Wednesday 23 September 2009

New Dublin Noir


WINTERLAND

Alan Glynn

5 November 2009, £12.99 original paperback

A gripping thriller set in the Dublin underworld of hitmen, big business and government corruption.

The worlds of business, politics and crime collide in contemporary Dublin when two men with the same name, from the same family, die on the same night - one death is a gangland murder, the other, apparently, a road accident. Was it a coincidence? That’s the official version of events. But when a family member, Gina Rafferty, starts asking questions, this notion quickly unravels.

Devastated by her loss, Gina’s grief is tempered, and increasingly fuelled, by anger - because the more she hears that it was all a coincidence, that gangland violence is commonplace, that people die on our roads every day of the week, the less she’s prepared to accept it.

Told repeatedly that she should stop asking questions, Gina becomes more determined than ever to find out the truth, to establish a connection between the two deaths - but in doing so she embarks on a path that will push certain powerful people to their limits...

'Winterland sets a dramatically high benchmark for emerald noir. With all the operatic inevitability of Greek tragedy, it anatomises what greed has done to Ireland . A resonant, memorable and uncomfortable read.' Val McDermid

‘Both a crime novel and a portrait of contemporary Ireland caught at a moment of profound change, Winterland seems set to mark Alan Glynn as the first literary chronicler of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. Timely, topical, and thrilling, this is Ireland as it truly is.’ John Connolly

‘Clever and intense; a dark and powerful slice of Dublin noir. I loved it!’ R. J. Ellory

‘A terrific read … completely involving.’ George Pelecanos

‘This is the colossus of Irish crime fiction, what Mystic River did for Dennis Lehane, Winterland should do for Alan Glynn, it is a noir masterpiece, the bar against which all future works will be judged.’ Ken Bruen

‘A thrilling novel of suspense from a new prose master.’ Adrian McKinty

Alan Glynn is a graduate of Trinity College , where he studied English Literature, and has worked in magazine publishing in New York and as an EFL teacher in Italy . His first novel, The Dark Fields, was published in the US in 2002. He is married with two children and lives in Dublin .

2 comments:

Tales from the Birch Wood. said...

Thank you for such an interesting preview of "Winterland".

Alan Glynn is getting quite a bit of attention at the moment.

I have blogged about your blog and am very interested by the number of Irish writers who have taken to writing thrillers.

Have you any idea what might have spurred this creative urge?

Gerard Brennan said...

TFTBW - I imagine the Winterland attention will continue to snowball. And deservedly so.

I'll stop by your blog for a nosy soon.

I've a few ideas on what spurred the urge. Too many to do justice in a quick comment. But among them I'd count the recession, a thriving criminal underworld, a shift in focus from the Troubles... Creativity will always thrive in conditions of change as a way of understanding a new situation, I guess.

Cheers

gb