A hundred shades of emerald: Down These Green Streets

Down These Green Streets, newly published by Liberties Press under the editorship of Detectives Beyond Borders friend Declan Burke, bears an ambitious, ambiguous subtitle: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century.

Is this a book of Irish crime writing, or is it about Irish crime writing?  It's both, plus memoir, interview,  criticism, literary and film history, and a useful reading list, and that's just on my first dip into the book. Oh, and the collection does not confine itself to the 20th century, either. Early highlights:

• Ruth Dudley Edwards' evocation of Liam O'Flaherty. You'll want to read O'Flaherty if you haven't already.
• Declan Hughes on Irish identity and America's place in it.
• Alan Glynn on the Irish literary crime novel. (That's right, "literary crime novel." Glynn is the only person I know of who can use that phrase without making me wish I were somewhere else.) He'll make you want to read The Third Policeman, The Book of Evidence, and The Butcher Boy if you haven't already.
• Arlene Hunt on coming to terms with a violent world.

Stuart Neville offers a tear-jerking punch in the gut of a  story called "The Craftsman," and Ken Bruen has an emotional Jack Taylor piece I can't discuss objectively because I knew the main character.

© Peter Rozovsky 2011

What I saw on my vacation

(At right, Carrickfergus Castle, Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. Built by John de Courcy, c. 1178-1190/95; additional construction thirteenth, fourteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, nineteenth centuries.)

(At left, Joymount Arms pub, Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. Operated by sister of noted crime writer Adrian McKinty. Guinness ordered c. 12:35; lunch finished c. 13:08.)

And a blush of thanks to the excellent Arlene Hunt, who referred to me on her blog as "the terrifically bearded Peter Rozovsky." Ms. Hunt, you are a credit to your profession and your country.

© Peter Rozovsky 2008