John Connolly

Declan Burke

With so many mystery novels to choose from and so many new titles appearing each year, where should the reader start? What are the classics of the genre? Which are the hidden gems? In the most ambitious anthology of its kind yet attempted, the world's leading mystery writers have come together to champion the greatest mystery novels ever written. In a series of personal essays that often reveal as much about themselves and their work work as they do about the books that they love, more than 120 authors from twenty countries have created a guide that will be indispensable for generations of readers and writers. From Christie to Child and Poe to PD James, from Sherlock Holmes to Hannibal Lecter and Philip Marlowe to Peter Wimsey, BOOKS TO DIE FOR brings together the cream of the mystery world for a feast of reading pleasure, a treasure trove for those new to the genre and those who believe that there is nothing new left to discover. This is the one essential book for every reader who has ever finished a mystery novel and thought . . . I want more! www.bookstodiefor.net

The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels

Books to Die for

When an elderly man's tale of Nazi atrocity on an island off the coast of Donegal leads to a drowned body, journalist Tom Noone and his daughter Emily must run for their lives in pursuit of the truth.

The Lost and the Blind

Winner of the Crimefest 2012 Goldsboro Last Laugh Award Billy Karlsson needs to get real. Literally. A hospital porter with a sideline in euthanasia, Billy is a character trapped in the purgatory of an abandoned novel. Deranged by logic, driven beyond sanity, Billy makes his final stand: if killing old people won't cut the mustard, the whole hospital will have to go up in flames. Only his creator can stop him now, the author who abandoned Billy to his half-life limbo, in which Billy schemes to do whatever it takes to get himself published, or be damned . . .

Absolute Zero Cool

When a guy Karen has just met is hired to kidnap a disgraced plastic surgeon's ex-wife--and Karen's best friend--for the insurance money, Karen's easy life as a receptionist and armed robber is turned upside down.

The Big O

"I glanced up but he'd already jumped, a dark blur plummeting, wings folded against the drag like some starving hawk out of the noon sun, some angel betrayed. He punched through the cab's roof so hard he sent metal shearing into the petrol tank. All it took was one spark. Boom . . ."Harry Rigby is right there, an eye-witness when Finn Hamilton walks out into the big nothing nine stories up, but no one wants to believe Finn is just the latest statistic in Ireland's silent epidemic. Not Finn's mother, Saoirse Hamilton, whose property empire is crumbling around her; and not Finn's pregnant fiancé, Maria, or his sister Grainne; and especially not Detective Tohill, the cop who believes Rigby is a stone-cold killer, a slaughter's hound with a taste for blood . . . Welcome to Harry Rigby's Sligo, where death comes dropping slow. Studded with shards of black humour and mordant wit, Slaughter's Hound is a gripping noir from one of the most innovative voices in Irish crime fiction.

Slaughter's Hound

The Lammisters

A contemporary thriller set in rural Ireland by a “comic genius [and] fine dramatic writer and storyteller” (Booklist). The elderly German, Karl Uxkull, was either senile or desperate for attention. Why else would he concoct a tale of Nazi atrocity on the remote island of Delphi, off the coast of Donegal? And why now, sixty years after the event, just when Irish-American billionaire Shay Govern has tendered for a gold prospecting license in Lough Swilly? Journalist Tom Noone doesn’t want to know. With his young daughter Emily to provide for, and a new ghostwriting commission for Shay Govern’s biography, the timing is all wrong. Besides, can it be mere coincidence that Karl Uxkull’s tale bears an uncanny resemblance to a thriller written by spy novelist Sebastian Devereaux, the reclusive English author who has spent the past fifty years holed up on Delphi? But when a body is discovered drowned, Tom and Emily find themselves running for their lives in pursuit of the truth that is their only hope of survival. “Burke has a real knack for dialogue and phrasing.” —Publishers Weekly “Readers will be rewarded with an unholy Chinese box of a thriller. Make that an Irish-German box.” —Kirkus Reviews

"Downscale private dick Harry Rigby starts tossing out wisecracks like lit packets of firecrackers on page one of this Irish crime story, and he doesn't let up until the last sordid plot strand is singed into submission. In both the dialogue and firs

Eight Ball Boogie

This book suggests crime fiction is now the most relevant and valid form of writing which can deal with modern Ireland in terms of the post-'Troubles' landscape and post-Celtic Tiger economic boom. The book takes a chapter by chapter approach with each chapter and author discussing a different facet of Irish crime writing for example, Declan Hughes discusses the influence of American culture on Irish crime writing and Tana French reflects on crime fiction and the post-Celtic Tiger Irish identity. This publication is aimed at both the academic and general reader.

Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century

Down These Green Streets

Who says crime doesn't pay? The perpetrators of a botched kidnap make their getaway in this hilarious sequel to The Big O Karen and Ray are on their way to the Greek islands to rendezvous with Madge and split the fat bag of cash they conned from her ex-husband Rossi when they kidnapped, well, Madge. But they’ve reckoned without Stephanie Doyle, the cop who can’t decide if she wants to arrest Madge, shoot Rossi, or ride off into the sunset with Ray. And then there’s Melody, the wannabe movie director, who’s pinning all her hopes on Sleeps, the narcoleptic getaway driver who just wants to go back inside and do some soft time. A European road-trip screwball noir, Crime Always Pays features cops and robbers, losers and hopers, villains, saints – and a homicidal Siberian wolf called Anna. The Greek islands will never be the same again.

Declan Burke

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