Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Lean, green Irish crime-writing machines

In other news, Alan Glynn's Bloodland won top crime-fiction prize at the Irish Book Awards last week, topping a shortlist that included Absolute Zero Cool by Declan Burke and Benjamin Black's A Death in Summer.

The Burke and the Glynn are high-water marks of this or any other crime-fiction year. The only reason I hesitate to call each an uneasy monument of our uneasy time is that they're so much fun — sometimes angry or chilling fun, but fun nonetheless.
***
And to the reader hungry for more scraps of Adrian McKinty's forthcoming Cold Cold Ground, here's one:
"`School's off. I just heard it on the radio!' I yelled across to them.

"`Piss off ya pervert!' a seventeen-year-old slapper yelled back, flipping me the bird as she did so.

"I'm the bloody peelers, ya wee shite!' I thought about replying but when you're in an insult contest with a bunch of weans at 7:58 in the morning your day really is heading for the crapper."

All crime writing should be this much fun.

© Peter Rozovsky 2011

Labels: , , , , , , ,

20 Comments:

Blogger Photographe à Dublin said...

Great news and so well deserved.

We're all giddykippered here.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger seana graham said...

Bloodland is right up there at the top of the TBR pile.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

P à D, I have never been giddykippered, to my knowledge, but I shall try to correct the oversight. It's a fine word.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Seana, it belongs there, if not off the pile and in your hot little hands.

November 22, 2011  
Anonymous Ali said...

3 books for the price of one. I love it!

November 22, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Good value is more important than ever in today's economy.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger adrian mckinty said...

Ali

Happy now?

Peter

I gotta admit I kind of stole/homaged that line from a similar scene in Withnail And I.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger seana graham said...

Homaged. That's a good one. I'm going to remember that for my arsenel of defense should I ever get sued for plagiarism.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Arian. homaging a scene is all right, as long as you don't pastiche a whole lot of homages.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Seana, too many homages can lead to damages. I am glad you are aware of the potential legal repercussions attendant on those who cling to outmoded concepts of "originality."

November 22, 2011  
Blogger adrian mckinty said...

Peter

The scene directly before that one had more verisimilitude. The cows really did break out of the pasture and invade peoples gardens with amazing frequency.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I very much liked the cows as slow-moving, cud-chewing signs of disorder, but I didn't want to quote the whole book.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger adrian mckinty said...

Peter

Here's the Withnail scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYDlX49yUSI


God I love that movie.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Thanks. My youthful vocabulary is all the poorer for scrubbers and slappers not having been a part of it.

November 22, 2011  
Blogger Photographe à Dublin said...

For words, and lots of them, you cannot beat Hamlet.

"http://laburu.org/~alex/rants/challenging-the-view-of-hamlet-as-a-codependent/"

November 24, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Ye gods, did anyone ever really call Hamlet co-dependant? That reminds me of Seana's comment somewhere that today we could call Holden Caulfield an at-risk youth.

November 24, 2011  
Blogger Tales from the Birch Wood. said...

I expect that down the centuries Hamlet may have been called many things, notably by those forced to play him.

There are so many characters who seek closure...

"http://www.lyricsondemand.com/s/saltnpepalyrics/geeofficerkrupkelyrics.html"

November 25, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Geez, I suppose someone has said that he has passive-aggressive tendencies, too, and that Lady Macbeth was an enabler.

November 25, 2011  
Blogger Photographe à Dublin said...

The links between Withnail and Hamlet is worth further analysis.

I think that the jury is still out on Macbeth's missus.

November 26, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

She's not a bad femme fatale.

November 26, 2011  

Post a Comment

<< Home