Shssssh, It’s John Connolly

THE WHISPERERS, as most sentient creatures in the known universe will be aware, is the latest John Connolly novel, and is due to be released - according to Amazon, at least - on May 13th. Mind you, such dates are often moveable feasts, and the earlier you can get your hands on the latest Connolly, the better. Happily, the Gutter Bookshop in Temple Bar will be hosting the launch of THE WHISPERERS on April 21st, with the details running thusly:

Wednesday 21st April – 6.30pm until 8.30pm
Book Launch for THE WHISPERERS by John Connolly
Venue: The Gutter Bookshop

We’re thrilled that bestselling Irish crime writer John Connolly has chosen the Gutter Bookshop to launch ‘The Whisperers’, his new thriller featuring Charlie Parker. Do come along on the night to meet John and to get a copy of the novel personally signed - a treat indeed! If you can’t make it on the night but would like to reserve a signed copy, please drop us a line at the shop and we will arrange this for you. (Note - if you would like a personalised dedication we will require prepayment but are happy to organise this.)

  Meanwhile, the blurb elves have this to say:

Charlie Parker returns in the chilling new thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of THE LOVERS. The border between Maine and Canada is porous. Anything can be smuggled across it: drugs, cash, weapons, people. Now a group of disenchanted former soldiers has begun its own smuggling operation, and what is being moved is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men’s hearts. But the soldiers’ actions have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other, the killer known as the Collector …

  Incidentally, the Gutter Bookshop also hosted Arlene Hunt’s launch for BLOOD MONEY a couple of weeks back. Is the store set to become a hub for all things Irish crime fictional, and take on the role that the sadly lamented Murder Ink really should have? Only time, that notoriously doity rat, will tell …
  Finally, that Arts Lives documentary on John Connolly is available on RTE’s iPlayer until tomorrow, April 13th. Clickety-click here for more …

Appy Bird-Day To Daggy; and John Connolly Goes Posh

This morning I woke to breakfast in bed (well, coffee) served by the Lovely Ladies (right) and a rousing rendition of ‘Appy bird-day to Daggy’ courtesy of the Princess Lilyput. I may never have a finer morning again. I’ll leave the existential ruminations on turning 41 to another day, and just say ta kindly to everyone who’s been in touch with good wishes. Much obliged, folks.
  Meanwhile, a rare birthday treat awaits me later tonight, when the Dark Lord, aka John Connolly, is the subject of an Arts Lives documentary on RTE TV. Swish stuff – surely it’s only a matter of time before Connolly is elected to (koff) Aosdána. Anyway, I’ve seen the trailer, in which Connolly claims that evil exists, not as an entity but as the absence of empathy, which is a fascinating concept, and Connolly’s natural gift as a raconteur suggests that the documentary could well be a cracker. Quoth the blurb elves:

Shot in Dublin, Maine, Baltimore and Washington, John Connolly: Of Blood and Lost Things traces 40-year-old Connolly’s literary trajectory from jobbing freelance with The Irish Times newspaper to publishing superstardom on the sale of his first novel, Every Dead Thing, which launched his flawed protagonist, P.I., Charlie (Bird) Parker. The roots of the novel and its location go back some years to his coverage for the Irish Times of the murder of Sri Lankan prostitute Belinda Perreira in Dublin and a student summer spent in Portland, Maine … Featuring dramatised readings from his work John Connolly: Of Blood and Lost Things examines the sense of place and atmosphere in Connolly’s work but also includes a biographical narrative of his Dublin childhood and journey toward becoming a writer. The documentary features interviews with iconic American crime writer George Pelecanos; David Simon, creator of TV’s The Wire; American novelist and friend Laura Lippman, and fellow Irish crime writer Declan Hughes.

  Nice. The documentary goes out at 10:15pm tonight (Tuesday) on RTE1; if you happened to miss it, it’ll be available on the RTE iPlayer for three weeks after the broadcast date. Enjoy …

UPDATE: John Connolly’s THE GATES has just been nominated for the Bisto Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year, with Bob ‘No Relation’ Burke’s THE THIRD PIG DETECTIVE AGENCY nestling in there snugly too. Nice one, chaps ...