Hag's Head Press - Independent Publisher - The Big O by Declan Burke

retail price:
Out of print.
format:
203 x 136 mm PBK
extent:
288 pages
ISBN:
978 0 9551264 2 0

We regret that this title is currently out of print. However, the North American edition can be ordered from Harcourt Books.

 

Karen can’t go on pulling stick-ups forever, but Rossi is getting out of prison any day now and she needs the money to keep Anna out of his hands. This new guy she’s met, Ray, just might be able to help her out, but he wants out of the kidnap game now the Slavs are bunkering in.

This is the story of a tiger kidnapping seen through the eyes of a wide cast of characters. It jumps from Karen and Ray to Detective Doyle, Frank—the discredited plastic surgeon who wants his ex-wife snatched—and Doug, the lawyer who convinces him to do it. Then there’s the ex-wife herself, who just happens to be Karen’s best friend. Can Karen and Ray trust each other enough to carry off one last caper? Or will love, as always, ruin everything?

Seamus Award-winning author Ken Bruen says: ‘… a plot that takes off at a blistering pace and never lets up. The writing is a joy, so seamless you nearly miss the sheer artistry of the style and the terrific, wry humour.’

Declan Burke was born in Sligo in 1969. He is a freelance writer with The Sunday Times, Village Magazine and The Dubliner. His first novel, Eight Ball Boogie, was hailed as ‘that rare commodity, a first novel that reads as if it were penned by a writer in mid-career ... [it] marks the arrival of a new master of suspense on the literary scene’ (Hank Wagner, Mystery Scene). He lives in Wicklow and is not allowed to own a cat.

Read extract.

The Big O cements Burke's reputation as one of the wittiest crime novelists around, brimming with style but not so self-conscious as to forget about substance... It's faster than a stray bullet, wittier than Oscar Wilde and written by a talent destined for fame.’
Irish Examiner


‘Irish thrillers don't get much more hard-boiled than this gritty, violent and wildly hilarious Dublin-based kidnap caper... this is an out-and-out original, with crackling dialogue and sharp wit’
Irish Independent


‘The Big O, is an exhilirating, hilarious and unmistakably Irish escapade in crime fiction... packed tight with cracking moments and sizzling dialogue’
Village magazine


‘Elmore Leonard with a harder Irish edge’
Irish Mail on Sunday


‘excellent caper yarn’
—George Byrne, Evening Herald

 

 

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