Running Mates
Publisher: Blackstaff Press
Published: August 15, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780856407994
Subjects: Modern fiction; Political; Fiction; Fiction - General; Derry (Northern Ireland); Election; Ireland; Northern Ireland; Politics and government; Presidents
Description: Irish Independent
Downey’s latest offering is unashamedly creating a new kind of genre – the Irish cross-border political thriller… Its rapid-fire pace, intriguing twists, high body count, and brilliant dialogue make it a really exciting read, and a worthy addition to the ever growing list of classy Irish crime novels.


Sunday Business Post
Fast-paced, outlandish and funny. 

Irish Mail on Sunday
This blackly humorous romp fizzes with dark wit and has a razor sharp edge. 

Irish News
Irresistibly funny. A wickedly sharp and often hilarious portrayal of the ubiquitous crookery that takes place behind closed doors in the run up to an election.

Sunday World
A superb blend of comedy, political dirty tricks, grisly murder and bizarre twists!

Kenny’s Books, Ireland (Fiction Book of the Month, July 2007)
A roller-coaster tale – a good cynical look at the Northern attitude towards the South and vice versa.

Books Ireland 
Those who appreciated the dry wit and acerbic comment of the previous novels will enjoy this one as Downey turns his satiric eye on politics North and South in a story of intrigue, deceit, blackmail and even murder.

Sunday Tribune
Ultimately, this is a satire about Irish politics and all politics are filthy. Is the book based on truth? What does it matter, the vicious infighting presented here as fiction is probably closer to the objective truth.

Irish Voice
He’s a bit of one, is Garbhan Downey. In his new novel, a fast paced satire of Irish politics and political life, thinly veiled Irish public figures are given the full treatment. …It just so happens that Downey has a talent for writing vivid dialogue in the Irish vernacular that makes this outrageous caper work on its own terms.

News Letter
A really good book… a brilliantly plotted and written comedy romp through a tremendously corrupt race for the Irish presidency.

Ulster Herald
His style captures the fly-boy humour and wise-cracking lack of deference of his Derry City home. Yet it is his knowledge of what former Irish President Erskine Childers once described longingly as the “cut and thrust” of Irish party politics that gives Running Mates its surprising authenticity. This work of fiction will amuse and inform anybody with even an inkling of interest in Irish politics in a new era. This is one to savour.

Alternative Ulster
Fictional gold …a hilarious romp through affairs of state.

County Times
The plot, which is ingeniously constructed, has the fingerprints of a master craftsman and propels Downey to the forefront of the fictional writers of the day. If it is your intention to buy only one book this year, then let it be this.

Derry Journal
Fast paced, irreverent and irresistibly funny…makes Machiavelli look like an amateur.

Londonderry Sentinel
This work is a blisteringly caustic indictment of the entire political establishment in the north, south, east and west of Ireland…Downey is a highly talented writer with a remorseless wit, unrelenting honesty and a clear, crisp and flowing writing style. Running Mates is not a must-buy novel, it is a I-dare-you-not-to-buy-it novel.

In Derry
A cracking paced comic caper…this plot has more crosses than crucifixion day on Calvary and more back-stabbing than a reunion of Roman emperors.

Galway Independent(Book of the Week July 2007)
A biting satire on the politics of Ireland, its hypocrisies and false promises.