Garbhan Downey
War of the Blue Roses – the much-anticipated sequel to Downey’s widely-acclaimed comedy-thriller Running Mates published in 2007 – is a rollicking black comedy set in the world of international politics.
In the book, a US-sponsored gardening competition in the little village of Mountrose outside Derry ends up throwing three governments into turmoil when it sparks a worldwide race to grow the world’s first blue rose. The Irish premier is forced to team up with semi-reformed gangsters to stop British and American politicians shanghaiing the Mountrose Festival and walking off with a billion-dollar patent. Bugging, burglary, sabotage, murder and sexual deceit – it’s all part of the rose-growing business. And the bad guys are even worse…
This is Downey’s fifth novel and is set to enhance his reputation as a top-class writer. His last book, Yours Confidentially: Letters of a would-be MP, was listed by a number of reviewers on their ‘Book of the Year’ lists – and was one of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s top seven International Crime Fiction reads of 2008. Downey’s debut novel, Private Diary of a Suspended MLA, was described in the Sunday Times as “the best Northern Ireland political novel of the century”.
REVIEWS:
Lashings of spying, killing and romance – a thrilling and intelligent send up of global politics. Culture NI.org
If you think gardening is a clean pursuit, this book will shock you. Detectives Beyond Borders
Could well be his finest work to date. Crime Scene NI
It’s fast moving, dazzingly clever and often laugh-out-loud funny – it would make a great film script. Derry Journal
Incredibly fresh and entertaining… if there’s …any justice in the literary world, this will be the book that raises Garbhan Downey’s profile to its full literary potential. Anderstown News
I enjoy Garbhan Downey’s acidic, humourous novels …he is an expert at the narrative rabbit-punch. Irish Mail on Sunday
Inventive with a sharp sense of the ridiculous. Sunday Tribune
War of the Blue Roses was chosen as the IRISH BOOK OF THE MONTH in August 2009 by Hughes & Hughes Booksellers, Ireland.
Cover designed by the award-winning animator John McCloskey, whose recent film Crumblegiant was nominated for a BAFTA.
