I'm dead cultured, me...

My review of Adrian McKinty's Falling Glass is now up at Culture NI.

You can also read a feature on the very spiffy site in which Adrian chats about his previous novel, Fifty Grand, making the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year long list.

Four Irish writers on that list this year, which is a fantastic representation on the great work coming out of this island. Huge congrats to Adrian McKinty, Stuart Neville, Alan Glynn and William Ryan. Peruse the list here.

Open Season by C.J. Box -- A Thought or Three

I've just finished reading Open Season by C.J. Box. Corvus are part way through a mass release of Box's titles and I'm a few months behind... but after reading the first in the Joe Pickett series, I wish I'd picked it up sooner.

For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, I did not expect to enjoy this book. Maybe the story just seemed quite alien to my own experiences. Plus I've drenched myself in Northern Irish crime fiction for the last few years. Could be I've fashioned myself a pair of literary blinkers, so it's probably a very good thing that I've gone for something completely different this time.

The story follows Pickett, a game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, who is thrown into the ordeal of his life after a man who once terribly embarrassed him in the line of duty, arrives in the middle of the night and dies from gunshot wounds in Joe Pickett's backyard. Pickett fixates on the fact that his visitor, Ote, carried with him an empty cooler. Well, not quite empty. He finds some small droppings that he, a man of nature, can't identify and his imagination is captured. From this point the conspiracy begins to untangle. Pickett must face many challenges, both physical and emotional, in an attempt to do the right thing and protect his family.

The most appealing aspect of this novel, to me, is the depth of Joe Pickett's character. C.J. Box gives us an endearing protagonist with a strong set of morals and a few special skills that sets him apart from Joe Ordinary. However, Box also expertly implants a few flaws that will keep the reader in a constant state of worry. Joe has many "bone-head" moments that seem to bring him as much trouble as any of the sinister outside elements he encounters. It is impossible to dislike this character, though at times you can pity him a little too much. I'm interested in seeing how he develops throughout the rest of the series.

Another element of this novel that kept me turning pages is the otherworldliness of the setting. This was first published in 2001 and as such, mobile phone technology (to take one example) is pretty much absent (which at times heightens the tension). Also, Wyoming is a part of the world that I knew relatively little about before approaching this book. But after living in Joe Pickett's head for almost 300 pages, I feel like I've learned a little something about a society that is highly passionate about guns and seasonal hunting (hence the need for game wardens like Joe Pickett, I guess).

So, if you're looking for something altogether different, maybe Open Season, in the heart of a beautifully portrayed Wyoming, is the book for you this summer.

Friday, and I'm feeling good...

Cracking day, isn't it? But if, like me, you're stuck in the office for the next few hours, you could do worse than to check out a few of the notable reviews I've enjoyed this week.

Wayne Simmons on Somebody Owes Me Money by Donald E Westlake

Bookwitch on Falling Glass by Adrian McKinty

Culture NI on the experimental short film Unsound

And then there's this feature on e-publishing by Declan Burke.

But if you're outside, enjoying the sun, maybe sipping on a cool drink (alcohol optional), then more power to you. Come the fourth hour, I'm out of here. I'm only an hour away from home. Reckon there'll be time to lounge in the back garden with a Carlsberg for an hour or two before putting the kids to bed... Bliss.

Best of the Brits (and a few Irish)

Today's the official release date of The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 8. And they're flogging it on Amazon for a measly £5.11 in paperback... And what are you getting for this sum? Here's the official info from the publisher's website:

Over 35 new short stories from the UK's leading crime writers. The must-have annual anthology for every crime fiction fan – the year’s top new British short stories selected by leading crime critic Maxim Jakubowski.

This great annual covers the full range of mystery fiction, from noir and hardboiled crime to ingenious puzzles and amateur sleuthing. Packed with top names such as: Ian Rankin (including a new Rebus), Alexander McCall Smith, David Hewson, Christopher Brookmyre, Simon Kernick, A.L. Kennedy, Louise Walsh, Kate Atkinson, Colin Bateman, Stuart McBride and Andrew Taylor.

The full list of contributors is as follows: Ian Rankin, Mick Herron, Denise Mina, Edward Marston, Marilyn Todd, Kate Atkinson, Stuart MacBride, David Hewson, Alexander McCall Smith, Nigel Bird, Robert Barnard, Lin Anderson, Allan Guthrie, A.L. Kennedy, Simon Kernick, Roz Southey, Andrew Taylor, Sheila Quigley, Phil Lovesey, Declan Burke, Keith McCarthy, Christopher Brookmyre, Gerard Brennan, Matthew J. Elliott, Colin Bateman, Ray Banks, Simon Brett, Adrian Magson, Jay Stringer, Amy Myers, Nick Quantrill, Stephen Booth, Paul Johnston, Zoë Sharp, Paul D. Brazill, Peter Lovesey, Louise Welsh, Liza Cody, Peter Turnbull and Nicholas Royle.

So, come on now! Get your copy today, people. Click here.

Simmons on Faust

Wayne Simmons has plenty to say about Christa Faust's Money Shot over at the excellent Dark Central Station website. I've read (and recommended) this book so I'm delighted that it's struck a chord with Northern Ireland's answer to (a young) Stephen King. At the time I read it, baby Oscar had just arrived at the Brennan household and I was in no shape to be writing reviews. Luckily, I agree with everything Wayne Simmons says in his piece.

Will this foray into pulp fiction be enough to set the cogs whirring in Wayne's twisted mind? Maybe send him to some dark, pulpy places in his next project? I do hope so.

Enjoy the review!

It Takes Two to Eightball Boogie

This review was first posted on CSNI in November 2008, but since the book has recently been published in e-format for the first time, I figured it wouldn't hurt to fire it up again. Please excuse any dated references. gb

Mike Stone: Hiya, mate. I finished Declan Burke’s Eightball Boogie yesterday. Give it a day or two and the dust will have settled enough for me to do a write-up. Assuming you want one of course?

Gerard Brennan: Hey, man. Yeah, I could well use a review of Eightball Boogie. Thing is, I’ve only just read it myself. And I’m kind of in the mood to review it too. Not sure what to do. I like to get other opinions on CSNI when I can, but... hmmm, what say you?

MS: Well, I daresay you’re better qualified. I was going to prattle on about the banter – that for me was this novel’s signature. The story and characters were very good, but what raised the bar were the rapid one-liners and putdowns.

GB: Don’t know about my qualifications. I’m not much smarter than Burke’s protagonist, Harry Rigby. Wish I had his knack for one-liners though. As you say, they’re a defining feature of the novel. I didn’t do a formal count, but there has to be at least a couple of wisecracks on every page. I think Declan Burke mentioned in a recent blog that Rigby was one of the most autobiographical characters he’d ever written. Probably explains why he comes across as such a complete character. Wise mouth, cocky attitude, low self-esteem. If I ever meet Dec in person, I must give him a hug.

MS: Ah, you beat me to it. I was going to ask you if Dec’s anything like Harry Rigby. The dialogue – spoken and internal – just felt so natural. And there were sentences to die for. I’d give my eye-teeth to have written this one:

The shoes were Italian and suede because women look at your eyes first, shoes second, and I had eyes that made women take a long lingering look at my shoes.

You know when you asked visitors to CSNI to give you a page number and you’d recite a cracking piece of prose from Ken’s American Skin? I reckon you could do that with ­Eight Ball Boogie.

GB: And I reckon you’re right. Except as popular as that git Burke is on the blogosphere, I’d be inundated with comments if I did. I loved the book, but I’ve got a life, you know? 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. It was equally apparent in The Big O and A Gonzo Noir.

MS: You anticipate me again. PI Harry Rigby’s poking into the goings on of crooked auctioneers, bent cops and politicians on the make was bound to be complex -- and for the most part Declan handled it well -- but were you able to keep with it? Because I got a bit lost towards the end. I got the gist of it . . . I think. The problem for me, in part, was that rapid-fire narrative we talked about earlier. When it came to Rigby unpicking the double dealings and backstabbings, I could have done with more elaboration.

GB: Hmmm. Good point. Personally, I didn’t feel short-changed when it came to figuring out who did what. I went away with a clear enough idea of all that went on. I do think that he resolved an awful lot in a very short space of time, which might have made the book a little ending-heavy. Is that what you mean?

MS: Yeah, it became too dense for me, or I’m too dense for the ending, one or the other. I was determined to give it a five star review up until then. As it stands, I’d probably chip a point off for making me feel thick. Any idea if there’s a sequel. I want to see more of Harry Rigby. And how does Eight Ball Boogie stack up against The Big O?

GB: Ah, man. Great question, thanks. As you know, I’m a regular reader of Dec’s blog, Crime Always Pays. Not so long ago he mentioned Eightball Boogie and how the publisher (a now defunct imprint of Lilyput Press) passed on the opportunity to buy a second Harry Rigby novel from him. Publishers, eh? What do they know? So I know there is more to come from Harry Rigby, but when we’ll get to enjoy it is anybody’s guess. I’m hoping the recent success that The Big O has enjoyed will bring with it an opportunity for Dec to launch a whole series of Rigby novels, starting with a shiny new hardcover of Eight Ball Boogie, because (and this brings me on to the second part of your question) I think The Big O rocks, but Eight Ball Boogie has a bit of an edge on it. Right, listen. Which one of us is going to write this review, then?

MS: Well, you could always stick the heading “A Wee Review” above this exchange. I daresay that McKinty fellah will have a dig and call us the Chuckle Brothers, but I can live with that. To me!

GB: Sounds like a plan, you savvy devil. To you!

Best Week Ever!

Well, maybe not the best week ever. This kind of stuff doesn't surpass the births of three wonderful kids, or marrying the girl of your dreams in Cyprus (I'm a very lucky guy in the family department). But in terms of writing achievements, this is the kind of week that's up there alongside signing with my agent, Allan Guthrie, working with so many of my favourite writers as a co-editor, publishing a novella to Pulp Press and those ever-important nods from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in the form of SIAP awards.

This week I wrote 'The End' on a manuscript that's taken over a year to get close to right (from planning to writing), received my contributor copies of The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 8 and found out that Requiems for the Departed has been nominated for a Spinetingler Award. So frickin' sweet.


If you want to vote for Requiems for the Departed, click here.

If you want to pre-order The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, click here.

If you want to read a recent article about me and my writing, click here.

And as if things couldn't get any better, I've read the first few chapters of Adrian McKinty's Falling Glass today. Why the hell did I wait so long to crack open that one? Well, I'll tell you why. As with all of McKinty's books, I knew I wouldn't have been able to put it down once I started it. It was already hard enough to open that damn manuscript I was working on every night after the kids went to bed (every night? Really, Gerard? ed.). I didn't need to make it even easier to slack on it. (Shut up, ed. gb.)

Stuff I've Done

Hi guys

I'm updating my writing CV and if you have the time I'd like your opinion on how the statement below works (or doesn't, as the case may be). I also intend to use it on my horribly out of date linkedin profile which is why I'm happy enough to throw it up here for all and sundry to see.

All criticism welcome.

gb

GERARD BRENNAN

Representation – Allan Guthrie, Jenny Brown Associates

Personal Statement

In October 2006 I was selected to partake in the Belfast Creative Writers Network’s Mentoring Programme, and had the pleasure of working with the award-winning Northern Irish writer, Ian McDonald. He read a collection of my short stories and helped me improve each one over six one-to-one sessions.

Between 2007 and 2010, I have received awards from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (Support for the Individual Artist Programme) three times to assist me in completing three novels, THE WEE ROCKETS, SHOT and FINAL SCORE. I also received funding from Northern Ireland Screen through the Script Development scheme for my screenplay, THE POINT.

Morrigan Books commissioned me to co-edit a short story anthology. REQUIEMS FOR THE DEPARTED is a collection of crime fiction stories based on Irish Myths. It was released in June 2010.

In October 2010, I performed a short one man show at the Black Box in Belfast. The play was based on my short story, AN IRISH POSSESSION which was adapted for the stage by the director, Conor Maguire.

Among numerous short story publications my most prestigious to date is a place in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST BRITISH CRIME edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Constable and Robinson), released in April 2011.

DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS (Liberties Press), edited by Declan Burke, features my article on Northern Irish Crime fiction. This collection of essays, interviews and short fiction regarding Irish crime writing in the 21st century will be published in April 2011.

I have recently signed with Pulp Press to publish my novella, THE POINT (which my aforementioned screenplay is based on) and it is set for release in October 2011.

Emerald Noir - Val McDermid on Irish Crime Fiction

My "Irish Crime Fiction" Google alert has been pinging me with links to this listen again link all day.

Peace in Northern Ireland and the economic boom and bust in Southern Ireland have led to a recent rise in crime fiction.

Val McDermid looks at the way real life violence has been dealt with in the work of authors including Tana French, Eoin McNamee, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Stuart Neville and Declan Hughes. We meet David Torrans - whose bookstore in Belfast has been fictionalised in Colin Bateman's series of crime novels. Declan Burke - author of the blog Crime Always Pays - takes us on a tour of Dublin locations featured in crime novels from the modern Docklands offices which inspired Alan Glynn's novel Winterland to the hotels and shops of 1950s Dublin featured in the crime fiction of Booker winner John Banville - who writes under the name Benjamin Black.

I had a listen and enjoyed it very much. It's great that the Irish crime fiction movement has garnered this level of interest. Kudos to Val McDermid for her efforts.



If you listen to the show and your interest is piqued, there's a collection of crime fiction short stories that ties into it nicely. Requiems for the Departed features stories from Brian McGilloway, Stuart Neville, Arlene Hunt and Ken Bruen, to name just those who were mentioned in the programme. It was also blurbed by Colin Bateman, 'Taut, terrifying, terrific.' and reviewed by Declan Burke at Crime Always Pays. And it was launched at No Alibis. Could it be more Emerald? How about this...? It's stories are based on Irish mythology...



Why not give it a lash?



I've also come away from my listening experience with an unsettled feeling. It's about time I was finished with my latest novel-in-progress. If I can get this ending sorted out, it might stand a chance in the publishing world. The Irish crime fiction bar has been set extremely high, though. I'm beginning to worry that I might not reach it.

No Alibis Event - Robert Frickin' Crais!

(This event could well be sold out, but give Dave a call if you want to attend. You could catch a cancellation.)

No Alibis Bookstore is very pleased to announce that internationally-renowned crime novelist

Robert Crais-The Sentry

Fri March 4th 7pm

will be returning to Belfast to celebrate the launch of his new novel, THE SENTRY.

We are pleased to announce that the event will take place in the Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens Belfast.

Entrance to the event will be via the Stranmillis Road access, opposite Café Conor.

Robert Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. A native of Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and police officers. He purchased a secondhand paperback of Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister when he was fifteen, which inspired his lifelong love of writing, Los Angeles, and the literature of crime fiction.


After years of amateur film-making and writing short fiction, he journeyed to Hollywood in 1976 where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice, as well as numerous series pilots and Movies-of-the-Week for the major networks. He received an Emmy nomination for his work on Hill Street Blues.

He is most proud of his 4-hour NBC miniseries, Cross of Fire, which the New York Times declared:

"A searing and powerful documentation of the Ku Klux Klan’s rise to national prominence in the 20s."

Upon the death of his father in 1985, Crais was inspired to create Elvis Cole, using elements of his own life as the basis of the story. The resulting novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, won the Anthony and Macavity Awards and was nominated for the Edgar Award. It has since been selected as one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.


Elvis Cole’s readership and fan base grew with each new book, then skyrocketed in 1999 upon the publication of L. A. Requiem, which was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller . Booklist added, "This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre. The best books always land outside preset boundaries. A wonderful experience."

Crais followed with his first non-series novel, Demolition Angel, which was published in 2000 and featured former Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Technician Carol Starkey. Starkey has since become a leading character in the Elvis Cole series. In 2001, Crais published his second non-series novel, Hostage, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and was a world-wide bestseller. Additionally, the editors of Amazon.com selected Hostage as the #1 thriller of the year.

A film adaptation of Hostage was released in 2005, starring Bruce Willis as ex-LAPD SWAT negotiator Jeff Talley.

Elvis Cole returned in 2003 with the publication of The Last Detective, followed by the tenth Elvis Cole novel, The Forgotten Man, in 2005. Both novels explore with increasing depth the natures and characters of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. RC’s third stand-alone novel, The Two Minute Rule, was published in 2006, and was followed in 2007 by

The Watchman, the first novel in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series to feature Joe Pike in the title role.


The novels of Robert Crais have been published in 42 countries and are bestsellers around the world. Robert Crais is the 2006 recipient of the Ross Macdonald Literary Award.

Tickets for this event are available from No Alibis Bookstore, price £5.

Payment can be made with all major credit cards by calling 028-90-3019601.