|
Category: Stuart Neville
 It’s a pic-a-nic, Boo-Boo. If you do happen to be in the vicinity of the Electric Picnic this coming Saturday, September 4th, here’s a gentle reminder that the crème-de-la-crème of Irish crime writing (and one clot) will be yakking it up over at the Arts Council Literary Stage as part of the Mindfield offerings over the weekend. Yours truly is said clot, hosting a conversation between the inseparable Arlene Hunt and Declan Hughes (above right) and Gene Kerrigan about the books that inspired them to take reading and writing seriously when they were kids, so expect more than one reference to Enid Blyton. As for your humble host, and given the way the writing career isn’t exactly working out as anticipated, I’m planning on breaking out my radical ‘trapped-in-a-box’ mime...
Similar posts
 The latest of yours truly’s crime fiction review columns appeared in the Irish Times yesterday, featuring Stuart Neville, Tana French, Alan Furst, Karin Fossum, Ruth Rendell and James Patterson, among others. To wit: Lennon Takes the LeadIn the context of Northern Ireland, ‘collusion’ is an ugly word denoting state-sponsored murder during the Troubles. In COLLUSION (Harvill Secker, £12.99, pb), Stuart Neville takes pains to illustrate the extent to which collusion ‘worked all ways, all directions’, and continues do so in the murky world of covert operations. Belfast Detective Inspector Jack Lennon, a minor character from Neville’s debut THE TWELVE, takes the lead here as he investigates the fall-out from the slaughter that accrued when ex-paramilitary Gerry Fegan went on...
Similar posts
 A couple of dates for your crime fic diaries, folks. On September 4th, Irish crime writing takes to the stage at the Electric Picnic, when Declan Hughes, Arlene Hunt and Gene Kerrigan assemble to talk about the business of books and writing, with yours truly standing by to make sure they all colour inside the lines. The idea of the gig is to talk to crime writers about books in general, and not just crime writing, with each of the authors offering a couple of examples of the novels that first inspired them to start reading and writing … although there’s every chance, of course, that they will be crime novels. The first book I can remember having a profound impact on me was about a guy called Bill Badger, he was an actual badger who lived on a barge moored on a canal … I...
Similar posts
 Maybe it’s just me, but a chart of this writer’s writing life would probably look a lot like a seismograph during a quake hitting 7.2 on the Richter Scale, or a polygraph attached to Janet Evanovich during an interrogation during which she was asked if she really believed - like, seriously now - that four of her novels were worth an advance of fifty million dollars, or thereabouts. (What bugs me about the Evanovich demand for $50 million advance - I’ve never read any of her novels, so I’m in no position to say if she’s worth it, although it’s fair to say that you’d need thumbscrews to truly convince me - is that if she’d only asked for $49 million, there’d still have been a spare million left over to divide up between a thousand or so other writers, giving them not...
Similar posts
 ‘Jack Taylor’, the pilot for the movies based on Ken Bruen’s THE GUARDS, screened last night on TV3, and I have to say - reluctantly - that I don’t buy Iain Glen (above, left) in the lead. It doesn’t help that his faux-Irish accent wanders all over the map, but that’s not the biggest problem. The script, and particularly in the voice-overs, makes something whimsical of Jack Taylor’s fatalism. In the movie, Jack Taylor is a broth of a boy, prone to the odd eye-twinkle, a tough man to deal with if you push him too hard. In the novels, or in my reading of them at least, Jack Taylor is a dangerous bastard to know, a man fuelled on anger and Jameson, a man who is as hard as only the truly brittle can be, who know that just one more shove or punch or insult could...
Similar posts
 That cradle and lair of all things Irish crime fiction, Belfast’s No Alibis, hosts the official launch of Stuart Neville’s COLLUSION tomorrow, July 30th, with the details running thusly: No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to the launch party for Stuart Neville’s second novel, COLLUSION, on Friday 30th July at 6:30PM. Stuart Neville has been a musician, a composer, a teacher, a salesman, a film extra, a baker and a hand double for a well known Irish comedian, but is currently a partner in a successful multimedia design business in the wilds of Northern Ireland. COLLUSION is his second novel, the follow-up to the hugely successful and award winning THE TWELVE. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, THE TWELVE (aka THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST)...
Similar posts
 Aka, ‘Top O’ the World, Omagh’. Via the ever diligent Peter Rozovsky comes the news that feisty whippersnapper Ruth ‘Cuddly’ Dudley Edwards scooped the CWA Non-Fiction Dagger at Harrogate for her monumental work AFTERMATH: THE OMAGH BOMBING AND THE FAMILIES’ PURSUIT OF JUSTICE, and hearty congrats to her. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer lady. Word has it that Stuart Neville was on hand to manfully handle the obligatory jeroboam of champagne, and that a good night was had by all. Incidentally, I finished Stuart Neville’s COLLUSION during the week, and the good news is that it’s a better novel that his award-winning debut, THE TWELVE (aka THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST), which I remember Ruth Dudley Edwards praising to the skies for its compassion early last summer. Ah,...
Similar posts
 Des Kenny has long been one of Ireland’s most respected booksellers, and is still regarded as such, even if the iconic Kenny’s Bookshop in Galway is now largely a web-based business. The video below has Des Kenny waxing lyrical about Ken Bruen’s latest, THE DEVIL - Ken Bruen, of course, being only slightly less famous than the bay itself when it comes to Galway landmarks. I don’t know who shot the vid, so apologies for leaving out the credits … Roll it there, Collette: Incidentally, long ago, when I was still young and dynamic, and Ken Bruen was kind enough to launch my debut EIGHTBALL BOOGIE in Galway, Des brought me into Kenny’s Bookshop, gave me a guided tour and had me sign a number of copies. Thrilling enough for the callow scribe I was then, but Des capped that...
Similar posts
 Thanks to Tony Bailie for sorting us out with a copy of this picture. It first appeared in the Irish News the day after the Requiems for the Departed launch and I think it's a cracker. Pictured below we have the motley crew that showed up to read at No Alibis that night and me. Proud editor that I am, I'm the only one not holding a copy of the book. I was hiding my beer behind my back like a nabbed teenager, in fact.Anyway, from left to right we have Stuart Neville, John McAllister, T.A. Moore, Arlene Hunt, Tony Bailie, Brian McGilloway and me.I reckon we all scrub up pretty well.It's a nice pic to have. A reminder of one of the highlights of my year, only to be topped next week when the newest member of the Brennan household is due to...
Similar posts
 Waterstones’ ‘Fresh Blood’ campaign, currently in its second year, aims to showcase ‘some of the best new crime writers around’. The fact that one quarter of this year’s list is taken up by Irish writers is a sign of just how healthy 2009 was for Irish crime writing: step forward Alan Glynn (WINTERLAND), Gene Kerrigan (DARK TIMES IN THE CITY) and Stuart Neville (THE TWELVE, aka THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST). Unsurprisingly, all three novels finished in the top four (along with John Connolly’s THE LOVERS) in the inaugural ‘Crime Always Pays Irish Crime Novel of the Year’, with THE TWELVE topping the poll - no mean feat for a debut novel. Mind you, and as I said at the time, the fact that WINTERLAND was published in November worked against it, voting-wise, and I have no...
Similar posts
 Yours truly had a piece in the Irish Times a couple of weeks ago about REQUIEMS FOR THE DEPARTED, a collection of contemporary crime stories based on Irish myths and mythology. The launch of said tome, which is co-edited by Gerard Brennan and Mike Stone, takes place this coming Thursday, June 10th, at No Alibis in Belfast, with the blurb elves wittering thusly: No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to the launch of Irish crime fiction anthology, REQUIEMS FOR THE DEPARTED, edited by Gerard Brennan and Mike Stone, on Thursday 10th June at 6:30PM. Along with co-editor Gerard Brennan (of Crime Scene NI fame), we’re expecting appearances from the following contributors: Brian McGilloway, Stuart Neville, Arlene Hunt, T.A. Moore, Tony Bailie, John McAllister and Garbhan Downey,...
Similar posts
 You can buy your copy of Requiems for the Departed exclusively at No Alibis today!What are you waiting for?Requiems for the DepartedThursday 10th June at 6:30PMCome and Meet…Brian McGilloway, Stuart Neville, Arlene Hunt, T.A. Moore, John McAllister, Tony Baillie and Garbhan Downey No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to the launch of Irish crime fiction anthology, REQUIEMS FOR THE DEPARTED, edited by Gerard Brennan and Mike Stone, on Thursday 10th June at 6:30PM.Irish Crime. Irish Myths.Requiems for the Departed contains seventeen short stories, inspired by Irish mythology, from some of the finest contemporary writers in the business.Watch the children of Conchobar return to their mischievous ways, meet ancient Celtic royalty, and follow druids and banshees as they are set loose...
Similar posts
 Well, I received the first print run of Requiems for the Departed. A good chunk of the books will go straight to No Alibis for the launch, details as follows:No Alibis Bookstore is pleased to invite you to the launch of Irish crime fiction anthology, REQUIEMS FOR THE DEPARTED, edited by Gerard Brennan and Mike Stone, on Thursday 10th June at 6:30PM.Along with co-editor Gerard Brennan (of Crime Scene NI fame), we're expecting appearances from the following contributors: Brian McGilloway, Stuart Neville, Arlene Hunt, T.A. Moore, Tony Bailie, John McAllister and Garbhan Downey, so this is sure to be an evening to remember.Book your spot now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.So, if you're in or close to Belfast, come along, guys. These books won't be around forever....
Similar posts
 If you’ve read Stuart Neville’s THE TWELVE (aka THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST), and you’re a football fan, and particularly a fan of Brazil circa 1970, you’ll understand why, in my many private conversations with myself, I tend to refer to Stuart as ‘Nevellino’. All of which is a rather circuitous - indeed, a veritable banana-shaped free-kick - way of letting you know that Stuart has uploaded Chapter One of THE TWELVE’S sequel-of-sorts, COLLUSION, over at his interweb portal. To wit: CHAPTER ONE“We’re being followed,” Eugene McSorley said. The Ford Focus crested the rise, weightless for a moment, and thudded hard back onto the tarmac. Its eight-year-old suspension did little to cushion the impact. McSorley kept his eyes on the rear-view mirror, the silver Skoda Octavia lost...
Similar posts
 John Connolly has long used supernatural elements in his crime novels, and last year Stuart Neville’s THE TWELVE employed the device of an ex-paramilitary killer haunted by the ghosts of his victims. Where both writers have tended to leave it to the reader to judge whether their protagonists are bedevilled by manifestations of evil or a tortured conscience, Ken Bruen has taken a more literal approach in his latest novel, when his series private eye, Jack Taylor, confronts the Devil himself. Galway private detective Taylor has appeared in seven previous novels, making his debut in THE GUARDS (2001). A casual glance suggests that he is a conventional genre creation, a tarnished white knight tormented by past failures, his addiction to alcohol and the spectres of those he has been...
Similar posts
 Or, your chance to vote for Irish crime fiction. Voting for the Irish Book Awards’ Book of the Decade ends on May 27th, and you - yes, YOU! - can vote for the best Irish book from the last ten years. Of the 50 titles, two can be considered adult crime titles - John Connolly’s THE LOVERS and Tana French’s IN THE WOODS - while there are two young adult crime titles: Eoin Colfer’s ARTEMIS FOWL and Derek Landy’s SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT. Meanwhile, at a stretch, there are two titles that could be considered literary crime: Edna O’Brien’s IN THE FOREST and David Park’s THE TRUTH COMMISSIONER. You know what to do, people: your democratic duty calls here … Elsewhere, there was a very nice interview with Declan Hughes in yesterday’s Irish Times, conducted by Arminta...
Similar posts
 … stay away from Rob Kitchin. Debuting last year with THE RULE BOOK, which featured Detective Super Colm McEvoy on the trail of a serial killer and cheerfully broke many rules of crime writing as it went along, Kitchin follows it up next month with THE WHITE GALLOWS, with the blurb elves wittering thusly: In post-Celtic Tiger Ireland, the murder rate is soaring and the gardai are struggling to cope with gangland wars, domestic disputes, and drunken brawls that spiral into fatal violence. To add to Detective Superintendent Colm McEvoy’s workload are the deaths of two immigrants - an anonymous Lithuanian youth and an elderly German billionaire. While one remains an enigma, the murky history of the other is slowly revealed. But where there is money there is power and, as McEvoy soon...
Similar posts
 I happened to catch a couple of very interesting and Northern Irish crime fiction-related interviews on Radio Ulster over the last couple of days.First up, Stuart Nevellie chats to William Crawley about winning the LA Times Book Prize here.And Colin Batemen chats to Marie Louise Muir about The Day of the Jack Russell and The Sunday Times right here.Listen to them as quickly as you can, folks. These Listen Again links have a very short life...
Similar posts
 The Irish crew mightn’t have done so well in the Edgars this year - odd, really, given that there’s usually an Irish presence, and that 2009 was such a fecund year for Irish crime writing - but they’ve been doing okay in other award ceremonies. Stuart Neville, as you might have heard, won the best Mystery / Thriller section in the recent LA Book of the Year awards for THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST (aka THE TWELVE), and he also nabbed the Best Novel: New Voice gong in the Spinetingler Awards. Meanwhile, and staying with the Spinetinglers, Adrian McKinty got the nod for Best Novel: Rising Star Category for FIFTY GRAND, which is belated recognition for what was one of the best novels of last year, in my rarely humble opinion. Incidentally, both McKinty and Neville contribute to the...
Similar posts
 Googling yourself, like an on-line version of eavesdropping at the keyhole, can be a chastening experience, which is why I tend to keep it to the minimum. By the same token, Googling yourself can throw up some interesting snippets, such as Clair Lamb’s recent piece for Books and Authors, titled ‘Where Green Meets Red: The Golden Age of Irish Crime Writing’. Basically, it’s a list of the hottest contemporary Irish crime writers, and great was the excitement when I realised I’d come in third. Then I noticed the first two writers were Colin Bateman and Ken Bruen, and that the list was alphabetical. Oh well. To wit: 3) Declan Burke is a journalist and reviewer who has published two critically-acclaimed crime novels: Eightball Boogie (2004), which introduced Dublin PI Harry Rigby,...
Similar posts
|
|
FEATURED BLOGS
|
Hi folks, alas it has been a while since we’ve been chatting, but at least on returning it’s to discuss some news of the more positive variety; namely the huge increase in volumes ... more...
There’s lots of nonsense going around at the moment in relation to the recently introduced 30km speed limit in Dublin, however our favourite is this video created by David Rochford: ... more...
|
Featured
heading via
Featured Blog
3rd Sep
This is the location of a featured blog post. If you
wish to have your blog posts in this space, please
contact
us.
|
|
|
|
|
OUR BLOG
|
Today's Twitterers stats show who first twigged to the whole scene. You may say, "hang on a minute, @Blaine isn't Irish". Well although he's from BC, Canada and has lived recently ... more...
Ok, so it is a pretty poor sample of 32 Twitterers and it may be skewed in all sorts of ways (e.g. by the group who heard about it, by people trying to be the oldest or youngest etc.), ... more...
So we've identified 7,939 Irish twitter users, through various methodologies. Obviously the term "Irish" can be subjective; in general we have included first generation Irish-born ... more...
|
|
SELECTED IRISH PRESS
RELEASES
|
Greystones judo instructor Derek O’Callaghan has good news for the long Winter months — beginner classes for adults at the Newcastle-based club. For the first time, the Wicklow ... more...
The Minister was welcomed to the Naval Base by the Deputy Chief of Staff (Operations), Major General Ralph James and the Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service, Commodore Frank ... more...
The Fault Analysis Group, a leading research group within the UCD School of Geological Sciences, was today presented with the NovaUCD 2010 Innovation Award. The Award was presented ... more...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
• IMF Chairman agrees with my assessment that global economy is recovering. :) Pity Ireland is so far behind.
• RT @ConcernWorld U2, spaceships and Croke Park: all in a night's work http://bit.ly/10PiGY
• RT @Mark_Coughlan: I am showing a webinar audience how quickly a message can spread on Twitter. Would you please RT? #watchitspread
• @FreelanceWebDev Reminds me of time a friend told me his wife was stripping downstairs....he meant that she was stripping walls of paper.
• When people are filling in a form for the blog directory, we ask what is it's "Title" - sometimes the answer we get is "Mr."
• @fergalbreen @topgold @Eirepreneur http://url.ie/22w3 if you exclude the north then @Adrienne (ops mgr, Dublin) is the first
• @icedcoffee It's back up now.
• Mercer Press pub'd book of short stories by "talented" young writer, Cork, will give copy to blogger who'll read & post about it
• @sineadcochrane @icedcoffee Thanks for RT but it seems to have made our blog fall over!Your obviously very influential or we've a flaky blog
• @Sinabhfuil Last time I checked we had found over 40k - but that's only the no. we've found. There's bound to be much more than that.
|
|
|
|
Other
|
|
