Always been curious about this...
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I'm an Irish novelist currently living in St Kilda, Australia
"Hardboiled charm, evocative dialogue, an acute sense of place and a sardonic sense of humour make McKinty one to watch."
---The Guardian
A couple more books, a few birthdays, some shuffleboard then a period spent in the digestive tract of earthworms, followed by molecular breakdown, the sun boiling into space, the heat death of the universe, atomic decay, perpetual darkness, a trillion years of nothingness and then, if we're lucky, brane collapse, a new singularity and a new Big Bang.
About Me
I'm an Irish novelist currently living in St Kilda, Australia
You can read a review of my latest book, The Cold Cold Ground, in The Guardian, here. You can peruse the review from the Irish Independent, here or the review in The Times, here. The Glasgow Herald's verdict is here and The Sydney Morning Herald chips in, here. Not to be outdone The Irish Times weighs in, here and the Irish Sunday Independent adds its two cents, here. If you want to know what all the fuss is about you can be a good chap and get The Cold Cold Ground on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Audible.com or at your local bookshop.
Followers
More about me
I was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. After studying philosophy at Oxford University I emigrated to New York City where I lived in Harlem for seven years working in bars, bookstores, building sites and finally the basement stacks of the Columbia University Medical School Library in Washington Heights.
In 2000 I moved to Denver, Colorado where I taught high school English and started writing fiction in earnest. My first full length novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was picked by Booklist as one of the 10 best crime novels of the year. The sequel to that book The Dead Yard was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 best novels of 2006 and won the Audie Award for best mystery or thriller.
In mid 2008 I moved to St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia with my wife and kids. My last book Falling Glass was Audible's Best Mystery or Thriller for 2011. I've just published a new novel for Serpents Tail called The Cold Cold Ground.
In 2000 I moved to Denver, Colorado where I taught high school English and started writing fiction in earnest. My first full length novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was picked by Booklist as one of the 10 best crime novels of the year. The sequel to that book The Dead Yard was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 best novels of 2006 and won the Audie Award for best mystery or thriller.
In mid 2008 I moved to St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia with my wife and kids. My last book Falling Glass was Audible's Best Mystery or Thriller for 2011. I've just published a new novel for Serpents Tail called The Cold Cold Ground.
WORK IN PROGRESS:
All Hail McKinty!
"If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland he would have written The Cold Cold Ground."
---The Times
"Hardboiled charm, evocative dialogue, an acute sense of place and a sardonic sense of humour make McKinty one to watch."
---The Guardian
"A literary thriller that is as concerned with exploring the poisonously claustrophobic demi-monde of Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and the self-sabotaging contradictions of its place and time, as it is with providing the genre’s conventional thrills and spills. The result is a masterpiece of Troubles crime fiction: had David Peace, Eoin McNamee and Brian Moore sat down to brew up the great Troubles novel, they would have been very pleased indeed to have written The Cold Cold Ground."
---The Irish Times
"McKinty is a big new talent."
---The Daily Telegraph
"McKinty is a gifted man with poetry coursing through his veins and thrilling writing dripping from his fingertips."
---The Sunday Independent
"McKinty is a big new talent."
---The Daily Telegraph
"McKinty is a gifted man with poetry coursing through his veins and thrilling writing dripping from his fingertips."
---The Sunday Independent
"Adrian McKinty is fast gaining a reputation as the finest of the new generation of Irish crime writers, and it's easy to see why on the evidence of The Cold Cold Ground."
---The Glasgow Herald
"McKinty is a storyteller with the kind of style and panache that blur the line between genre and mainstream."
---Kirkus Reviews
"McKinty's literate expertly crafted crime novel confirms his place as one of his generation's leading talents."
---Publishers Weekly
"McKinty crackles with raw talent. His dialogue is superb, his characters rich and his plotting tight and seemless. He writes with a wonderful and wonderfully humorous flair for language raising his work above most crime genre offerings and bumping it right up against literature."
---The San Francisco Chronicle
"McKinty keeps getting better. He melds the snap and crackle of the old Mickey Spillane tales with the literary skills of Raymond Chandler and sets it all down in his own artful way."
---The Rocky Mountain News
"The first of McKinty's Forsythe novels, "Dead I Well May Be," was intense, focused and entirely brilliant. This one is looser-limbed, funnier...so, I imagine, is the middle book, "The Dead Yard," which I haven't read but which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the 12 best novels of 2006, along with works by Peter Abrahams, Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy and George Pelecanos."
---The Washington Post
"McKinty, who grew up in Northern Ireland, has an ear for language and a taste for violence, and he serves up a terrifically gory, swiftly paced thriller."
---The Miami Herald
"There's nothing like an Irish tough guy. And we're not talking about Gentleman Gerry Cooney here. No, we mean the new breed of bare-knuckle Irish writers like Adrian McKinty, Ken Bruen and John Connolly who are bringing fresh life to the crime fiction genre."
---The Philadelphia Inquirer
"McKinty's writing is dark and witty with gritty realism, spot on dialogue, and fascinating characters."
---The Chicago Sun-Times
"If you like your noir staples such as beautiful women, betrayal, murder, mixed with a heavy dose of blood, crunched bones, body parts flying around served up with some throwaway humour, you need look no further, McKinty delivers all of this with the added bonus that the writing is pitch perfect."
---The Barcelona Review
"I really enjoyed [Dead I Well May Be’s] combination of toughness and a striking literary style. Both those things are evident in Hidden River. McKinty is going places."
---The Observer
"This is a terrific read. McKinty gives us a strong non stop story with attractive characters and fine writing."
---The Morning Star
"[McKinty] draws us close and relates a fantastic tale of murder and revenge in low, wry tones, as if from the next barstool...he drops out of conversational mode to throw in a few breathtaking fever-dream sequences for flavor. And then he springs an ending so right and satisfying it leaves us numb with delight and ready to pop for another round. Start the cliche machine: This is a profoundly satisfying book from a major new talent and one of the best crime fiction debuts of the year."
---Booklist
"The story is soaked in the holy trinity of the noir thriller: betrayal, money and murder, but seen through with a panache and political awareness that give McKinty a keen edge over his rivals."
---The Big Issue
"A darkly humorous cross between a hard-boiled mystery and a Beat novel."
---The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"A roller coaster of highs and lows, light humour and dark deeds, the powerful undercurrent of McKinty's talent will swiftly drag you away. Let's hope the author does not slow down anytime soon."
---The Irish Examiner
"A virtual carnival of slaughter."
---The Wall Street Journal
"McKinty has once again harnassed the power of poetry, violence, lust and revenge to forge a sequel to his acclaimed Dead I Well May Be."
---The Irish Post
"A pacey, violent caper in which McKinty vividly portrays [Belfast's] sleazy, still-menacing underbelly."
---The Sunday Times
"McKinty writes with the soul of a poet; his prose dances off the pages with Old World grace and haunting intensity. It's crime fiction on the level of Michael Connolly with the conviction of James Hall."
---The Jackson Clarion-Ledger
"The Bloomsday Dead is the explosive final installment in a trilogy of kinetic thrillers."
---The New York Times
"Adrian McKinty has garnered nothing but praise for his first two books. The third in the trilogy The Bloomsday Dead should leave no doubt that he is a true star. Fast moving and highly engaging this is a great book. McKinty just gets better and better."
---CrimeSpree
"Until The Dead Yard's relentless, poignant ending you'll turn these pages as quickly as you can."
---The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"McKinty's Dead Trilogy has been praised by critics, who call it "intense," "masterful" and "loaded with action." If your reading pleasure leans toward thrillers offering suspense, close calls, wry wit, sharp dialogue, local color and sudden mayhem, you wont do better."
---The Sacramento Bee
"Le Fleuve caché d'Adrian McKinty impressionne par la richesse et la diversité de son ton et de son écriture, passant avec aisance du lyrisme ample de la nostalgie de l'amour perdu au rythme saccadé du narrateur sous l'emprise de l'héroïne. Ce livre rare et maîtrisé est une réussite bien digne de la Série noire."
---Le Figaro
Eine eigentlich simple Story, die natürlich bereits als Grundlage für Hunderte Bücher und Filme diente, macht Adrian McKinty zu der mitreißenden Odyssee eines jungen Mannes, der in der Lage ist, sich seiner Umwelt anzupassen wie jene Kakerlaken, die er in seinem Harlemer Appartement jagt, studiert und sowohl angewidert awie anerkennend entkommen lässt. Nicht umsonst 1992 angesiedelt, ist Der sichere Tod der kongeniale Kommentar zum Wesen der Neunziger.
- Jochen König, krimi-couch.de
"McKinty - that guy is a friggin genius."
---Ken Bruen
"McKinty is a cross between Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyan, the toughest, the best."
---Frank McCourt
"McKinty is an exciting new talent."
---Ed McBain
"Daddy's book is really boring."
---Sophie McKinty (aged 2 1/2)
"McKinty is a storyteller with the kind of style and panache that blur the line between genre and mainstream."
---Kirkus Reviews
"McKinty's literate expertly crafted crime novel confirms his place as one of his generation's leading talents."
---Publishers Weekly
"McKinty crackles with raw talent. His dialogue is superb, his characters rich and his plotting tight and seemless. He writes with a wonderful and wonderfully humorous flair for language raising his work above most crime genre offerings and bumping it right up against literature."
---The San Francisco Chronicle
"McKinty keeps getting better. He melds the snap and crackle of the old Mickey Spillane tales with the literary skills of Raymond Chandler and sets it all down in his own artful way."
---The Rocky Mountain News
"The first of McKinty's Forsythe novels, "Dead I Well May Be," was intense, focused and entirely brilliant. This one is looser-limbed, funnier...so, I imagine, is the middle book, "The Dead Yard," which I haven't read but which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the 12 best novels of 2006, along with works by Peter Abrahams, Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy and George Pelecanos."
---The Washington Post
"McKinty, who grew up in Northern Ireland, has an ear for language and a taste for violence, and he serves up a terrifically gory, swiftly paced thriller."
---The Miami Herald
"There's nothing like an Irish tough guy. And we're not talking about Gentleman Gerry Cooney here. No, we mean the new breed of bare-knuckle Irish writers like Adrian McKinty, Ken Bruen and John Connolly who are bringing fresh life to the crime fiction genre."
---The Philadelphia Inquirer
"McKinty's writing is dark and witty with gritty realism, spot on dialogue, and fascinating characters."
---The Chicago Sun-Times
"If you like your noir staples such as beautiful women, betrayal, murder, mixed with a heavy dose of blood, crunched bones, body parts flying around served up with some throwaway humour, you need look no further, McKinty delivers all of this with the added bonus that the writing is pitch perfect."
---The Barcelona Review
"I really enjoyed [Dead I Well May Be’s] combination of toughness and a striking literary style. Both those things are evident in Hidden River. McKinty is going places."
---The Observer
"This is a terrific read. McKinty gives us a strong non stop story with attractive characters and fine writing."
---The Morning Star
"[McKinty] draws us close and relates a fantastic tale of murder and revenge in low, wry tones, as if from the next barstool...he drops out of conversational mode to throw in a few breathtaking fever-dream sequences for flavor. And then he springs an ending so right and satisfying it leaves us numb with delight and ready to pop for another round. Start the cliche machine: This is a profoundly satisfying book from a major new talent and one of the best crime fiction debuts of the year."
---Booklist
"The story is soaked in the holy trinity of the noir thriller: betrayal, money and murder, but seen through with a panache and political awareness that give McKinty a keen edge over his rivals."
---The Big Issue
"A darkly humorous cross between a hard-boiled mystery and a Beat novel."
---The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"A roller coaster of highs and lows, light humour and dark deeds, the powerful undercurrent of McKinty's talent will swiftly drag you away. Let's hope the author does not slow down anytime soon."
---The Irish Examiner
"A virtual carnival of slaughter."
---The Wall Street Journal
"McKinty has once again harnassed the power of poetry, violence, lust and revenge to forge a sequel to his acclaimed Dead I Well May Be."
---The Irish Post
"A pacey, violent caper in which McKinty vividly portrays [Belfast's] sleazy, still-menacing underbelly."
---The Sunday Times
"McKinty writes with the soul of a poet; his prose dances off the pages with Old World grace and haunting intensity. It's crime fiction on the level of Michael Connolly with the conviction of James Hall."
---The Jackson Clarion-Ledger
"The Bloomsday Dead is the explosive final installment in a trilogy of kinetic thrillers."
---The New York Times
"Adrian McKinty has garnered nothing but praise for his first two books. The third in the trilogy The Bloomsday Dead should leave no doubt that he is a true star. Fast moving and highly engaging this is a great book. McKinty just gets better and better."
---CrimeSpree
"Until The Dead Yard's relentless, poignant ending you'll turn these pages as quickly as you can."
---The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"McKinty's Dead Trilogy has been praised by critics, who call it "intense," "masterful" and "loaded with action." If your reading pleasure leans toward thrillers offering suspense, close calls, wry wit, sharp dialogue, local color and sudden mayhem, you wont do better."
---The Sacramento Bee
"Le Fleuve caché d'Adrian McKinty impressionne par la richesse et la diversité de son ton et de son écriture, passant avec aisance du lyrisme ample de la nostalgie de l'amour perdu au rythme saccadé du narrateur sous l'emprise de l'héroïne. Ce livre rare et maîtrisé est une réussite bien digne de la Série noire."
---Le Figaro
Eine eigentlich simple Story, die natürlich bereits als Grundlage für Hunderte Bücher und Filme diente, macht Adrian McKinty zu der mitreißenden Odyssee eines jungen Mannes, der in der Lage ist, sich seiner Umwelt anzupassen wie jene Kakerlaken, die er in seinem Harlemer Appartement jagt, studiert und sowohl angewidert awie anerkennend entkommen lässt. Nicht umsonst 1992 angesiedelt, ist Der sichere Tod der kongeniale Kommentar zum Wesen der Neunziger.
- Jochen König, krimi-couch.de
"McKinty - that guy is a friggin genius."
---Ken Bruen
"McKinty is a cross between Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyan, the toughest, the best."
---Frank McCourt
"McKinty is an exciting new talent."
---Ed McBain
"Daddy's book is really boring."
---Sophie McKinty (aged 2 1/2)
Who's been dropping by
What's Next For Me?
A couple more books, a few birthdays, some shuffleboard then a period spent in the digestive tract of earthworms, followed by molecular breakdown, the sun boiling into space, the heat death of the universe, atomic decay, perpetual darkness, a trillion years of nothingness and then, if we're lucky, brane collapse, a new singularity and a new Big Bang.
Me & the Mrs in our survivalist bunker
Adios and thank you for stopping by....
Humiliation, unhappiness, discord are the ancient foods of heroes---Jorge Luis Borges
The measure of a writer isn't success, but how hard he tried to do what he knew he couldn't do---William Faulkner
I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen---J G Ballard
I read the dictionary once . . . It turns out that the zebra did it --- Steven Wright
Times are bad. Children disobey their parents and everyone is writing a book---Cicero
Made in Ireland
38 comments:
I thought that was an interesting video. Here's a NY Times article about a micro-distiller of absinthe. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/dining/23absi.html
It doesn't seem like something to gulp like the narrator did! No wonder he said he wouldn't be doing that again. I've heard of absinthe parties. Maybe it's a cult thing.
and there's also this video of Anthony Boudain in Paris drinking absinthe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6t9mWBKs9I
Speedskater
Thanks for that.
V interesting stuff. I suppose it must be legal now.
Trudy
If it is a schnaps (I've never had it) then I think you are supposed to knock it back, thats what you do with schnapps but actually I really dont know.
Sheiler
I remember that episode. He stayed in Oscar Wilde's hotel...
To be honest I dont really get food programmes on the TV. You cant actually taste the food so whats the point. Some presenters do make a real effot at describing the food but Boudain usually says "oh thats great.". I like AB a lot but I just dont really enjoy his show or any other food telly come to that.
I like how Johnny Depp did it in From Hell. Very ritualistic, plus he did it in the tub. Made me want buy a bottle, with a laudenum chaser
Jay
And I'll bet for at least one or two takes it was real absinthe.
I got absolutely wasted on it in a tiny bar in Strasbourg. We'd fallen in with a crowd of poets and a monk and finished the evening in this bar.
They had those special little devices that hold the sugar and slowly drip the water through the sugar
I can't remember if it was any good and I've never been able to find the bar in any subsequent visit.
In the words of Rowley Birkin QC I was very, very drunk
Rob
I'm not a big spirit drinker but I think I'll have to try it when I'm in France next time.
I have tried schnapps before in Budapest to me it was like drinking furniture polish.
Slovenia has the best Schnapps in the world.
There's a little village near the Vintner Gorge which has a lady who makes over 140 different flavour schnapps in her cellar.
For a fee you can do a tasting and she'll provide you with home made salami, smoked cheese and home made bread
Oh, dear. I am very, very confused and I haven't even been drinking absinthe. Or ob-sahnthe, as I now know I'm supposed to say. Who was that guy who sounds so convincingly like Simon Schama, and yet is not?
I have about two degrees of separation from absinthe. One of the first things that ever actually intrigued me on the internet was this little webzine called Proust Said That. It's still accesible, though it is long defunct, and on it was this article on absinthe.
The second take on it was being at a party once where we all drank way to many Cosmopolitans. There was a young woman there, who I have never met before or since, who claimed that her friend had invented Cosmopolitans, and later described her absinthe experience, somewhere in Europe, probably eastern, while on some kind of tour with her parents. We all listened in Cosmopolitan influenced fascination. I don't remember much, except that the experience sounded rather odd.
Rob
It sounds good in theory but my experience of schnapps last time wasn't so wonderful.
Seana
Its
this guy
Her friend invented the Cosmpolitan? It sounds like that episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where someone claimed to have invented the Cobb salad. But who knows maybe its true.
The ice water should be dripped over the sugar cube. I started laughing when the guy hastily splashed it over the cube.
It's weird that he seems like kind of a parody version of Schama. It's mainly the voice, but it's also the way the video was made.
Yeah, I have no idea of the veracity of the story about the Cosmopolitan, and was inclined to say that it was one of those Cobb salad things, but I just looked it up on Wikipedia, and the theory that at least the Sex in the City version was may have come from a bartender named Cheryl Cook in South Beach, Florida makes me think it's possibly true, because Florida was the only real detail of the story I remembered.
A parody, all right, with his hyper-correct pronunciation of the final syllable of absinthe, a quirk that shouts, "I know French." This makes a weird juxtaposition with his pronunciation of schnapps as if it rhymed with snaps.
As for the subject of his discussion, I've heard it makes the heart grow fonder.
======================================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
He probably tries to sound French while saying, "restaurant" and "penchant."
Peter, it only makes the heart grow fonder in Barcelona.
I think pronouncing French correctly probably sounds less affected in England than it does America, kind of like how a Californian can pronounce Spanish as it's spoken and not sound too much like a prat.
If he is pronouncing it correctly, which I have no way of knowing.
Sean
How do you drip it? Is there a special device for doing so or do you have to sit there doing it yourself.
Seana
He's got the kudos though - he was a serious art critic for a newspaper and from the wikipedia page it looks like he started making films BEFORE Schama so maybe Schama is a parody of him????
Peter
You must be able to get Absinthe in Quebec. I cant imagine the food police having any sway there at all.
Speedskater
I remember watching a UK house of commons debate when the word "debacle" was pronounced in half a dozen different ways. It was pretty funny.
Seana
Funny you should say that. It only took me a couple of months living in America to stop saying the lls in tortilla.
It's very inconsistent, though. Most English speaking Americans say 'armadillo' to rhyme with pillow, not 'rio', for example.
And not even those born there say Los Angeles as "Los (long o) An-hell-ace". It's Los An-gell-us, and when I was a kid my mom sometimes referred to Loss Ang-gless. Even though she had studied Spanish in Mexico. Mostly, of course, people say L.A.
On the other hand, everyone says San Jose as San Ho-say. No one calls it San Joes.
Simon Schama--copycat. Now that's a new one. I liked the way old Waldemar appeared to be addressing his thoughts to the green fairy in his glass for a large portion of the segment. I suppose Schama took notes and saw where he might be able to make improvements.
Seana
Its interesting that you say that. When I was in Cuzco I wanted to know a little bit about the place so I snuck onto various walking tours and listened to the guides talking about the square and the cathedral. The ones who werent so good at English said Yamas but the ones whose english was better said Llamas which seemed completely absurd to me - their English was so good they had learned how to say their own word incorrectly.
Exactly. I think this must happen for bilingual Spanish speakers in America all the time. It must feel like they are in some sort of absurdist play.
Adrian: there is a special device.
it has a tank for water at the top, a tray underneath the spout to hold the sugar and then a bracket for your glass.
The ones we used were very ornate and made of shiny copper
Adrian, I'm not too spiritual a tippler. I prefer wine, beer and cider.
Rob, I think that's what's known as paraphenalia.
Wonderful word, Seana
As for Waldemar, his series are very good and a lot less dry than Schama. His series on the Baroque was great fun
I will check out some more of Waldemar at some point, Rob. I really like shows that take me through art and point out things that I wouldn't have seen.
Rob, Seana
Have you seen this punk kid's Simon Schama spoof
Adrian,
There is device, like a flattened teapot on top of a candles stick holder, that you fill wil ice and cold water. It has one or up to four thin extensions, that the glasses sit under. Once you turn the water release valve, the water is slowly dripped over the slotted spoon with the sugar cube on it.
You put it up before, but it's well worth seeing again.
When it came to the end, YouTube gives you the choice of watching Simon Schama doing Jewish jokes. I started watching it, and found he was doing it with Lawrence Weschler who was a UCSC grad and life long friend of one of my teacher Mary Holmes. He pops up in the oddest places. Anyway, the link is here. I only had time to watch the beginning.
I suppose it wouldnt work with Sweet N Low?
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