the psychopathology of everyday life - Adrian McKinty's blog: Front Row

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Front Row

You can listen to my interview with Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4's Front Row, here. I'm on the programme with Hilary Mantel (I wasn't at the BBC the same time as her, alas) and the review of Spielberg's Lincoln. It's the Wednesday 23rd January 2013 edition. You can also download the podcast from iTunes if you want (my RTE and Today FM interviews are still up there on iTunes podcasts as well if you're a real masochist for McKinty blather.)
...
Mark Lawson, it turns out, is a big crime buff so not only did he really know his onions, but Front Row has a really nice little crime writers archive on their website worth checking out that has recent interviews with Ian Rankin, Jo Nesbo, Stu Neville etc. etc.

25 comments:

Alan Buckingham said...: Trudged home through thick snow from a day of work at Bath Uni in a miserable mood to hear that my favourite author will be on Front Row after The Archers. What a lift to the day that was.; January 24, 2013 at 11:27 AM
Alan Buckingham said...: PS Noted your reference to running and, being the detective I am, linked this with the recent picture of you on this blog where it looked like you'd lost weight.

Have you got yourself involved in this game of pain and weight-loss? I started ten years ago. I now run 70 miles a week and have no career. A warning from afar!; January 24, 2013 at 11:35 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Alan

Hope you liked the interview!

Its funny you say that about the weight. Now that I'm back in St Kilda I checked the scale and I'm pretty much where I've always been, around 85 kilos, but I think running has definitely converted some of that weight from fat to muscle. I went to buy some jeans the other day and I noticed that size 35 was now way too big for me...; January 24, 2013 at 12:08 PM
Alan Buckingham said...: Anyway, really enjoyed the bit on R4. I've never liked Lawson. I always considered him a typical BBC smug type and therefore didn't think he'd do a decent job. From what you say maybe I got him wrong. However, I don't think the interview is what it could have been. I got tired of the simplistic comparisons with Neville as well as the child-like fascination with 'the troubles'.; January 24, 2013 at 12:23 PM
adrian mckinty said...: Al

Yeah I really liked Lawson. Off air you could tell he was a real crime geek and he'd obviously read the book, which, to be honest, can be something of rare thing when you're doing media...; January 24, 2013 at 2:03 PM
Peter Rozovsky said...: Damn, you make Belfast sound like fun! And guess which Sly and the Family Stone album came to mind during the interview.; January 24, 2013 at 3:33 PM
Alan said...: Great interview Adrian.Your passion,knowledge and literary skill make Belfast alive as a "City with a soul".Poetry amidst the violence with a Castle to jog near.Who knows you may be giving oral tours of Belfast in the future a la Ian Rankin's Edinburgh.Best Alan New Mexico; January 25, 2013 at 5:31 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Peter

Well, its never boring thats for sure...; January 25, 2013 at 7:03 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Alan

I definitely could give a walking tour of Carrickfergus and very interesting it would be too. I once wrote a blog post about a good walking tour of all the spots in The Cold Cold Ground starting with Jonathan Swifts house and doing Coronation Road etc. but when I was nearly done blogger froze and I lost the whole thing and I've been too annoyed to write it again...; January 25, 2013 at 7:05 AM
seana graham said...: Off topic, but the Guardian has a blog post up about who should play Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell for the Royal Shakespeare Co. The link is here. None of their mentioned candidates seem quite right to me. Any thoughts?

Actually, I just realized who would be perfect for it. And they'd actually find him perfect for it too. But I'll see if anyone comes up with their own equivalents before I say.; January 25, 2013 at 5:08 PM
Deb Klemperer said...: A great interview Adrian, mega-impressed that you are on Front Row. Have just finished the Dead Trilogy - excellent work; January 25, 2013 at 5:36 PM
adrian mckinty said...: Seana

Geoffrey Rush? David Tennant? Patrick Stewart? Definitely someone with RSC creds.; January 25, 2013 at 5:47 PM
adrian mckinty said...: Deb

Thanks for that. It was really fun actually.; January 25, 2013 at 5:47 PM
seana graham said...: No. Better, I think.; January 25, 2013 at 6:05 PM
seana graham said...: Since I won't be able to post in here till tomorrow night, I'll just add, he's one of yours. RSC and all, though.; January 25, 2013 at 7:39 PM
Cinabear Cinnamon said...: Congrats!!! Listening :); January 26, 2013 at 1:59 AM
Cinabear Cinnamon said...: I did watch the movie Lincoln and thought it fabulous! It's definitely a top notch film. Still listening. :); January 26, 2013 at 2:07 AM
Cinabear Cinnamon said...: I really appreciated the insight! I shared! Hope it's ok :). Thank you!!; January 26, 2013 at 2:22 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Seana

Liam Neeson? Jimmy Nesbit? Stephen Rea?; January 26, 2013 at 7:11 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Cinabear

Sharing is good!; January 26, 2013 at 7:12 AM
seana graham said...: Sir Kenneth Branagh. You were thrown by his recent portrayal of the Nordic Wallender.; January 26, 2013 at 10:35 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Seana

Oh yeah. Shit, Branagh would be fantastic. The other Irishman I was thinking of is Michael Fassbender but he might be a little young...; January 26, 2013 at 3:29 PM
seana graham said...: Yeah, I think a Belfast boy could probably handle the role. Funnily enough, I had a pretty cool dream about Sir Ken after mentioning that, so I think I'm right and I hope they think to ask him.; January 26, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Deb Klemperer said...: Did you hear the interview with Wilko Johnson on Front Row (Friday's edition I think)? Very moving, totally without self-pity, and a fantastic description of joy in living a day at a time; January 28, 2013 at 10:08 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Deb

Just listened. Great stuff.; January 29, 2013 at 3:24 PM

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.

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

"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)

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

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Front Row

25 comments:

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