What is Declan Burke reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Declan Burke, author of The Lost and the Blind.

His entry begins:

I know that there are some crime / mystery authors who prefer to read outside the genre, for fear of being unduly influenced (or subconsciously mimicking) another writer’s style or story, but most of my reading tends to be in the genre. What I’m always looking out for, though, are crime / mystery novels that deliver more than a straightforward (or, indeed, delightfully complicated) ‘whodunit’.

So far this year I’ve come across a few novels that delivered a very satisfying read in that respect. The first was Celeste Ng’s debut, Everything I Never Told You. It opens dramatically, by telling us that, “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” We subsequently discover that Lydia Lee, the teenage Asian-American daughter, had drowned in a local lake, although no one knows if the drowning was murder, suicide or a tragic accident. As it happens, the distinction remains blurred throughout as Celeste Ng investigates not only Lydia’s life, but also that of her parents, James and Marilyn Lee. In the process she explores...[read on]

About The Lost and the Blind, from the publisher:

Why would elderly Gerhard Uxkull concoct a tale of Nazi atrocity on the remote island of Delphi, off the coast of Donegal? And why now, just when Irish-American billionaire Shay Govern has tendered for a prospecting licence for gold in the area? When a body is discovered drowned, journalist Tom Noone must find out the truth if he is to survive.

The Lost and the Blind is Declan Burke’s sixth novel. Previous novels include Eightball Boogie, Crime Always Pays and Absolute Zero Cool.

Learn more about the book and author at Burke's Crime Always Pays blog.

Writers Read: Declan Burke.

--Marshal Zeringue