The Road to Lisdoonvarna (Hardcover)

~ Charles De Lint (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though known primarily as a fantasy writer, de Lint (Forests of the Heart; Moolight and Vines; Greenmantle; etc.) once got the bug to write a hard-boiled mystery, in which tough guy P.I. Jevon Swann works the mean streets of Ottawa in 1985 a novel unsold and unpublished until now. Swann, backed by a wise Indian named Jimmy Crackle and the muscular Bo Jeffries (and bull terrier Sooey), gets involved in avenging the gang-rape of a street musician, as well as in tracking down a teen runaway who has been lured into the porn industry. In his introduction, de Lint notes that he was toying with the same ideas as Andrew Vachss, who debuted in that era, but his attempt barely reaches novel-length and often reads like an outline, crowding in many clich‚s "It's the personal stake I've got in it that's bothering me. That and the way that what happened to Sammy is suddenly all tied up with my looking for the Menzies kid." Swann becomes obsessed with the notion that he is being set up to take the fall (for what, exactly, one is never sure), and he wants out. But as one porn mogul tells him (with no apparent humor intended), "Maybe you were never in. Did you ever think of that?" Only the references to Celtic music (whence the poetic title) truly evoke the charms of his many fantasy novels, but this deluxe edition preserves a de Lint that might have been surely of interest to his most devoted fans.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 190 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean Press (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189228491X
• ISBN-13: 978-1892284914
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,174,248 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Road to Lisdoonvarna, June 14, 2001

By	Mark R. Buckowing (Shelbyville, MI USA) - See all my reviews

As a longtime fan of de Lint's books I was a little wary of his change in focus from mythic tales to a "hard boiled" detective story (in Charles' own words "a mystery novel with a PI as a lead character"). But I quickly changed my mind as I read this in less than a day and found myself not willing to put it down (as I really wanted to know what happened to the characters). And, since I took time to read the introduction, I knew that Charles de Lint himself found that he too became caught up in the story and wanted to find out "what happens!" (he originally wrote this story in 1984/85 and re-wrote it for this edition). He has again proven himself to be a master story teller of many genre and he has created a cast of characters that would fit in almost any of his current urban mythic stories (and I hope he makes sure to fit them in sometime in the future). He makes reference to some very well known mystery authors (Mickey Spillane, Andrew Vachss, and Dennis Lehane) as being some of HIS favorite authors and you can clearly see the similarities in the story. Yet, it remains a true Charles de Lint book in the way he makes the characters come alive. My only real complaints about this book would have to be its' title (which is a bit on the long side albeit totally appropriate to the story) and the fact that I think the book is too darn short (and I do acknowledge the fact that it is as long as was needed to get the story told). I was just hoping to enjoy it for a few more days. Luckily, I can just go to my overstuffed bookshelves and pull out one of his older books and enjoy more of his fine writing.