The Embiggend O

Unless you're Pat McCabe or Cecelia Ahern, the chances of your book being optioned and produced are slimmer than a slim thing. However, if ever there was a book screaming out for an adaptation it would be Declan Burke's (right) The Big O, which has just been nominated for 'Best Novel - New Voice' at the prestigious Spinetingler Awards. Published by Hag's Head, The Big O has just been picked up by Harcourt publishing stateside and the reviews are getting better every week: RTE called it "a smart, cynical twist-tastic romp ... just crying out for a movie treatment...Message for Paddy Breathnach: read this and go eat Hollywood" Which was nice. You can catch the rest of the reviews (and damn are they good) over at Crime Always Pays. So what's the story?

It’s your standard boy-meets-girl romance, except Ray meets Karen when she sticks a .44 in his face during a stick-up on a gas station. Enough to freak any guy out, right? Well, maybe – but Ray’s not just any guy. He’s a babysitter. Need a wife held while the boys walk her husband into his bank at four in the morning? Ray’s your guy, for 10% on the gross.

Trouble is, there’s a Balkan crew bunkering in around town and Ray’s old boss, The Fridge, has gone the way of all fridges – punctured at the bottom of a canal. So Ray’s getting out.

Trouble is, Karen can’t afford to get out. She’s got Anna’s special needs to worry about, and working receptionist for a plastic surgeon, Frank, won’t pay those kind of bills. Her best friend Madge would love to help, but Madge has enough on her plate worrying about how she’s going to put the twins through college, especially as Madge has never worked a day in her life and is facing into a ruinous divorce, from Frank

Trouble is, Frank can’t afford the divorce. Not when he’s got Genevieve sucking on him everywhere except the one place she should. What Frank does have, though, is comprehensive insurance, the kind that includes peace of mind if an iceberg falls on your yacht, or if you need to pay ransom in the unlikely event of your wife getting herself kidnapped.

So it’d make sense, right, for Karen, Ray, Frank and Madge to have a sit-down, maybe see if they can’t screw the insurance company if they pool their resources …?

Trouble is, Karen’s pyscho ex, Rossi Francis Assisi Callaghan, is out on the streets after a five-stretch for armed robbery and he needs his .44, his Ducati super-bike and his sixty grand stash if he’s to finally go legit with his planned support group for ex-cons, the Francis Assisi Rehabilitation Concern, aka FARC – all of which, in one shape or another, Karen has long ago re-invested in Anna’s special needs. And then there’s Detective Doyle, early 30s and a long time bored with banging her head against that old glass ceiling, who can’t decide if she’d prefer to take down a big kidnapping score to piss off the boys down the station, or a little horizontal jogging with this guy she’s just met, a real charmer called Ray …

A comedy crime caper-gone-wrong in the mould of Elmore Leonard and rooted in a Celtic Tiger kidnapping, The Big O is a furiously paced multi-character tale of modern Ireland. Karen, Ray, Madge, Frank, Rossi and Doyle: trouble is … their business.

TToH like to wish Declan the best of luck...