The Big O [Hardcover]

Declan Burke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2008

Karen's easy life as a receptionist and armed robber is about to take a turn for the worse. Rossi, her ex, is getting out of prison any day now. He'll be looking for his motorcycle, his gun, the sixty grand he says is his, and revenge. But he won't be expecting Ray, the new guy Karen's just met, to be in his way. No stranger to the underworld himself, Ray wants out of the kidnapping game now that some dangerous new bosses are moving in.

 

Meanwhile Frank, a disgraced plastic surgeon, hires Ray to kidnap his ex-wife for the insurance money. But the ex-wife also happens to be Karen's best friend. Can Karen and Ray trust each other enough to work together on one last job? Or will love, as always, ruin everything?

 

From a writer hailed as "Elmore Leonard with a hard Irish edge" (Irish Mail on Sunday), Declan Burke's The Big O is crime fiction at its darkest and funniest.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While Irish author Burke (Eight-ball Boogie) has been compared to Elmore Leonard, this effort falls short of Leonard's superior blending of crime and dark humor. The impending parole of violent armed robber Rossi Francis Assisi Callaghan sets in motion a cascading series of events. Callaghan's ex-wife, Karen King, herself a thief, fears he'll come after her, and seeks to get herself some insurance in the form of professional kidnapper Ray Brogan. Ray, in turn, is hired to abduct Karen's friend, Madge Dolan, by her husband, Frank, a plastic surgeon who wants to cash in a lucrative insurance policy. The waters are further muddied by questions about Callaghan's parentage and the introduction of a vicious, half-blind dog named Stalin. The broadly drawn figures and situations are clearly not intended to be taken seriously, but the absence of any character a reader is likely to sympathize with is a significant drawback. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Frank is a self-important but inept plastic surgeon who wants to have his ex-wife, Madge, snatched so that he can collect a half-million in ransom. Frank’s receptionist, Karen, commits armed robberies using her former lover’s Ducati motorcycle and .44 magnum pistol; Karen, unbeknownst to Frank, is best friends with Madge; still, she agrees to help with the kidnapping, though she knows Rossi (the former lover) is about to get out of prison and will be returning to collect his cycle and gun. She also knows that Rossi is as mean as a “piss-soaked snake.” For the kidnapper, Madge picks Ray, a guy she met during one of her robberies and who impressed her with his style. These schemers swirl around in a kind of novelistic Brownian motion (particles moving randomly while suspended in a liquid), colliding with each other during the week preceding the snatch. Burke has married hard-boiled crime with noir sensibility and seasoned it with humor and crackling dialogue. Credulity is strained throughout, but fans of comic noir will find plenty to enjoy here. --Thomas Gaughan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 279 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (September 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151014086
• ISBN-13: 978-0151014088
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,281,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Declan Burke was born in Sligo, Ireland, in 1969. He is the author of EIGHTBALL BOOGIE (2003) and THE BIG O (2007). He is also the editor of DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS: IRISH CRIME WRITING IN THE 21st CENTURY. His new novel, ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL, is published by Liberties Press in 2011. He lives in Wicklow with his wife Aileen and baby daughter Lily, and hosts a website dedicated to Irish crime fiction called Crime Always Pays.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't you feel sorry for those PW reviewers?, November 15, 2008

By 

Lily Courthope - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big O (Hardcover)

This is not the first time that I've marveled at the staid, moribund quality of a PW review. I'm pretty sure that if an author isn't named Hemingway, Fitzgerald or Faulkner, they just don't get it.

And that's too bad because author Declan Burke has created a frantically paced comedy of errors that is a lot of fun to read. No, I won't be writing a thesis any time soon about kidnapper Ray's probable identity crisis, but when was the last time you read a line as funny as the one (right near the end of the book) in which he at last reveals his true identity? And that line is just the froth on this comic concoction.

This book reminds me of some of my favorite movies: Libeled Lady, His Girl Friday, and of more recent origin, Snatch. Screwballs, every one of them. Some darker than others, some more romantic, but all of them with wild plot turns and breath-catching scenes that keep the viewer/reader fixed in place, waiting for the next laugh.

If you're looking for deep meaning and deathless prose, go check out the latest bestselling, yawn-worthy, overwrought work of 'literature' (or even another PW review); if you're looking for a good time, call 1-800-THE BIG O.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Deal, February 23, 2011

By 

Paul D Brazill (Bydgoszcz, Poland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big O (Hardcover)

The Big O and its follow up Crime Always Pays actually are that oxymoron
`screwball noir'. These novels are like two cracking, fast paced, clever and very droll road movies with a top drawer cast that includes a narcoleptic called Sleeps and a wolf. Twists and turns, spicy dialogue and scenes which really make you `LOL', as the young people say.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "For a woman, it's the right way, but for a guy, it's the right time.", September 17, 2008

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big O (Hardcover)

A master of the aberrant behaviors of the fringe-dwellers of modern Irish society, Burke's novel attests to the endless creativity of those who indulge in usually non-violent crime to avoid the doldrums of regular employment. Ray is a soon-to-retire "babysitter" of sorts, a man who kidnaps specific targets for ransom until the money is paid and he gets his share; other than this peripatetic occupation, he paints murals on client's walls. Karen first meets Ray in the middle of a one-off (an impulsive holdup), her gun pointed directly at him- intrigued, Ray invites her for a drink. Karen works for Frank, a disgraced plastic surgeon who is only qualified to provide consultations, in the middle of a messy divorce settlement with Madge and living with a contemptuous girlfriend who openly mocks him while greedily spending his money. Desperate, Frank instigates Madge's kidnapping, setting in motion a bizarre plot that snowballs into a confrontation with flying bullets and snarling dogs.

As best friends, Karen and Madge focus their attentions on the inadequate and often laughable Frank, the brunt of much of their humor. None of these characters, save perhaps Frank, are particularly unlikeable, considering their economic circumstances and penchant for perpetrating opportunistic crime. The same cannot be said for Rossi, a con about to be released, poised to prey once more on an unsuspecting public. Rossi is a hard case, a true sociopath with a cruel streak; that combined with an impaired intellect is a recipe for disaster. This career criminal will be showing up on Karen's doorstep, expecting her to return his money, motorbike and weapon. Karen, of course, has no intention of returning anything. Each character pursuing his own interests, all are drawn into a twisted plot of small intentions grown large, easy schemes victim to random circumstances that play havoc with Madge's kidnapping. Add in a part-wolf canine passed from one brutal owner to another and you have a tale with any number of pitfalls.

Burke's talent is in capturing the idiosyncrasies of individuals, the quirky attributes that draw men and women together only to be driven apart by their differences and the petty grievances nursed by the chronically unhappy- Rossi- who interferes with the master plan and throws all into disarray. But even Rossi is a buffoon, albeit a crazy one, an inept bungler more easily distracted by his unstable imagination and obsession with getting what he believes rightfully belongs to him. Greed will, as usual, be the undoing of these less-than-inspired criminals, the absurd Frank and the unpredictable Rossi, Ray barely maintaining his end of the bargain, newly vulnerable to his romantic thoughts about Karen and the future. The result is an innovative farce evoking the inevitable law of unintended consequences, Burke in top form as he manipulates his characters like a master puppeteer. Luan Gaines/ 2008.