March 30, 2015
Irish author Burke’s convoluted standalone opens promisingly when Tom Noone, a Dublin journalist and writer of detective stories, is approached by Irish-American millionaire Shay Govern to ghostwrite a biography of Sebastian Devereaux, who wrote thrillers in the 1960s and ’70s and is now a recluse on the island of Delphi, near Donegal. Govern is haunted by a WWII Nazi atrocity that he witnessed on Delphi as a teen. So too is elderly Gerhard Uxkull, a Dane who joined the German navy in 1938 and gives Tom his manuscript describing the same massacre, an event fictionalized in an old Devereaux book. As Tom investigates a growing group of unsavory islanders fixated on the massacre, he unearths a range of hidden motives, one of which is has to do with sunken riches. But it’s all talk and no action until suddenly bodies start dropping. Though Burke (Slaughter’s Hound) has a real knack for dialogue and phrasing, too much happens too fast in the final pages. Agent: Allan Guthrie, Jenny Brown Associates.
May 12, 2014
Burke’s zany sequel to 2007’s The Big O practically requires a scorecard to keep track of the characters, as thief Karen King; her Siberian wolf/husky mix, Anna; kidnapping specialist Ray Brogan; and a motley crew of misfits leave a trail of chaos and confusion from Ireland to the Greek Isles. Money is at issue, with Karen netting $200,000 from a scam in which her accomplice, Madge Dolan, pretends to be kidnapped. There’s not a blameless character in the crowd following the loot: Terry Swipes, who arranged the kidnapping and is now infatuated with Madge; Karen’s ex-husband, Francis Assissi “Rossi” Callaghan, who wants revenge on Anna for biting off his ear (he deserved it); Rossi’s narcoleptic getaway driver, Sleeps; travel agent/screenwriter Melody Shine; and Det. Stephanie Doyle, currently on suspension. Burke keeps adding more characters, making for a profusion of drugs, cops, grifters, guns, and shifting alliances that’s both baffling and entertaining. Agent: Allan Guthrie, Jenny Brown Associates.
March 1, 2015
Burke has always had a flair for mixing a noir sensibility with comedy (Eight-Ball Boogie, 2004), and while this one is a bit lighter than usual, it still shows his ability to blend styles and tone. The story, about journalist Tom Noone, who's hired to ghostwrite an Irish American billionaire's autobiography but winds up caught in the middle of a murderous conspiracy, is generally light, but it has some serious things to say. Tom, intent on cashing his check for the ghostwriting gig, would just as soon ignore the brouhaha developing over an elderly German's claim of Nazi atrocities committed on the island of Delphi, off the coast of Donegal; but when a dead body draws him into the middle of the trouble and threatens his life and that of his daughter, Emily, he's forced to sort out the deadly muddle posthaste. Burke, who was born (and still lives) in Ireland, shows again that he's not just a comic genius, but also a fine dramatic writer and storyteller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)