy. And if it’s good enough for James Ellroy, etc. I’ll see you there - but do be careful, and keep a tight grip on your souls. The Gutter Bookshop will take no responsibility for eternal damnation, etc.

On Being Caught In A Compromising Position, Again

As of last Thursday morning, and ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL’s short-list nomination in the Ireland AM Crime Fiction section of the Irish Book Awards, I find myself in a rather more compromised position than usual. The reason is that I’ve been shortlisted alongside some very good writers and books; worse, I’ve positively reviewed some of said tomes in the recent past.
  This, of course, amounts to a kind of retrospective version of shooting myself in the foot. What to do, what to do …?
  I could, of course, come out and say that I was lying through my teeth when I gave, say, Alan Glynn’s BLOODLAND a big-up recently, or Casey Hill’s TABOO earlier this year; or claim, for that matter, that Benjamin Black’s A DEATH IN SUMMER is not, as I suggested a couple of months ago, the finest of John Banville’s Quirke novels to date.
  That’s one option, certainly.
  I could also go the route of claiming the moral high ground, and insist that it’s ridiculous to pit very different kinds of novels against one another in a competition, and instead suggest a more straightforwardly barbaric test, in which we put all six writers into a cage for a marathon smack-down session, and let the best man or woman win. Of course, that wouldn’t fly, because Casey Hill is comprised of a wife-and-husband team, so they’d have an unfair advantage.
  Another option, and the preferable one, is to simply confirm that the short-list for the Crime Fiction Award represents pretty stuff competition: “The Group of Death, in more ways than one,” as Eoin Purcell observed on Thursday morning. It’s also fair to say, I think, that were the list to be comprised of an entirely different six Irish crime titles published this year, it would also be a very strong shortlist. If I were Adrian McKinty, Gene Kerrigan, Niamh O’Connor, Brian McGilloway, Conor Fitzgerald or Eoin Colfer, for example, I think I’d feel entitled to be very disappointed at not making the list.
  It sounds perverse, but the fact that such writers didn’t make it is part of the joy of being there. Because this is a very, very good time for Irish crime writing, with a very high quality of work being produced by some very interesting writers; it’s the oldest cliché in the book, I know, but it really is lovely just to be nominated, given the number of excellent titles that were published this year alone.
  Naturally, having been nominated, I’d now like to see ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL win the award, and as much for Liberties Press as for myself, or the book. If we don’t, it’ll be disappointing, of course; but as we used to say back in the days when I played football, there’s never any shame in being beaten by a better team.
  And so, rather than sneak around pretending that the other short-listed titles don’t exist, and hoping that AZC wins the award by default, I’d much prefer to go on celebrating said titles. To wit:

My take on A DEATH IN SUMMER by Benjamin Black (you’ll need to scroll down a little);

A Q&A with wife-and-husband writing team Casey Hill;

Some very nice reviews of Alan Glynn’s BLOODLAND can be found here;

I have yet to read William Ryan’s THE BLOODY MEADOW, but the reviews suggest I should get the finger out and do so, especially as I thoroughly enjoyed his debut;

And I haven’t read Jane Casey’s THE RECKONING yet, but I have no reason to doubt that it’s as good as her previous offering, THE BURNING, which I thought was a cracker.

  So there you have it, folks: a fine body of books, and every one of them deserving of your vote. If you’re in the mood to exercise your suffrage, clickety-click here …

My Bloody Valentine

I had a very pleasant experience a couple of weeks ago, when I sat down with Val McDermid (right) to interview her for the Irish Examiner on the publication of her latest opus, THE RETRIBUTION. Fair to say, I think, that Val’s reputation for not suffering fools gladly goes before her, but maybe she was in particularly mellow mode that day, because she certainly suffered this particular fool at length, especially when I broached the hoary old chestnut of her being ‘a blood-thirsty lesbian’. The piece opens a lot like this:

Val McDermid’s perspective as a woman is key to her ability to write crime fiction, but the genre is more than it seems, she tells Declan Burke.

VAL McDERMID writes crime novels about serial killers. She’s also a lesbian. You conflate those facts to call her a “blood-thirsty lesbian” at your peril, however, as her fellow author Ian Rankin discovered when a throwaway remark led to one of crime fiction’s most notorious literary spats.
  “Well, the ‘blood-thirsty lesbian’ bit, that was the headline in The Times,” says McDermid, who gets a steely gleam in her eye when the topic is raised.
  “But what Ian actually said was that the most graphic and violent of novels were being written by women, and of those the most violent were written by lesbians. I mean,” she shrugs, “it was a row that was entirely confected by the media. There was no falling-out between Ian and I. Ian was at my wedding, and we’ve been friends for long enough to know we’re capable of having differing opinions from our pals.
  “I do think his statement was wrong,” she says, warming to the theme. “But what it led onto was a wider discussion that seemed to indicate that there was something inappropriate about women writing violent crime fiction, which is something I take extreme exception to.”

  For the rest, clickety-click here …

On ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL Being Short-Listed For The Irish Book Awards

Strange days, indeed. As all Three Regular Readers (right) will be aware, I posted a piece a couple of weeks back about how difficult it was going to be to scrape onto the short-list for the Irish Book Awards, given that the competition this year is a right royal buggery. If I’m entirely honest, I wrote that piece for myself - I was getting a bit carried away with the reviews that were coming in (see left), and was starting to believe that maybe I was entitled to a short-list nomination. Except then I copped myself on, had a good hard look at all the other Irish crime titles published this year, and conceded that I’d be very fortunate indeed to make any kind of short-list.
  But lo! The day has come, and there’s ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL nestling snugly on said list. Which is all kinds of wonderful, not least because a year or so ago I was planning to self-publish AZC, this on the basis that I couldn’t get a publisher to touch it with a barge-pole, and the only love was coming from the readers of this very blog.
  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not losing the run of myself - a short-list nomination is exactly what it is, and no more. But there’s a wealth of truth in the hoary old cliché about how it’s lovely just to be nominated, and I’m certainly buzzing on that right now. And not just for myself, or for the book itself, but for everyone who believed in it despite all the negative vibes (and there’s a very good chance that that means you, yes, YOU!); and I’m especially delighted for Liberties Press, and particularly Sean O’Keeffe, who was imaginative and brave enough to publish AZC.
  Where do we go from here? Well, we’re off to the Irish Book Awards event on November 17th, for starters, and that should be a ton of fun, not least because I’ll get to hook up with all the other nominees (and I’ll be giving you the full short-list in due course, because the actual award is opened up to public voting once the short-lists are announced, as I understand it). Anyway, for now I’m just pleased as punch to be right here, right now, enjoying the moment and high on the improbability of it all. See you all back in the real world, tomorrow …

On Putting The Boot Into The Booker Prize

I like to think that Dan Kavanagh got mouldy drunk on Guinness somewhere in London last night. It’s been many years since I’ve read Julian Barnes, who last night won the 2011 Man Booker prize for his latest novel - or novella - THE SENSE OF AN ENDING, and while I vaguely remember liking both FLAUBERT’S PARROT and A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 10½ CHAPTERS, I don’t remember an awful lot more about them. Which probably says a lot more about me than it does about Julian Barnes and his novels.
  On the other hand, I do remember hugely enjoying PUTTING THE BOOT IN, a crime novel Barnes published under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh, not least because said Dan Kavanagh’s official biography made him out to be something of a rogue, and one who hailed from my home patch of County Sligo into the bargain. Anyway, I did a short write-up of PUTTING THE BOOT IN - which is only one of the Dan Kavanagh novels; there were four in total, as far as I know - back in 2008, which you can find roundabout here.
  So there you have it - a Booker Prize winner with a rather decent half-canon of crime novels under his belt, as announced by Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5 and a thriller writer who chaired the judging panel. A cunning black ops sortie by the crime fraternity? Have we shuffled another step closer to the day when a fully-fledged crime writer scoops the establishment’s glittering prize? You’d hope not, or at least I’d hope not - but it is starting to look like an inevitability …

But Really, What’s THE POINT?

The first thing to say about Gerard Brennan’s THE POINT is that the cover is an absolute cracker - menace a-plenty in a beautifully retro style. The second thing to say is - well, over to the Pulp Press blurb elves:

Small time crook Paul Morgan is a bad influence on his brother, Brian. When Paul crosses one thug too many, the cider-fuelled duo flee Belfast for Warrenpoint, the sleepy seaside resort of their childhood memories. For Brian, a new life in the Point means going straight and falling in love with Rachel, while Paul graduates to carjacking by unusual means and ‘borrowing’ firearms from his new boss. Brian can’t help being dragged into his brother’s bungling schemes but Rachel can be violently persuasive herself . . . and she isn’t the only one who wants to see an end to Paul’s criminal career.

  Now, given that Brennan is the blogmeister behind Crime Scene Northern Ireland, or CSNI to you, from which vantage point he’s cast a cold eye over huge swathes of Irish crime writing over the last few years, there’s a lot of pressure on for him to deliver the goods. The good news is, from the sounds of things, he’s done exactly that. To wit:

“Gerard Brennan is a master of gritty violence.” - Colin Bateman

“A Coen Brothers dream, via Belfast ... Gerard Brennan grabs the mantle of the new mystery prince of Northern Ireland ...” - Ken Bruen

“THE POINT is the real deal - the writing is razor sharp, the characters engaging, the ending a blast. From start to finish it’s true Northern Noir, crafted with style and wit.” - Brian McGilloway

“Gerard Brennan’s THE POINT is terrific. Scorchingly funny, black humour at its finest and the most inventive car theft ever!” - Arlene Hunt

“THE POINT is top stuff. Engaging from the start, the characters are loveable, the story is strong and the pace never lets up.” - Adrian McKinty

  So there you have it: if it’s good enough for Bateman, Bruen, Hunt and McKinty, it’s good enough for us. So - Gerard Brennan, THE POINT. You know what to do, people …
  Oh, and if you’re roundabout Derry way this evening, Tuesday, October 18th, you can catch Gerard wittering on about the Booker Prize in the company of Kate Newman and the very fine novelist, Garbhan Downey, at the Central Library. For all the details, clickety-click here …

Do Go Back To Rockville

If you’re in or around Dublin this coming Wednesday, October 19th, you could do a lot worse than wander by the Gutter Bookshop at 6.30pm. For lo! Arlene Hunt will be launching her latest tome, THE CHOSEN. Quoth the blurb elves:

On a hot summer’s day in the sleepy American town of Rockville, Jessie Conway, a teacher at the local high school, notices a car driving slowly around the school grounds. Twenty minutes later Jessie is fighting for her life and Rockville is plunged into living nightmare after a gun-toting student unleashes bloody mayhem.
  For Jessie the horror is just beginning. Traumatized and hounded by the media she retreats to her home and tries to rebuild her shattered life.
  Caleb Switch watches the developments in Rockville with interest. A skilled and diligent killer, his recent selections have disappointed him, offering challenge to a man of his predilections. Jessie Conway interests him: for she is no ordinary woman and a fine choice for a less than ordinary man.
  As Jessie struggles to hold onto her marriage and her sanity she has no idea that she has become The Chosen.

  As all Three Regular Readers will know, Arlene Hunt has built a strong reputation on the back of her ‘QuicK Investigations’ novels, but THE CHOSEN - as the blurb suggests - is something of a departure, being a standalone set in the US, and a particularly remote part of the US at that. For an excerpt from THE CHOSEN, feel free to clickety-click here …

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Gerry Boyle

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
Anything and everything by Raymond Chandler. I keep FAREWELL, MY LOVELY and THE LONG GOODBYE within arm’s reach in the study and flip them open to a random page for inspiration. I’ll do it right now: THE LONG GOODBYE, Chapter 39, pg 186: “The inquest was a flop. The coroner sailed into it before the medical evidence was complete, for fear the publicity would die on him. He needn’t have worried. The death of a writer—even a loud writer—is not news for long, and that summer there was too much to compete.”

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
[John D. MacDonald’s] Travis McGee. He’s the second-generation Marlowe, sitting on the bridge of the Busted Flush, Boodles in hand. Nobody hit harder or observed human nature more closely. McGee was a great knight errant, which is, after all, what we’re creating here most of the time.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Jack Higgins, especially the early ones. I know what he’s doing, I know what’s coming, but I can’t look away. Sit down, open to page one, don’t look up until the book is done, except to carry the book to the fridge to get another Smithwicks.

Most satisfying writing moment?
Writing the first paragraph, when you know you’ve shoved the boulder over the cliff.

The best Irish crime novel is …?
Tough one. I’d have to say I was terribly impressed by Stuart Neville’s THE TWELVE. Every word was charged, like the thing was written in a single high-velocity blast. Between that book and COLLUSION I picture him not sitting down to write again, but reloading. Five in the magazine, one in the chamber.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Tough one. Of late, I’ve been revisiting Ken Bruen’s Jack Taylor (even better second time through). I’d love to see a director and actor bring Taylor to life on the screen and not just the reckless destruction (self and otherwise), but the true root of it. The appeal of Taylor isn’t just his cynical but unswayable code of honor but the dark mystery behind it.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
The blank screen. Full of promise but at the same time terrifying.

The pitch for your next book is …?
Young Brandon Blake thinks becoming a cop will be his ticket to a world of right and wrong, good and evil. Turns out to be true but they’re all jumbled up. Friend or foe? Perp or victim? Pull the trigger or hold your fire? You’ve got two seconds to answer the question: Who can you trust? Answer wrong and the game’s over. That was the pitch. Book is PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
You sure that wouldn’t be the Devil? I’d have to say the writing. Going without would gnaw at me and numbing that ache would lead me to very bad habits.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Lyrical, spare, honest. At least that’s the goal. Oh, that blank screen. No getting away with anything ...

Gerry Boyle’s PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE is available on Kindle.

On Putting The ‘Ooooo’ Into Spooks

It’s a little early for Halloween, but if you’re in Dublin city centre next Thursday night, October 20th, you can get a jump on the festival of ghosts, spooks and ghouls in the first of the National Library of Ireland’s ‘Autumn Chillers & Thrillers’ series in the company of the Dark Lord, aka John Connolly (right). To wit:

Autumn Chillers & Thrillers

Many of Ireland’s hottest chiller, thriller and crime writers will feature in a new series of public interviews at the National Library of Ireland beginning later this month.

  On Thursday, October 20th, 2011 at 8pm, leading crime writer John Connolly, whose series of Charlie Parker novels has a strong supernatural dimension, will host ‘An Evening of Ghost Stories’ with Dr. Darryl Jones, Head of the School of English at Trinity College Dublin, where he was founding director of the postgraduate programme in Popular Literature. Dr. Jones’ definitive scholarly edition of THE COLLECTED GHOST STORIES OF MR JAMES, the foremost writer of ghost stories in English, will be published by Oxford University Press next month.

  Sounds like the good stuff, alright, although I’d quibble with the ‘strong supernatural dimension’ description - lately, or so it seems to me, John Connolly has refined the supernatural aspect of his earlier Charlie Parker novels, so that he’s now using the gothic tropes to go after a far more profound effect. There’s a scene in THE BURNING SOUL in which Charlie Parker comes downstairs in the middle of the night to find his TV on, cartoons playing, this in the midst of pursuing a case in which a young girl has been abducted. It’s a chilling piece of writing, certainly, but what it suggested to me was that Connolly wasn’t simply invoking ghosts and suchlike, but going after a far more subtle quality, attempting - successfully, in my opinion - to verbalise a sense of otherworldliness that is neither supernatural nor religious, although you could argue that it has a spiritual dimension. Maybe that’s just me, and maybe I should lay off the Kool-Aid while reading John Connolly, but I honestly think that viewing such aspects of his work, particularly over the last three or four novels, simply as ‘supernatural’ is to miss out on a far more delicate process of investigation that lies somewhere between a rationalising philosophy and an instinctive grasping after the ineffable.
  Anyway, next Thursday is the first of a series of ‘Autumn Chillers and Thrillers’ events planned by the National Library of Ireland. The second will take place on November 20th, and feature Gene Kerrigan, while the third takes place on December 15th, and will feature Alex Barclay, Arlene Hunt and your humble host. More details on those closer to the time. For all the details and booking information for next Thursday’s event, clickety-click here …

ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL: Destined To Become A Cult Classic, Apparently

You’ll forgive me again for indulging myself (again), I hope, but it’s been another fine week for ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL, with a number of flattering reviews popping up on the world wide web. First off, Kevin McCarthy - a very fine author in his own right - was good enough to take the time to post his thoughts to Amazon, in the latest five-star review for said tome. To wit:

“ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL is that rarest of things - a novel that makes you stop and think and scramble to finish at the same time … I generally cannot abide novels about men (it’s always men) writing novels, but ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL takes that tired premise, shoves a tank of Silene gas right up its you-know-what and sets the detonator. A novel of ideas as well as a first-rate thriller, ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL sees Burke stretching the crime thriller genre until it snaps and then sewing it back together with some of the finest prose and funniest dialogue you’ll encounter this year. I can’t recommend this book enough. Destined to be a cult classic.” - Kevin McCarthy

  I thank you kindly, sir. And then there was Marleen, over at More Than A Reading Journal:

“I know I’ve said it before, but this is most definitely a book unlike any I’ve read in the past … All the blurbs about this book describe it as being “laugh-out-loud funny”, “full of the blackest humour” and “outrageously funny”. I, however, didn’t get the humour in this book. I found the story to be original, disturbing, thought-provoking and inventive.” - Marleen, More Than A Reading Journal

  Funny, schmunny, right?
  Finally, uber-blogger and short story writer Paul D Brazill gave AZC a fair wind and calm seas over at Mean Streets, the gist running thusly:

“ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL is in the same capable hands that created the classic comic crime double header of THE BIG O and CRIME ALWAYS PAYS. The hands of a master storyteller. And with those hands, Declan Burke has crafted an exciting, hilarious, thoughtful and moving story that will surely stand up to - and deserve - a lot of re-reading. I’ve read a lot of cracking novels this year but ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL is my favourite. And it could well be yours, too.” - Paul D Brazill, Mean Streets

  As if all that wasn’t enough - and really, when is enough ever enough - there were also a couple of very nice mentions for DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS, the first coming courtesy of Laura Root at Euro Crime:

“DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS is an excellent, varied collection of essays and short stories, looking at Irish crime fiction in both its historical and present day context, with much of interest to anyone interested in modern day Ireland and its cultural life. It is very much a book to dip into, rather than to read straight through in one setting. The authors by and large convey their wealth of knowledge in a highly readable, enjoyable style, and it's a great idea to include short stories in this compilation, as a nice counterpoint to the various analyses of Irish fiction.” - Laura Root, Euro Crime

  We thank you kindly, ma’am. And Jon L. Breen at Mystery Scene Magazine was also impressed, his review kicking off in a vein like this:

“This is one of the most entertaining, informative, and critically astute recent books on crime and mystery fiction, all from an Irish point of view and written in variants of that eloquent and melodic national prose style.” - Jon L. Breen, Mystery Scene Magazine

  So there you have it. ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL and DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS - good vibes all round, and yours truly set up for a very pleasant weekend indeed. I sincerely hope yours is just as good …

On Galvinising The Irish Publishing Industry

Crikey, but Vincent Browne is a busy man, these days. Not content with running a media empire and persecuting the presidential candidates on TV, he’s also opened what appears to be a sideline in launching books. Last week he did the honours for Tom Galvin’s GABRIEL’S GATE; tomorrow evening, Friday October 14th, he’ll be at the Guinness Storehouse to officially launch Gerry Galvin’s KILLER A LA CARTE. The Big Question: is Vincent Browne on a one-man mission to (koff) galvinise the Irish publishing industry? Answers on used, non-sequential notes to the usual address, please …

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Lee Child

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

Forgetful Editor’s Note: I met with Lee Child (right) yesterday afternoon, to interview him about his latest novel, THE AFFAIR, and a very interesting conversation it was, too. In fact, the only bum notes were when he referred to knowing me, and my work, on a couple of occasions during the chat. Afterwards, not wanting to break the flow during the interview, I pointed out that he was confusing me with my bete noire, Declan Hughes. No, he said, it was Declan Burke he meant; he knew of me through Crime Always Pays, and had in fact filled in a Q&A for the blog last year. Which suggests, if there was ever any doubt about it, that Lee Child is far more professional, and significantly more a gentleman, than yours truly. As a form of penance, then, I hereby reprint said Q&A. To wit:

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
Either THE DAMNED AND THE DESTROYED by Kenneth Orvis, or DADDY by Loup Durand, or THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS by Thomas Harris. In the same way that people who like a) skiing and b) skateboarding and c) wearing baggy clothes invented snowboarding, I try to use the planetary pulls of those three novels to create my own orbit. Which will be completely incomprehensible to anyone who has actually read my books, but that’s what’s happening in my head.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Little John from the Robin Hood legend. Cheerful, tough, and a bit thick.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Barbara Taylor Bradford, and multi-generational sagas in general. Especially about rags to riches and long-delayed revenge by wronged girls.

Most satisfying writing moment?
Generally or specifically? Generally, when I’ve got the first couple thousand words down, and I can sense the story stretching ahead, and I haven’t screwed it up yet. Specifically, the end of the first chapter in PERSUADER. Even I was excited.

The best Irish crime novel is …?
I’m half-Irish myself, and therefore half-entitled to feel that Irishness can work just as well - or even better - out there in the diaspora, maybe a generation or two from the auld sod itself, where all its doom and boneheaded cussedness and fatalism and stoicism and tribalism stands in stark relief against a more neutral setting. So, MYSTIC RIVER by Dennis Lehane. Or, if you insist on an Irish writer with Irish characters in Ireland, I liked IN THE WOODS by Tana French a lot. But it wasn’t essentially Irish, was it? Could have worked in Manchester or Baltimore or Sydney or Christchurch. So how about THE BIG O by Declan Burke?

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
MYSTIC RIVER, see above. And it was a fine movie.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Anyone who has had another job knows there’s nothing bad about it. Best? It’s all good.

The pitch for your next book is …?
Find out if Jack Reacher survived 61 HOURS.

Who are you reading right now?
An ARC of BROKEN by Karin Slaughter.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
If God appears I’ll have a whole lot more to worry about than that. Like revising a whole lot of assumptions. Or complaining to my dealer. But - I would choose reading, of course. I like reading other people’s stuff a thousand times better than typing out my own crap.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Good enough, sometimes.

Lee Child’s THE AFFAIR is published by Bantam Press.

Tombstone Blues

A tale of two covers, no less. I wasn’t the only one to be a tad underwhelmed by the early artwork for Ken Bruen’s latest Jack Taylor novel, HEADSTONE (see below), but thankfully Jack has got the kind of cover he deserves - the previous offering looked like some kind of refugee from the 1950’s, as designed by someone high on diddley-aye. Not that we ever judge a book by its cover (koff), but these things do matter.
  Anyhoo, what’s between the covers is far more important, and HEADSTONE has enough of the good stuff to impress the Philly Inquirer. To wit:

Acclaimed Irish crime writer Ken Bruen has won numerous awards for his hard-charging, dark thrillers, which have been translated into ten languages. In Headstone, an elderly priest is nearly beaten to death and a special-needs boy is brutally attacked. Evil has many guises and Jack Taylor has encountered most of them. But nothing before has ever truly terrified him until he confronts an evil coterie named Headstone, who have committed a series of random, insane, violent crimes in Galway, Ireland. Most would see a headstone as a marker of the dead, but this organization seems like it will act as a death knell to every aspect of Jack’s life. Jack’s usual allies, Ridge and Stewart, are also in the line of terror. An act of appalling violence alerts them to the sleeping horror, but this realization may be too late, as Headstone barrels along its deadly path right to the centre of Jack’s life and the heart of Galway. A terrific read from a writer called “a Celtic Dashiell Hammett,” HEADSTONE is an excellent addition to the Jack Taylor series. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

  Meanwhile, Ken is interviewed over at The Atlantic, a piece worth clickety-clicking to get to only for the sight of Ken Bruen in full-on Nosferatu mode. If HEADSTONE is half as gothic as the pic, it’ll be a right royal horror. The interview, by the way is titled, ‘Irish Crime Writer Ken Bruen on Alcoholism, Sick Priests and Neo-Nazis’. Herewith be a flavour:

I think readers who have a sentimental view of Ireland are a bit shocked to find out how corrupt the clergy in your novels are. Are you exaggerating there?

“When I began THE GUARDS, around 2000, the clergy were still bullet-proof, but as I wrote THE MAGDALEN MARTYRS (2003), scandals were becoming known. More and more horrors emerged. I know personally many who suffered from them. Even now—even now!—they still cover up, lie, obstruct, and their arrogance is truly appalling. I know some great priests, and they suffer due to the sheer grandiosity of the leaders of the church. (But) the scum of the earth, the child molesters, still remain largely unpunished and unnamed. There are people who refuse to believe the horrendous truth, and when PRIEST (2006) came out, a women spat on me in the main street.”

  For the rest, clickety-click here …

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Tom Phelan

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier. Written long before all the modern digital props became available to modern writers, this is a book to sink into a very soft mattress with and to be savoured for story, language, and ingenuity.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Jim Hawkins in TREASURE ISLAND [by Robert Louis Stevenson]. God, the excitement when I was twelve. Long John Silver, Billy Bones, Black Dog, Hispaniola, the sails, the wind in the rigging, pieces of eight, the map, all the very evil and terrifying pirates, the ever-present danger …

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Mystery novels. Once I begin one I do not put it down. They are a sinful distraction and should be banned. All mystery writers should be taken up in the Rapture along with their books.

Most satisfying writing moment?
Blocked, I decided to write out a joke I’d heard from a priest in an elevator in Mineola in New York. As I wrote, new characters appeared and the joke lasted for three chapters. By that time a story had taken shape, and it became my first published novel, IN THE SEASON OF THE DAISIES.

The best Irish crime novel is…?
I’ve spent my life being modest, supposedly because it’s a virtue. I’m 70 now and it’s time for me to commit the cardinal sin of pride. My latest novel, NAILER, of course, is the best Irish crime novel.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Again, let me take pleasure in a terrible sin. NAILER would make a great movie. I’m waiting for Godot to call me from Hollywood but he’s probably waiting for something to happen first.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst is the self-doubt (who out there gives a damn?). Best is when I read back over what I have written and cannot remember having written some of it, and it’s good.

The pitch for your next book is…?
After many years, two emigrants return to their native Irish village, one from India, one from the U.S. Both are insufferable elitists. The village people, always divided along religious lines, come together to conceal what befalls the two interlopers. The novel is called LIES.

Who are you reading right now?
THE FOURTH BOOK OF RABELAIS and THE BURDEN OF PROOF by Scott Turow. Rabelais for the language, the analogies, and his wonderful scatology; Turow to give me a break from mining Rabelais’s now (generally) forgotten 16th-century references.

God appears and says you can only write or read. Which would it be?
Read. All those wonderful books and so little time, as some basketball player said about blondes. I could read dozens of books a year, but it takes me at least a year to write one.

The three best words to describe your own writing are…?
Leaving myself vulnerable and naked to critics, I immodestly and trepidatiously declare that my own writing is funny, poetic, and unflinching.

Tom Phelan’s NAILER is published by Glanvil Press.

We Have Nothing To Fear But The Fear Index Itself

I sometimes wish that I hated my job. That I’d come home in the evening fairly simmering with resentment, ready to pound all the anger and rage out of my system, taking it out on the keyboard first, and then the characters created. Rage, I think, makes for the most interesting stories.
  Unfortunately for my writing prospects, I like my job. Some days I love it. Last Friday being a case in point, during the course of which I legitimately spent two hours watching a good movie (‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’), an hour or so reading a good book (THE AFFAIR by Lee Child), and an hour or so chatting about books and writing with Robert Harris, whilst interviewing him to mark the publication of his latest offering, THE FEAR INDEX (which is very good indeed). He was a nice guy: urbane, modest, self-deprecating to a fault. I don’t know, if I ever became rich and famous through writing, I think I’d be an egomaniacal prick.
  Actually, as all Three Regular Readers already know, I am an egomaniacal prick. All I need now is the wealth and fame. Don’t hold your breath …
  Anyway, my short review of THE FEAR INDEX appeared on Saturday in the Irish Times, along with reviews of Sophie Hannah’s LASTING DAMAGE, Liza Marklund’s EXPOSED, and Jon Steele’s THE WATCHERS, along with a quick review of the Len Wanner-edited DEAD SHARP, which is a series of interviews conducted with Scottish crime writers including Ian Rankin, Allan Guthrie, Louise Welch, Paul Johnston and Karen Campbell. The review of THE FEAR INDEX runs thusly:

Robert Harris is renowned for his historical novels, although his eighth offering, THE FEAR INDEX (Hutchinson, £10.99), could hardly be more contemporary and relevant. Set in Geneva, in the world of high finance, it centres on Dr Alexander Hoffman, who was once a prodigy at Cern but who has since learned to adapt his scientific theories to profit from the world’s trading markets. The novel opens with a break-in at Hoffman’s mansion, with Harris establishing a tone of paranoia that quickly escalates, as Hoffman’s persecution by an anonymous enemy increases in tandem with the collapse of the global economy. It sounds perverse to describe THE FEAR INDEX as an old-fashioned techno-thriller, but while the computer-based, self-generating algorithms Harris describes are at the cutting edge of technology, the theme itself is old, dating back to when primitive man first picked up a stone and realised the double-edged potential of a weapon. Harris writes with a deceptively languid elegance, so that the novel straddles not only the crime and sci-fi genres but also that of literary fiction. A satisfying read on a number of levels, it is strongest as a character study of a man who discovers, pace Hemingway, the true meaning of the phrase “grace under pressure”.

For the rest, clickety-click here …

A Childish Sense Of Humour

Lee Child doesn’t have much of a reputation for being a funny writer. For all his various talents, no one has ever said to me, ‘Hey, that Lee Child, he’s hilarious.’ But I don’t know. I’m reading THE AFFAIR right now, and maybe it’s just me, but I’m finding Jack Reacher’s deadpan, laconic delivery very funny indeed. To wit:

I finished my breakfast before I spoke again. French toast, maple syrup, coffee. Protein, fibre, carbohydrates. And caffeine. All the essential food groups, except nicotine, but I had already quit by then. I put my silverware down and said, ‘There’s really only one obvious way to cut a woman’s throat …’ (pg 88)

  Like I say, maybe it’s just me.
  Anyway, Lee Child will be in Dublin this coming Wednesday, October 12th, to promote THE AFFAIR. I’ll be sitting down with him for an interview, which is something I’m looking forward to very much, but he’s also doing a few public appearances. He’ll be in the Dubray bookstore on Grafton Street at 1pm, for signings and a chat, and later that evening he’ll be taking part in a public interview at Eason’s on O’Connell Street, the event kicking off at 7.30pm.
  Incidentally, if you haven’t dipped into Lee Child yet, THE AFFAIR would be a good place to start. It’s a prequel-of-sorts, being set in 1997, six months before the first Jack Reacher novel, KILLING FLOOR, and - or so I surmise, being only halfway through at this point - explains how Jack Reacher, currently an undercover MP investigating the murder of a young woman in a Mississippi town, became a loner-drifter.
  Of course, I’m probably preaching to the choir on this one …

More Power To His Elbow

Kevin Power’s BAD DAY IN BLACKROCK (2008) is a very fine novel, and one in the mould of Eoin McNamee in that it fictionalises a real-life event, getting under the skin of the newspaper headlines - and boy, were there headlines. In essence, the story Power tells is one of the Celtic Tiger’s cubs at lethal play, yet it prefigures the economic bust in the way it investigates how, in Ireland, your socio-economic position dictates how severely you will be punished if and when you transgress. Then again, what’s the point of being rich and powerful if you can’t bend the rules once in a while? Quoth the blurb elves:

On a late August night a young man is kicked to death outside a Dublin nightclub and celebration turns to devastation. The reverberations of that event, its genesis and aftermath, are the subject of this extraordinary story, stripping away the veneer of a generation of Celtic cubs, whose social and sexual mores are chronicled and dissected in this tract for our times. The victim, Conor Harris, his killers - three of them are charged with manslaughter - and the trial judge share common childhoods and schooling in the privileged echelons of south Dublin suburbia. The intertwining of these lives leaves their afflicted families in moral free fall as public exposure merges with private anguish and imploded futures.

  The excellent Irish director Lenny Abrahamson is currently filming BAD DAY IN BLACKROCK, which will appear on our screens next year as ‘What Richard Did’, courtesy of Element Pictures, whose most recent production was the black comedy ‘The Guard’. To wit:

Element Pictures are delighted to announce that Principal Photography begins this week on Lenny Abrahamson’s new film ‘What Richard Did’. Set in present-day Dublin, the story follows a group of privileged teens over the course of the summer after they leave school, focusing in particular on Richard, a popular sports star, whose life is changed forever after a senseless act of violence. ‘What Richard Did’ is directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Adam & Paul, Garage, Prosperity), written by Malcolm Campbell (Skins, Shameless), produced by Ed Guiney and executive produced by Andrew Lowe both of Element Pictures (‘The Guard’, ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’). It is loosely based on Kevin Powers award winning 2008 novel Bad Day at Blackrock. The film stars an ensemble of young Irish actors including Jack Reynor, Sam Keeley and Roisin Murphy as well as established talent including Lorraine Pilkington and Lars Mikkelsen (star of the Danish hit series, ‘The Killing’). The film will shoot in and around Dublin and Wicklow for five weeks and is backed by the Irish Film Board and Element Pictures.

  I’m looking forward to this one in a big way. Lenny Abrahamson made the best Irish movie of the last decade with the pitch-black comedy ‘Adam & Paul’, and it’ll be intriguing to see what he does with Power’s source material. We’ll keep you posted …

The Moon, My Butt, And Other Very Big Issues That Occasionally Block Out The Sun

I do understand that e-publishing is proving a very liberating option for many writers, and that some are doing very well indeed from e-only publishing. What I don’t understand is why JA Konrath & Co insist on polarising the issue, and pitch it is as books vs e-books, with winner take all. Isn’t it possible for a writer (and his or her publisher) to accommodate those who like to read books and those who prefer to read on an electronic device? Seems like the simplest solution to me.
  One thing I don’t like about the debate is the way the e-evangelists are delighting in the prospects of dancing on the grave of traditional publishing. Your opinion on ‘gatekeepers’ et al notwithstanding, the decline of traditional publishing will see a lot of jobs to go the wall, and a lot of talented people out of work. Is that really something to celebrate, just so that we can pay $0.99 to read THE MOON, MY BUTT, AND OTHER VERY BIG ISSUES THAT OCCASIONALLY BLOCK OUT THE SUN?
  Anyway, the latest missive from the Dark Lord, aka John Connolly, offers his thoughts on the same subject. To wit:

“It’s one of the reasons why I find myself growing increasingly angry with those of my peers who seem to have divested themselves of any loyalty to bricks-and-mortar bookstores in favour of a rush to solely electronic publishing, too ignorant to even be ashamed to use phrases like “dead tree publishing” or “legacy publishing” about the beauty and usefulness of a printed book. Hey, guys and gals: those bookstores, chains and independents, that you’ve apparently abandoned to their fate were the making of you all, and you were very willing to badger their owners into stocking your books when they were the only game in town. I’m as happy as anyone to take my royalties on e-book sales, and I’m grateful to the companies that distribute me in that form, but I firmly believe that electronic publishing and printed books can co-exist in our brave new world, and I’d dearly like to see bookstores survive to take their place in that world, because it will be a poorer, coarser place without them. End of lesson.”

  Meanwhile, Conor Fitzgerald reviewed John Connolly’s THE BURNING SOUL for the Irish Times a couple of weekends ago, when he had this to say about Connolly’s narrative style:

“THE BURNING SOUL opens with a filmic bird’s-eye view of the setting, thanks to the presence of some ravens on loan from Edgar Allan Poe. Connolly confidently guides us into their malevolent little minds, then it’s up into the cold air again, down into a car and then into a character’s mind in a blending of first-person narration and omniscience that is reminiscent of Dickens. Indeed, as the epigraph of this book consists of an excerpt from GREAT EXPECTATIONS, I am confident that Connolly knows exactly what he is doing and how much he is risking, which, for me, is the mark of a highly accomplished writer now beginning to explore the limits of his chosen form.” - Conor Fitzgerald, the Irish Times

  Dickens, no less. For the rest, clickety-click here …