Juri wrote:
"I have one Ken Bruen in my shelves and now that you mention
him, I'll try to read it."
I like Ken Bruen's work quite a bit. The first of his crime
novels (he wrote and edited a couple books before it, I
think), Rilke on Black, is essentially a '50s American
paperback original made contemporary and set in England. The
protagonist is a criminal who is very into American culture,
but it doesn't quite translate to his British life. It's
good, but Bruen got better, more distinctive and more British
after that. Each book gets a little more idiosyncratic.
Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice is about a UK bankrobber with
several legit busineses on the side, a character straight out
of Ted Lewis, who picks up a psycho femme fatale who begins
stalking him. His life begins to unravel.
The Hackman Blues is probably my favorite of his, about a
manic-depressive heavy whose efficiency and ability to think
clearly, obey orders and rein in his violence is directly
tied to whether or not he has decided to take his medication
that day.
Finally, there is his White Trilogy, the third of which is
due to be available in the US next month. These are quite odd
police procedurals. The main character is totally corrupt on
a basic level (expects everything to be free, food, housing,
sex, etc, and bullies people into giving him these things;
blackmails his partner's wife), but is still offended by
crime and is seeking that "White Arrest" which will make him
such a golden boy that no one could even think of firing him,
even if all of the other stuff comes out. His partner and
boss is beginning a meltdown as his marriage goes to hell.
The other cops are equally screwed up. And somehow, they
manage to solve some crimes, mostly by luck. The writing
style in the two of this trilogy I've read is as distinctive
in its own way as Ellroy's White Jazz voice. As with Whtie
Jazz, I've had to read much, if not all, of these books more
than once, but it wasn't a chore or due to bad writing, more
due to getting caught up in the pace and rhythm and rushing
ahead too fast to grasp everything that's going on.
Mark
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