ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL wins Last Laugh Award

In news just in this morning NZT (hat tip to Janet Rudolph of Mystery Readers International), Irish crime writer and blogger (Crime Always Pays) Declan Burke has won the Last Laugh Award for best comic crime novel at CrimeFest, for his novel ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL.

To give you a taste of the comic nature of Burke's acclaimed creation, here's the blurb:

Who in the right mind would want to blow up a hospital?

“Close it down, blow it up - seriously, what’s the difference?”

 Billy Karlsson needs to get real. Literally. A hospital porter with a sideline in euthanasia, Billy is a character trapped in the purgatory of an abandoned novel. Deranged by logic, driven beyond sanity, Billy makes his final stand: if killing old people won’t cut the mustard, the whole hospital will have to go up in flames.

 Only his creator can stop him now, the author who abandoned Billy to his half-life limbo, in which Billy schemes to do whatever it takes to get himself published, or be damned …

Congratulations to Declan Burke on winning the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award, which consists of a £500 prize is sponsored by Goldsboro Books, and a commemorative award courtesy of Bristol Blue Glass. It's great to see the full spectrum of crime - including comic and caper-esque novels - being recognised and appreciated by readers, reviewers, and awards judges alike.

The other nominees for this year were:

• Colin Cotterill for Killed at the Whim of a Hat (Quercus)
• Chris Ewan for The Good Thief's Guide to Venice (Simon & Schuster)
• Christopher Fowler for Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood (Doubleday)
• Carl Hiaasen for Star Island (Sphere)
• Doug Johnstone for Smokeheads (Faber and Faber)
• Elmore Leonard for Djibouti (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• L.C. Tyler for Herring on the Nile (Macmillan)

You can read more about ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL here, and purchase copies here.