It Takes Two to Eightball Boogie

This review was first posted on CSNI in November 2008, but since the book has recently been published in e-format for the first time, I figured it wouldn't hurt to fire it up again. Please excuse any dated references. gb

Mike Stone: Hiya, mate. I finished Declan Burke’s Eightball Boogie yesterday. Give it a day or two and the dust will have settled enough for me to do a write-up. Assuming you want one of course?

Gerard Brennan: Hey, man. Yeah, I could well use a review of Eightball Boogie. Thing is, I’ve only just read it myself. And I’m kind of in the mood to review it too. Not sure what to do. I like to get other opinions on CSNI when I can, but... hmmm, what say you?

MS: Well, I daresay you’re better qualified. I was going to prattle on about the banter – that for me was this novel’s signature. The story and characters were very good, but what raised the bar were the rapid one-liners and putdowns.

GB: Don’t know about my qualifications. I’m not much smarter than Burke’s protagonist, Harry Rigby. Wish I had his knack for one-liners though. As you say, they’re a defining feature of the novel. I didn’t do a formal count, but there has to be at least a couple of wisecracks on every page. I think Declan Burke mentioned in a recent blog that Rigby was one of the most autobiographical characters he’d ever written. Probably explains why he comes across as such a complete character. Wise mouth, cocky attitude, low self-esteem. If I ever meet Dec in person, I must give him a hug.

MS: Ah, you beat me to it. I was going to ask you if Dec’s anything like Harry Rigby. The dialogue – spoken and internal – just felt so natural. And there were sentences to die for. I’d give my eye-teeth to have written this one:

The shoes were Italian and suede because women look at your eyes first, shoes second, and I had eyes that made women take a long lingering look at my shoes.

You know when you asked visitors to CSNI to give you a page number and you’d recite a cracking piece of prose from Ken’s American Skin? I reckon you could do that with ­Eight Ball Boogie.

GB: And I reckon you’re right. Except as popular as that git Burke is on the blogosphere, I’d be inundated with comments if I did. I loved the book, but I’ve got a life, you know? It wasn’t just the cool dialogue that got me. The twisty-turny plot kept me guessing right up to the final pages. Okay, so that’s supposed to happen in crime fiction, and should be a given rather than a point of praise, but I think Burke is especially adept at this. It was equally apparent in The Big O and A Gonzo Noir.

MS: You anticipate me again. PI Harry Rigby’s poking into the goings on of crooked auctioneers, bent cops and politicians on the make was bound to be complex -- and for the most part Declan handled it well -- but were you able to keep with it? Because I got a bit lost towards the end. I got the gist of it . . . I think. The problem for me, in part, was that rapid-fire narrative we talked about earlier. When it came to Rigby unpicking the double dealings and backstabbings, I could have done with more elaboration.

GB: Hmmm. Good point. Personally, I didn’t feel short-changed when it came to figuring out who did what. I went away with a clear enough idea of all that went on. I do think that he resolved an awful lot in a very short space of time, which might have made the book a little ending-heavy. Is that what you mean?

MS: Yeah, it became too dense for me, or I’m too dense for the ending, one or the other. I was determined to give it a five star review up until then. As it stands, I’d probably chip a point off for making me feel thick. Any idea if there’s a sequel. I want to see more of Harry Rigby. And how does Eight Ball Boogie stack up against The Big O?

GB: Ah, man. Great question, thanks. As you know, I’m a regular reader of Dec’s blog, Crime Always Pays. Not so long ago he mentioned Eightball Boogie and how the publisher (a now defunct imprint of Lilyput Press) passed on the opportunity to buy a second Harry Rigby novel from him. Publishers, eh? What do they know? So I know there is more to come from Harry Rigby, but when we’ll get to enjoy it is anybody’s guess. I’m hoping the recent success that The Big O has enjoyed will bring with it an opportunity for Dec to launch a whole series of Rigby novels, starting with a shiny new hardcover of Eight Ball Boogie, because (and this brings me on to the second part of your question) I think The Big O rocks, but Eight Ball Boogie has a bit of an edge on it. Right, listen. Which one of us is going to write this review, then?

MS: Well, you could always stick the heading “A Wee Review” above this exchange. I daresay that McKinty fellah will have a dig and call us the Chuckle Brothers, but I can live with that. To me!

GB: Sounds like a plan, you savvy devil. To you!

A Wee Review - Eight Ball Boogie by Declan Burke - Tag Team Style

Mike Stone: Hiya, mate. I finished Declan Burke’s Eight Ball Boogie yesterday. Give it a day or two and the dust will have settled enough for me to do a write-up. Assuming you want one of course?

Gerard Brennan: Hey, man. Yeah, I could well use a review of Eight Ball Boogie. Thing is, I’ve only just read it myself. And I’m kind of in the mood to review it too. Not sure what to do. I like to get other opinions on CSNI when I can, but... hmmm, what say you?

MS: Well, I daresay you’re better qualified. I was going to prattle on about the banter – that for me was this novel’s signature. The story and characters were very good, but what raised the bar were the rapid one-liners and putdowns.

GB: Don’t know about my qualifications. I’m not much smarter than Burke’s protagonist, Harry Rigby. Wish I had his knack for one-liners though. As you say, they’re a defining feature of the novel. I didn’t do a formal count, but there has to be at least a couple of wisecracks on every page. I think Declan Burke mentioned in a recent blog that Rigby was one of the most autobiographical characters he’d ever written. Probably explains why he comes across as such a complete character. Wise mouth, cocky attitude, low self-esteem. If I ever meet Dec in person, I must give him a hug.

MS: Ah, you beat me to it. I was going to ask you if Dec’s anything like Harry Rigby. The dialogue – spoken and internal – just felt so natural. And there were sentences to die for. I’d give my eye-teeth to have written this one:

The shoes were Italian and suede because women look at your eyes first, shoes second, and I had eyes that made women take a long lingering look at my shoes.

You know when you asked visitors to CSNI to give you a page number and you’d recite a cracking piece of prose from Ken’s American Skin? I reckon you could do that with ­Eight Ball Boogie.

GB: And I reckon you’re right. Except as popular as that git Burke is on the blogosphere, I’d be inundated with comments if I did. I loved the book, but I’ve got a life, you know? It wasn’t just the cool dialogue that got me. The twisty-turny plot kept me guessing right up to the final pages. Okay, so that’s supposed to happen in crime fiction, and should be a given rather than a point of praise, but I think Burke is especially adept at this. It was equally apparent in The Big O and A Gonzo Noir.

MS: You anticipate me again. PI Harry Rigby’s poking into the goings on of crooked auctioneers, bent cops and politicians on the make was bound to be complex -- and for the most part Declan handled it well -- but were you able to keep with it? Because I got a bit lost towards the end. I got the gist of it . . . I think. The problem for me, in part, was that rapid-fire narrative we talked about earlier. When it came to Rigby unpicking the double dealings and backstabbings, I could have done with more elaboration.

GB: Hmmm. Good point. Personally, I didn’t feel short-changed when it came to figuring out who did what. I went away with a clear enough idea of all that went on. I do think that he resolved an awful lot in a very short space of time, which might have made the book a little ending-heavy. Is that what you mean?

MS: Yeah, it became too dense for me, or I’m too dense for the ending, one or the other. I was determined to give it a five star review up until then. As it stands, I’d probably chip a point off for making me feel thick. Any idea if there’s a sequel. I want to see more of Harry Rigby. And how does Eight Ball Boogie stack up against The Big O?

GB: Ah, man. Great question, thanks. As you know, I’m a regular reader of Dec’s blog, Crime Always Pays. Not so long ago he mentioned Eight Ball Boogie and how the publisher (a now defunct imprint of Lilyput Press) passed on the opportunity to buy a second Harry Rigby novel from him. Publishers, eh? What do they know? So I know there is more to come from Harry Rigby, but when we’ll get to enjoy it is anybody’s guess. I’m hoping the recent success that The Big O has enjoyed will bring with it an opportunity for Dec to launch a whole series of Rigby novels, starting with a shiny new hardcover of Eight Ball Boogie, because (and this brings me on to the second part of your question) I think The Big O rocks, but Eight Ball Boogie has a bit of an edge on it.

Right, listen. Which one of us is going to write this review, then?

MS: Well, you could always stick the heading “A Wee Review” above this exchange. I daresay that McKinty fellah will have a dig and call us the Chuckle Brothers, but I can live with that.

To me!

GB: Sounds like a plan, you savvy devil.

To you!

An Interview - Declan Burke

In preparation for the imminent US release of Burke's The Big O, I've decided to rerun his interview which was originally posted in May of this year.

Declan Burke is the author of The Big O (2007), which has been described as ‘an Irish Elmore Leonard with a harder Irish edge’, and not only by Declan Burke. He lives in Wicklow with his wife, Aileen, and new little girl, Lily, and is not allowed to own a cat. Boo, hiss, etc. He also runs a blog dedicated to Irish crime fiction, Crime Always Pays.

Q1. What are you writing at the minute?

A: I swore I’d pack in writing for six months after Lily was born, and I lasted about three-and-a-half weeks. As a compromise, I’m not actually writing; I’m redrafting a story that goes under the ludicrously pretentious working title of A Roominghouse Madrigal, which I’ve stolen from Hank Bukowski. It’s about a hospital porter who decides to blow up the hospital where he works.

Q2. Can you give us an idea of Declan Burke’s typical up-to-the-armpits-in-ideas-and-time writing day?

A: Hmmmm … up to the armpits in ideas? Up to the little toenail, maybe … Right now my writing ‘day’ starts at 6.30am, and I get about an hour-and-a-half done before I have to head off to work … or, should I say, ‘work’ – it involves watching movie screenings. That’s fine at the moment, because I’m redrafting … If I was actually writing, I’d be doing three hours a day, seven days a week. I have to write first thing in the morning, preferably early enough so that everyone else in the house is still asleep. With the new arrival pootling around, I don’t know when I’ll get the time to get back into that routine, but I don’t mind too much – (a) she’s worth it, and (b) I’ve at least three novels I really should be redrafting anyway.

Q3. What do you do when you’re not writing?

A: Change nappies, mostly. I also spend quite a bit of time reading, for pleasure, work and research (if I’m lucky, all three at once). I review movies for a living too, and theatre. The blog, Crime Always Pays, is time-intensive but hugely enjoyable, as is surfing other blogs. I like watching football and hurling on the TV – I used to play quite a bit of both in my misspent youth. And I like good TV, science and history documentaries, good sitcoms, occasionally a movie. I’m also an incredibly bad but very enthusiastic gardener. And a scoop or two with the lads is bearable enough once in a while.

Q4. Any advice for a greenhorn trying to break into the crime fiction scene?

A: Always be writing. The crime fiction ‘scene’ isn’t any different to any other, and the same principles apply, or principle … keep writing. I had to write a whole lot of rubbish out of my system over ten years or so before I got down to the quality, mother-lode rubbish … Also, take every opportunity to engage with any writer who’ll talk to you, and keep your ears pinned back. Very little of what anyone else says will be of use to you personally, because ultimately you need to do your own thing, but it’ll help you to not make the same mistakes they did. And buy a copy of John Gardner’s On Becoming A Novelist.

Q5. Which crime writer(s) have impressed you this year?

A: The writers I’ve been tempted to take out a hit on over the last year are Adrian McKinty, Allan Guthrie, Brian McGilloway, Ray Banks, Gene Kerrigan, Sandra Ruttan and John McFetridge. There’s been loads of other really good writers, of course, but those names are all relatively new on the block – to me, at least.

Q6. What are you reading right now?

A: I generally have a few books on the go, for a variety of reasons. Right now they are: Fifty Grand, Adrian McKinty; The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy; Shalimar the Clown, Salman Rushdie; The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra; The Dalkey Archives, Flann O’Brien.

Q7. Plans for the future?

A: At the risk of being mawkish, and bearing in mind that Lily is only a month old, I’m hoping to be the best dad I can be for the foreseeable future. Other than that, I’m looking forward to seeing Harcourt’s version of The Big O, which comes out in hardback in the U.S. in August; finishing the current redraft of the hospital porter story; starting another redraft, of a story set on Crete, which has attracted some tentative interest; and then redrafting the sequel to The Big O, currently titled The Blue Orange, which is due with Harcourt this coming October.

Q8. With regards to your writing career to date, would you do anything differently?

A: I wouldn’t have let my first publishers, of Eightball Boogie (2003) take full control of the publicity / promotion end of things; I’d have taken on the responsibility for that. At the end of the day, no one is going to care more about your book, or work harder for it, than you. Otherwise, even though it’s been fairly low-key to date, I’m happy with the way things have gone – the books could be better, of course, but they were as good as I could make them at the time, and it wasn’t for lack of effort or imagination that they weren’t better. Besides, if things had gone differently, I wouldn’t have met the people I’ve met along the way, which sounds vaguely Zen-ish … and I’ve met some terrific people. Actually, scratch that – I’ve met a ton of terrific people. And yes, I’ve weighed them all, and they add up to exactly one ton …

Q9. Anything you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?

A: Kudos on Crime Scene Northern Ireland, sir. Just in case everyone else is too dazzled / awed by your brilliance to mention it, you’re doing a fantastic job up here. Many and rich shall be your rewards when that karma boomerang comes whizzing back this way …

Thank you, Declan Burke!

Great Book Week

Had me an excellent week for accumulating some quality reading. My little sis, Lisa B, feels guilty for missing another one of my birthdays as she's swanning around Australia at the minute. So her gift this year was very generous. Three books I'm practically salivating over.

Declan Burke's Eightball Boogie. I've been meaning to pick this up for a while now, and since I've recently completed A Gonzo Noir and enjoyed the heck out of The Big O few months ago, now's a great time for it. Plus I like pool. Wrote me own story, in which the game featured heavily, a few years ago. Pool Sharks. Got some good reviews for that one. Might post it here some day.

Ken Bruen's The Guards. I read Priest after happening upon it in a second hand bookshop quite some time ago. Thought it was a very powerful tale and that Jack Taylor was a hell of a character. And I really got a kick out of Bruen's dark but sparse style. Reading it was a masterclass in crime fiction. So I promised myself ages ago I'd go back to the start of the series and read it in order. Can't wait to crack it open now.

David Park's The Truth Commissioner. An excellent choice by my sis, as it's a very important (from what I'm hearing) post-Troubles novel. Kind of the whole idea of this site summed up in a critically acclaimed and very attractive hard back tome. This one must be read and critiqued post-haste.

And I'd made a couple of bargain purchases myself this week. Picked up a book by Gautam Malkani because I liked the look of the cover. I subjected Londonstani to a random page test and liked the energy in the writing, so I dumped it in the shopping basket. Also found a copy of Jason Starr's Cold Caller, so I asked the missus for a lend of a few quid an bought it too.

Then when I got home I found a package that had been flown all the way from sunny California. Inside? Two more books! Timothy Hallinan's A Nail Through The Heart and The Fourth Watcher. Both signed by the man himself, thanks to a competition held by Peter over at Detectives Beyond Borders.

Now all I need is a big-ass holiday and a pair of backup specs.