RARA-AVIS: Blitz

From: Mark Sullivan ( DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net)
Date: 15 Jun 2004


I finished Ken Bruen's Blitz last night. It's the fourth of the White Trilogy. Although I found it highly entertaining, even laughed out loud a number of times, I was a little disappointed. As usual, the characters, especially Brant, were great; it was nice to see them again. Porter Nash is a very nice addition. And the bad guy, Barry Weiss, was well developed. However, I felt Bruen slighted the suspense and plot; he was even a bit sloppy in places.

{Although I discuss a few events late in the book, I've tried to be vague enough not to spoil anything.)

First, the sloppiness. Near the beginning, Weiss lists the cops who had previously "harassed" him. Now I buy that Brant might have forgotten their previous contact, but PC McDonald actually ran him in, so there'd be paperwork. Later in the book he is sent in undercover with Weiss. Yet no one seems aware that there had been previous contact between the two (and although Weiss immediately spots him as a cop, he does not recognize him specifically, even though he earlier named and described him). Now the books in this series are far from meticulous about police procedure, but this seemed a bit much.

As for the lack of suspense, at one point in the book, a chapter ends with an attacker coming out of the bushes at one of the series regulars. The next chapter cuts to another subplot. However, I never felt any sense of danger to the character. Somehow, I knew the regular would survive. This was not always the case in the earlier entries (and not all of the regulars did survive).

None of these books is heavy on plot. Any crimes that are solved are usually done so through lucky breaks, not solid police work. And frankly, that's part of their appeal. This one seems a bit too sketchy, though.

That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed the book. And I'll definitely read Vixen, the next in the series (hope Porter Nash is back), but I've enjoyed other Bruen books even more. This especially paled compared to the last of his I read, The Guards.

Mark

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