A Jack Taylor Novel (Jack Taylor Series) - The Guards

I love reading mystery novels set in other countries and cultures, and I love Ireland, so when I learned of this series, set in Galway and written by an Irish author, I had to give it a try. It had its strengths, but also--unfortunately--many weaknesses.

I read the book in Kindle e-book format. I love reading on the Kindle, and I've formatted books for the Kindle myself, so I know what is involved in creating a satisfactory product. This was by far the worst-formatted Kindle book I've ever seen, which greatly lessened the pleasure of the reading experience. Things such as spacing, indention, and italics seemed randomly placed (or often not placed) throughout the text.

I found the author's writing style overly self-conscious and obtrusive. He's overly fond of

lists

of

words

inserted throughout the story--something that quickly became an irritating gimmick. He also loves to insert quotes from other authors' mystery novels throughout the text--the book would have been considerably shorter with all of those deleted. Then there is the protagonist himself--he doesn't actually do much detecting or crime solving--he mostly just blunders around in a self-destructive drunken stupor. The main character's struggles with his alcoholism--which are very vividly and realistically portrayed--are much more the real heart of this story, and the two crimes he sort of deals with seem almost tacked onto the story as a justification for calling it a mystery.

I bought The Guards while stranded at an airport in 2010, knowing nothing about Ken Bruen. I'm glad I did because Bruen has since become a favorite author. Bruen's writing style is concise, forceful, sometimes lyrical, and unusual in the sense that he peppers his prose with lists and with quotations from other authors (some of which have led me to discover those authors). Bruen's protagonist, Jack Taylor, is a down-and-out former Guard (i.e., an Irish ex-cop) who is doing his best to cope with pain ... and nobody should have to endure the kind of pain that plagues Taylor in this novel and others in the series. Bruen paints Taylor in dark colors but manages at the same time to make him noble, to make him aspire to decency if not perfection.

Taylor dabbles in private investigations from his seat at the bar run by his friend Sean. A woman who believes her daughter was murdered hires him to prove that she didn't commit suicide. The plot, however, is secondary to the drama of Taylor's life: his attempts to stop drinking, to make peace with his dead father and abusive mother, to forge a relationship with the woman who hired him, and to pursue his dream. The investigation comes to a satisfying end; Taylor's struggle with his life continues in subsequent novels, fortunately for readers like me who want to see more of him.

This is the first book in the Jack Taylor series. I had seen the television series earlier this year, and I wanted to read this book to see if I enjoyed it as much as the TV series. The answer is a resounding yes. Jack Taylor knows Galway, Ireland like John Rebus knows his Edinburgh. And Jack Taylor thinks he does his best work while he's blind-drunk, until he decides to sober up when it comes to crunch time when solving a case. Then he solves the case in Jack Taylor style. Bruen's writing style is so spare and bare-bones it's almost poetic. And yes these books are hard-boiled crime. You need to know that going in, or else the seedy and sometimes vulgar language and action will put you off. In this book Jack is asked by a very attractive woman (the femme fatale) to prove that her daughter was killed and did not commit suicide. After some rather gruesome run-ins with some of Jack's ex-Guarda colleagues (Irish National Police Force), he knows that there is more to Sarah Henderson's death than what meets the eye, and certainly more than the scant attention that the police paid to it when it happened. This is hard-boiled crime at its best. Never have I read a book in this genre that so thrillingly portrays this style. You bet I'm going to read the other books in this series. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Bruen comes across in interviews (what little I've seen, anyway) as a stand-up, decent guy, so it gives me no pleasure to state that THE GUARDS is just ridiculous, a compendium of clichés from start to finish and incredibly overpraised. Drunken hero, tough guy sidekick, simple investigation that becomes more complicated and reaches into Higher Places as it goes along, battles with sobriety, obvious love interest, obvious final twist, etc. You've read it all before, done a million times better if for no other reason than those earlier efforts were the first take on the subject. About half of this reads like a mash-up of Bruen's favorite authors -- it's hard to hate too much on a guy who likes David Goodis, Newton Thornburg and Robert Stone, he deserves two stars just for good taste -- and it gives a lot of the narrative that weird artificial feeling that sadly haunts a lot of popular writing nowadays, the feeling that this is a copy of a copy, the third or fourth use of the teabag giving you the weakest of tea, more redolent of it's inspirations than anything else.

The other half is a peculiarly noxious, weepy, stereotypically Irish self-pitying/self-romanticizing tone which wears on one the more one reads. Alot of Pogues "cry in your beer" kind of stuff, for those who know the band. I also thought the structure of the thing, with it's very short chapters, paragraphs, and sentences, quite odd. Originally I thought it was a flat-out bid to get it as a screenplay (and indeed there seem to have been tv movies made of this series). But upon reflection I believe it's there for the same reason some over-hyped Hollywood action movies rely on the quick-cut -- it gives the narrative an artificial push, and somewhat disguises the fact that there's not much really going in the story and that Bruen, frankly, doesn't have much to say.

Not recommended.

Irishman Jack Taylor is a former member of Ireland's Garda Siochana, living in Galway, who was relieved of duty because of his heavy drinking. Now he is a finder of things (which in most cases would be a private eye but the Irish won't abide by private eyes) so he is just a finder of things. One day the mother of a teenage suicide comes to him and asks him to find out the truth about her daughter who she believes didn't commit suicide. Jack who is drunk, as he usually is, agrees to help her. He sets out to try to find out the truth while also trying to drink himself into oblivion. The mystery practically solves itself while along the way we are treated to a brilliant look at a fascinating character.

If you are looking for a nice private eye novel with a deliciously intricate mystery this book isn't for you. Instead if you like a wonderful character driven noir type novel then run out an grab this book. It's a fascinating in depth look into the tortured life of Jack Taylor with a post modern twist. It's at times funny and in the same breath fills you will despair. A lightening fast read with sparse prose that grabs you right from the beginning and holds you enthralled until the surprising end. The sparseness of the prose just adds to the impact of this book for each word written by Bruen is used with maximum effectiveness to capture the anguished world of Jack Taylor.

Ex-Garda (Irish policeman) Jack Taylor sees his world "through a glass, darkly" -- a pint glass of Guinness to be specific. He's a revolving alcoholic, not a recovering one like J. A. Jance's Seattle Det. J. P. Beaumont, or Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder. But it's early days and THE GUARDS is the first in a series that features Jack Taylor as a "finder" -- "private detective" being too close to "informer." Like early Scudder, Taylor works off the books and out of a bar, and as Block exposed a non-touristy New York City, Ken Bruen gives a back alley raw look at Galway in Ireland's west. Thankfully, not as brutally raw as his English Detective Sergeant Tom Brant series (A WHITE ARREST, TAMING THE ALIEN and THE MCDEAD).

Through blackouts, self doubt, self-loathing Taylor stumbles his way from point to point and would just as soon let things lie as they are while he has another pint, another Jameson chaser. And yet, he maintains a persistence -- a personal code of honor -- as when he asks a client if knowing that the client's daughter's killer is dead is enough satisfaction and being told, "no, she'll still be thought a suicide," that's okay with Jack and he'll follow through even if it's not in his own best interest.

So why follow this stumblebum and want to see where he goes next? Maybe it's the likable people he meets and you want to meet again -- hopefully. Maybe it's that there are ever so brief flashes of someone else behind the booze, not a knight in rusty armor, exactly, but someone that might be worth knowing -- hopefully. Maybe it's just that dogged persistence or that Taylor is a book lover and reader -- a trait I can't resist -- or it might be, just might be, that I like Ken Bruen's raw and real style. Whatever the reason, I'll be getting soon -- very soon -- THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS.

Spare, funny, quick and dark, "The Guards" is a gem. Yes, Jack Taylor's interest in the bottle and his dear Guinness is a bit cliché but Taylor's struggles feel so real, so palpable you have to admire how Bruen pulls this off. "The Guards" skips fast and to me it's a bit of magic how Bruen manages so much depth and yet at the same time the page contains so much white space, so much air. "The Guards" is precious little plot interwoven with the story of a man trying to get back on his feet, having been kicked out of an elite police force in Ireland. As much as anything, what gives "The Guards" so much edge--and heart--is Jack Taylor's strong point of view. He knows what he likes--and doesn't. He can be as polite and kind to the lady who rents him a flat as he is ruthless when the time comes to administer justice and uncover the colors of a "true chameleon" pal. He's got his soft spots and a powerful memory. Bruen works in the backstory with deft strokes and a little trail of moments that give Taylor a fully three-dimensional presence. It's frequently sweetness next to darkness: "Is there anything more comforting than doused-in-vinegar chips. The smell is like the childhood you never had. As I approached the flat, I was in artificial contentment. Turning to my door, the first blow caught me on the neck. Then a kick to the cobblers. For mad reasons, I hung onto the chips." The story comes down to the final page, the final few words. There is no denouement, no chance to reflect. Jack Taylor is left looking for his next chance to set things straight, whether he's fit for the job or not.

This is the first novel in the Jack Taylor series and is a most auspicious start.Taylor lives and works in Galway ,Irish Republic and was formerly a member of the Irish police ,the Garda Siochana .He was not a model employee and that is putting it mildly.A frequent subject of the force disciplinary procedure,an alcoholic and more than a tad Bolshie Taylor was eventually fired for punching an Irish Cabainet Minister caught speeding and then getting a little bit lippy when confronted by the law.Taylor is now-when the book opens-to all intents and purposes a Private Eye ,although since the Irish Republic does not recognise the profession he describes himself as a "finder" .He establishes a minor reputation and earns enough to get by and spens his time imbibing in the city's many hostelries .

He is engaged by Ann Henderson ,an attractive widow ,whose recently deceased daughter Sarah has killed herself.Ann wishes to know why ,and what lies behind the death.The case turns out to be linked to a prominent local businessman ,Planter,who is a golfing buddy and crony of the local head man of the Garda ,Superintendant Clancy a former colleague of Taylor on the force .When Taylor perisists in his investigation he is beaten up by off duty Garda for his troubles .He uncovers evidence of corruption within the Garda and is aided in his fight to get at the truth by the psychotic ex military man Sutton ,a man whose taste for violence is more a little excessive .

The mystery of Sarah's death and its unravelling is only the surface part of this very dark and brooding book .It is equally ,if not more so ,about Taylor's own spiritual and physical odysssey as he battles the demons of his childhood and seeks to rid himself of the burden of his drinking .It is tale of the londg dark night of the soul ,a journey to the other side of the night .Tayalor is death obsessed and haunted ,reading voraciously on the subject and also has taste for noir movies and American noir crime fiction .(The references to authors and their works makes this book a useful primer for people looking for writers in that genre ,new and more classical ).Taylor cannot sustain either love or sobriety for long and this makes him a tragic and bruised hero of the "down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean" variety ,He frequently haunts cemeteries ,and bars hanging out with the street people and winos who rather like Taylor himself must fight every day for what they have in the way of both dignity and money .
The book does not romanticise alcoholism and sees it for what it is -a disease and an illness that means booze ultimately ends up costing more than money as it devours his relationships with ann and the young English singer Catherine Bellingham .
Galway itself is a key figure in the drama -its quays,and back alleys and pubs .Most of all its characters -aplace where tramps can quote and write poetry and barbers converse about Joy Division .(Jack himself likes traditional country music -STOUT FELLOW!)
While not a comfortable read this is a taut and edgy book that lovers of the noirish type of crime writing will devour ,while cosy crime lovers are advised to give it a miss as they will not be happy with its profanity and violence

I bought The Guards while stranded at an airport, knowing nothing about Ken Bruen. I'm glad I did. Bruen's writing style is concise, forceful, sometimes lyrical, and unusual in the sense that he peppers his prose with lists and with quotations from other authors (some of which have led me to discover those authors). Bruen's protagonist, Jack Taylor, is a down-and-out former Guard (i.e., an Irish ex-cop) who is doing his best to cope with pain ... and nobody should have to endure the kind of pain that plagues Taylor in this novel and others in the series. Bruen paints Taylor in dark colors but manages at the same time to make him noble, to make him aspire to decency if not perfection.

Taylor dabbles in private investigations from his seat at the bar run by his friend Sean. A woman who believes her daughter was murdered hires him to prove that she didn't commit suicide. The plot, however, is secondary to the drama of Taylor's life: his attempts to stop drinking, to make peace with his dead father and abusive mother, to forge a relationship with the woman who hired him, and to pursue his dream. The investigation comes to a satisfying end; Taylor's struggle with his life continues in subsequent novels, fortunately for readers like me who want to see more of him.

I would give this enjoyable novel 4 1/2 stars if that were an the store option.

Other reviewers have given you their take on the mystery element, the literary allusions, and Bruen's counterparts among which he is compared and ranked. I wanted to add, as a Galwegian once-removed, that Bruen captures well the transition of his hometown from a 1950s overgrown and decaying village into today's bustling tourist trap, gentrifying, selfish, and greedy. Like much of contemporary Irish life, the values of the past, however limited and blinkered they were, have collapsed and only a few like Jack Taylor uphold, on his better days and especially when he can back up his better nature with a bit of cash to share with those worse off than he (which is saying a lot)some humanistic generousity.

Bruen, interviewed on a website devoted to his works, has spoken of his wish to portray this secularising, grasping, and yuppified cityscape, and how it collides with those left on its remodelled streets in the gutter and at the barstool, too fragile to keep pace with a world around them that's too suddenly changed for not the better, despite the economic boom. All of this context comes very sparingly in this novel, and even the gardai to which the title's given over gain barely a supporting cast role. Jack's tale, unlike the cover blurb that links Elmore Leonard to James Joyce, by contrast takes nothing from the Irish forebear that for all his genius and ego has overshadowed those (like Bruen) who labour in his wake.

Instead, I would place Beckett as the true inspiration. After I had sensed this in The Guards, I found the author verifying Sam as one of his influences. The spare, bitter, yet somehow life-affirming and defiantly tender nature of Jack and those with whom he struggles to bond makes this book stick in my memory. I do not read "crime fiction" normally, but a desire to read about Galway today makes this, the first in a series that is nearing the half-dozen mark (abroad; American publication lags and has just reached three at the time of my post), valuable not only for its first-person testimony to a changing city, but for depths of honesty and humanity that lurk subtly under self-lacerating and chemically-altered surfaces.

Jack Taylor has become his own worst enemy. Relieved from duty with the Irish Garda Siochana in Galway due to frequent bouts of alcoholic indiscretions --- and trouble controlling a smart mouth --- he now holds himself out as a PI, an extremely rare breed in Ireland. The Irish don't like squealers and they view private investigators as close kin to squealers. But one night in a pub, a desperate mother, Ann Henderson, seeks Jack's help. She believes her daughter's death, which has been officially slated as a teenage suicide, was more like murder. Jack takes on the job. Using an unlikely group of his misfit cronies, he employs some questionable techniques. In doing so, he stirs up a wasp's nest of unwelcome interest. What at first seemed a quick look-into turns deadly serious.
Crying his downtrodden Irish blues, Jack comes across as caustic, often disingenuous and mostly well meaning --- at least, I think. I'm not sure and I'm not sure he's sure. In his lucid spells, meaning when he's not totally wrecked by the booze, he has moments of grand profundity, although any gems that come along he tersely delivers. His life feels bleak, always on the verge of one disaster or another, but he has moments of relative contentment. Literary quotes --- some classic, some contemporary --- are woven throughout the chapters, demonstrating our questionable hero's intellectual side. While a wee bit distracting, it adds a playful dimension to the tale.
The abundant dialogue proves Jack a fellow who is quick on his feet with a sassy comeback always close at hand. In fact, the dialogue is so engaging that you hardly notice the plot slowly advancing. It seems that Jack dabbles at working on the case, becomes sidetracked for a few short chapters and then pokes around at a few more clues. His methods, however, yield results --- just not always positive ones.
Ken Bruen writes with an economy of words. He doesn't use very many in this 291-page book, but he makes every one of them count. Simply put, he delivers all meat and no fat.
I never read a book in a day. I always savor. However, THE GUARDS is nearly impossible to stretch over more than one sitting. Mr. Bruen's style, unique and near poetic, commands a literary orgy once you start. It reads so fast that it will leave your head spinning. And the twists the story takes --- and there are plenty of them --- will leave your entire being stunned. Now, excuse me, I have to go and find more of Ken Bruen's books. One was definitely not enough.
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

"The Guards" (2001) is a genre mystery in much the same way that "Moby-Dick" is a book about whale hunting.

That's about as far as I'll go comparing the monstrous, densely written classic by Herman Melville and the Spartan poetic prose of Ken Bruen.

On the surface, there's no reason why "The Guards" should work. The novel introduces us to Jack Taylor, who has become Bruen's series character (now appearing in seven novels). Taylor is a collection of clichés: an ex-cop, a drunk, a hard case, a loner, and a closet bibliophile who reads poetry.

Haven't we seen this character before? Yes, over and over and over again.

There's even a scene in "The Guards" where Taylor is brutally pounded on by two burly cops (known as guards in Ireland) and ends up in the hospital. Waking up, and still severely injured, Taylor puts on his clothing and storms out. No hospitals for him!

Yet, Jack Taylor comes across and nothing short of authentic. Bruen skirts over the clichés - seemingly mocking them from the sidelines - and gives us a protagonist that rages against the dying of the light. A character that strides through the pages of "The Guards" like the reincarnation Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op, but wearing a leprechaun hat.

Like Hammett's amoral private detective, Jack Taylor has witnessed so much murder and misery that his sense of compassion, his humanity, has been worn down to a nub. Taylor skates along the edge of right and wrong - not quite sure where the boundaries are anymore.

And it works. Jack Taylor lives and breathes. As a reader, you believe in him.
Then there's the plot - which is a mess for a genre mystery. Allegedly, Taylor is hired by a widow to investigate the alleged suicide of her teenage daughter. Yet, Taylor barely musters up the resolve to mount even a minimal investigation (hey, it might get in the way of his next bender).

But in the end - who cares? The plot is beside the point. The real star of "The Guards" is Bruen's writing: elegant, stark, brutal, comic, and drenched with emotion. This is hardboiled crime fiction that could make James Joyce stab someone in the eye with a broken whiskey bottle.

And let's not forget the setting: the coastal Irish city of Galway. Bruen nails it. He gives us Galway: the city streets, the old hotels, the ancient barrooms, the cemeteries, and the undercurrent of Catholicism, and, of course, the dialog. It sings.

There's a certain satisfaction as a reader discovering your next novelist. Knowing that you've found a writer that you're going to be spending a lot of time with - because you're going to read everything he's written. For me, right now, this is Bruen.

Read "The Guards."

That's really all that needs to be said.

Read "The Guards."

Want to read hilarious literate blather about books and movies? Then head over to Dark Party Review ([...].

The Stellar Jack Taylor Debut, The Guards is the first in the series of Jack Taylor novels by the wry master of crime fiction, Ireland's Ken Bruen. This is the first one in the series that I had read, and have returned to it, to read again. With all of Jack's stumbles and mistakes the reader cannot help but care about him and hope it gets through all the bumps in the road he trips over, trying to right a wrong, trying to help a friend. Jameson's at the ready, Zippo on the table, dark corner of the pub. Start with this one. Just superb.

Readers hoping for a light mystery that is full of intricate plot devices that will challenge their own powers of deduction while being taken on a thrill-ride of adventure should be well advised this is not the book for you. THE GUARDS reads like a celebration of hardboiled fiction, the mood is dark, some might even use the term nourish and the style is spare as Bruen has stripped the prose down to the bare bones.
The story focuses on Jack Taylor, an ex-Garda Siochana officer (Ireland's National Police Service) who was kicked out of the service after he punched a member of parliament in the mouth. He spends his time, when he's not sitting drunk in his local pub, working as a private detective. Or at least, he would be working as a private detective if Ireland recognised the profession. As Jack explains it, he just finds things for people, thanks to two qualities, patience and pig stubbornness, particularly the latter.
One day, while sitting in Grogan's bar working on his latest drunk, Jack is approached by Ann Henderson who wants to hire him to investigate the suicide of her daughter, Sarah. Ann is convinced that her daughter wouldn't kill herself and wants Jack to find the truth. Jack, drunk at the time, agrees to take the case. Once Jack starts working the case, it becomes obvious that he has a specific sense of right and wrong as evidenced when he targets his enemies. But he offsets that with a distinctly underdeveloped sense of self-preservation, or perhaps it's just dulled by alcohol abuse, as evidenced by the forthright approach he uses to confront these same enemies.
Written in the first person from Jack's point of view, it is narrated in terse, clipped sentences as though Taylor is telling us his story through tightly gritted teeth, absolutely exhausted by his ordeals. It is very reminiscent of Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series or George Pelecanos' Nick Stefanos series. Both of these series feature characters that battle constantly with alcoholism as Jack does. Further clues to the hardboiled qualities that Bruen achieves can be found in the quotes used at the start of selected chapters, the authors of these quotes include Ed McBain, Walter Mosely, Elmore Leonard and Pelecanos. At different times you can see the influence of each of these authors making their presence felt.
As a devotee of hardboiled fiction this book really appealed to me. It's dark and occasionally depressing but the character of Jack Taylor is an honest to goodness survivor greeting most setbacks with stoic good humour he becomes a strangely endearing character and I found myself cheering for him by the end. I think it is a worthy Edgar Award nominee.
By the way, between blackouts, a trip to the mental asylum, attempts at sobriety, recovering from beatings and cataclysmic falls off the wagon, Jack does actually put some time into the case he was hired to investigate. Whether he solved the case is neither here nor there really, the important thing is how he survives.

In Galway, Ireland, Ann Henderson visits finder (there are no private detectives in this country) Jack Taylor in his office, a table at Grogan's Pub. Jack is an alcoholic former Garda who was fired for hitting a VIP. Ann hires Jack to look into the death of her beloved sixteen year old daughter Sarah, ruled a suicide. Ann does not believe her daughter would leave her so alone in life and then there was the anonymous phone call insisting the teen was drowned.
Jack asks his partner Catherine Bellingham to do some computer research. Cathy learns that the victim worked at Planters where two other young girls also killed themselves and that the manager plays golf with the Garda superintendent and hires police guards as moonlighters. As he digs deeper two thugs beat up Jack, warning him to back off, but he recognizes the shoes as belonging to the Garda. Jack continues his inquiries while other incidents occur, but whether it is the alcohol providing false courage or just Ann encouraging him, he refuses to quit until he uncovers the truth of what happened to Sarah.
THE GUARDS is a terse crime thriller that grips the audience from the onset because the protagonist is a hard-boiled antihero acting heroically. Readers will like the lead character, though many will prefer he give up the booze, but then readers wouldn't know Jack. Though some personal subplots explain Jack, they also take away from the fast-paced story line that will remind the audience of the 1930s detectives as Ken Bruen provides an engaging urban noir that hijacks readers from start to finish.
Harriet Klausner

I've read dozens of hardcore crime and detective novels over the years, but Ken Bruen's The Guards stands out as one of the most unusual of the lot. I recently became aware of Ken Bruen, who lives in Galway, Ireland, and set this novel there, when I read The Triumph of the Thriller earlier this month. Bruen was listed as one of the best crime writers working in Europe today and The Guards was mentioned as a particularly good place to start reading him.

Jack Taylor, the novel's narrator, is a former member of the Garda Siochana, Ireland's police force, who has attained somewhat of a local reputation for being good at "finding things." He is the closest thing to a private detective that a highly suspicious Irish society will trust to even a small degree. Unfortunately for Taylor, one of the things that he is best at finding is his next bottle of booze and he spends a substantial portion of his waking hours in a less than sober state. Taylor's reputation as a "finder" results in a young woman asking him to investigate the supposed suicide of her daughter and what he learns in the process will forever change his life.

On the surface, Jack Taylor is little different from many of genre's most popular detectives. He is an alcoholic fighting to stay sober in a world that every day confronts him with readily available booze, a man with a history of failed relationships, one handy with sarcasm and wit even when in danger.

But two things make The Guards different from the bulk of crime fiction being written today, the first being Bruen's writing style. The novel's prose is sparse, relying on short scene after short scene to move the plot along rather than on surrounding action scenes with the details of an intricate plot. Each scene is presented through the eyes of Jack Taylor and the reader's sense of what is happening is limited to only what Taylor sees or remembers from his own past. Bruen doesn't always hold himself to standard punctuation and is very fond of producing lists in place of simple sentences. For example,

"My clothes were

Washed

Ironed

Folded

at the end of the bed."

Too, many of the scenes are preceded by one of the author's favorite quotations from the works of other crime writers such as Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, Ed McBain and George P. Pelecanos.

The second thing that makes this novel so unusual is how unimportant the plot really turns out to be in the long run. This novel is more about character development and the relationships of the characters than it is about the investigation that Taylor undertakes on behalf of the grieving mother. And it works beautifully. Jack Taylor is an unforgettable character who takes his rightful place among the Spencers, Robicheauxs, Spades and Marlowes of the literary world.

Jack Taylor was recently thrown out of the Irish Police Force, AKA The Guards. He now functions as a PI when he manages to remain sober. He is asked by a beautiful woman to look into the apparent suicide of the woman's sixteen year old daughter. She feels it is likely to be murder. To find out the answer, Jack must walk the mean streets of Galway.
Short, chapters that serve almost as vignettes are the principal form of this impressive work. Dialogue alone makes up quite a bit of the novel. Characters are quite realistic, yet little action occurs. The personal angst the main protagonist undergoes is quite reminiscent of a James Crumbley novel. Crumbley actually provides a testimonial on the back cover. I really don't enjoy the depressing realism of Crumbley and the same holds true for this novel. I fully realize this is a fine, well written work. It just isn't to my personal taste.

There's certainly no shortage of "drunk P.I." novels, yet somehow Bruen has created a completely compelling work.
As a former member of an elite Irish police force, Jack Galway now whiles away his time nursing drinks in a pub. Despite his fall from grace, Jack is still known as a man with a skill for finding things. Enter the beautiful older woman (one of many cliches this book gets away with) with the missing daughter, and Jack's back in action. Inevitably, he has encounters with all sorts of seedy types, leading to a resolution that may not satisfy some readers.
The story may not be original, but Bruen's writing more than makes up for it. A great read for fans of the P.I. novel, especially those who appreciate strong writing. Unfortunately, this book will likely be overlooked in favor of others, but for anyone interested it's definitely worth the time.

Until fairly recently I'd never heard of this author. I'm always looking for new, interesting, unusual talent having run through so many of my old standbys. Having always enjoyed a bit of the macabre with my mystery, I'm extremely pleased to have found Mr. Bruen. Hard-boiled is an understatement with punchy dialog and as has been said, beneath the chest of a cynic, lies the heart of a romantic, and no truer words were ever spoken for the hero of Bruen's books. Crisp, earthy, and not for the 'comfort and cozy' set, Bruen describes an Ireland I'd never have suspected with an honesty of feelings making for a deep character study in a terribly flawed, extremely troubled protagonist. If you like them fast, hard-hitting and sarcastic with dark, dark humor, you'll enjoy Ken Bruen and Jack Taylor.

I've been addicted, truly addicted, to crime fiction, police procedurals, and eerie thrillers for going on three years now. I tend to enjoy the early James Ellroy stuff, Ian Rankin, George Pelecanos, Reginald Hill, Lawrence Block, Jeff Lindsay, Henning Mankell, Jack Kerley, and others. This guy Ken Bruen is simply phenomenal. The characters wend their way toward results that often leave you feeling they haven't attained their objectives ... but that's the way life is. Main character Jack Taylor is a frightful mess, but he comes across as a very real ex-Garda (Irish cop) whose life is pulled in any number of directions due to wild circumstance. You can't go wrong with this series if great, punchy dialogue is your thing. Taylor is quite a guy with a strange personal code of seeing the bad guys get theirs ... regardless of how fate finally nips them in the arse. Huge recommendation here: Bruen is a genuine master of this genre. Give him a shot.

Ken Bruen's THE GUARDS is thoughtful, complex, moody --and is a knockout punch of a book. He makes the world of Irelands Garda Siochana utterly fascinating by giving us a glimpse of the shadowy underside of police work. This is no glamorized world of heroic cops and stylish badguys --this is life in the real world, and as such the book becomes far more affecting and compelling than most police novels. The main character, Jack Taylor, a man on the outs with his former department, is a multi-layered and multifaceted character, a man with "issues", and his doggedness, smarts, and attitude make this book the finest example of Hibernian Noir to have crossed the Atlantic so far.

The narrator is an alcoholic private eye, former member of the Guarda, the Irish paramilitary police. He has been dismissed from the Guarda - for being too unbending or for drinking to much - the reader is not told. Now mostly devoted to drinking, he is approached by Ann who asks him to search the true cause of death of her daughter which supposedly has committed suicide. She had been tipped off by an anonymous informer that the death was murder.
Ann and the narrator soon become lovers. He is beaten up, goes to a lunatic asylum for drying out, gets thrown out of his apartment, his best friend is killed etc. etc.
I will not give a spoiler here. Therefore only the following comments: On the plus side the narrative is well paced and there are some good lines in between 'How do you know they are the bad ones? If they are following you at four in the morning, they are the bad ones' or 'The bar had a sign saying "We don't serve Bud light" '
But overall the book overdoes it. Ireland maybe nasty and brutish, but Galway is no South Side. Even in Ireland, Gloom and Doom must somehow sometimes make way for sunlight. How many beatings can an alcoholic survive and how often will be still be coherent in his thinking even when fully imbibed? The main villain becomes obvious by the middle of the book and the riddle of who exactly tipped off Ann and why is never being solved. The dark buildup, the atmosphere creation is well done and would have deserved a worthier place and subject.

The Guards starts out well enough, giving us a terse, almost stream-of-consciousness style look into the mind of former Garda Jack Taylor. Jack, much like so many other hard-boiled protagonists, has a problem with the bottle.

The problem with that bottle provides the main backbone of the book. Don't be fooled into thinking that this book is about a mystery, revenge, or anything even close to that; this book is about Jack Taylor moaning about drinking or about not drinking.

For a book written in such a quick, spaced-out style, the plot moves glacially. And when plot points are revealed, the payoff is practically nonexistent. Mysteries are figured out with no fanfare or suspense, and the reader is left figuring out why any of this is important. Taylor also goes off on tangents that meander way outside of the story...some of these tangents will last for ten pages, with none of them really moving anything forward. At best, the tangents just reinforce the fact that Taylor's a drunk and that he pretty much hates everyone.

Bruen's terse style also allows for very little character description...if any at all. I still have no idea what any of the main characters in the book should look like. I mean, I don't need a detailed description of every hair on their head, but a little nod in the direction of physical description would be nice.

The formatting is also problematic. Maybe Bruen was trying something with the formatting, but it just comes off like he's padded out the novel to the 288 page length. Bruen devotes entire chapters (which are titled erratically, some not titled at all) to a single thought or small exchange with another character. These things should have been one paragraph in the book, but Bruen lays them out to consume 2 1/2 physical pages with about 1/2 a page of content. The formatting does nothing for pacing, either, due to the fact that it's not consistent in showing the passage of time. Sometimes he'll just drop a chapter in, and it seems arbitrary.

Maybe if Bruen had laid this out properly, made it a nice 110 page novella (seriously, there are probably 150 pages of wasted space in this book), this would have been a better read, but the annoyance of needing to flip pages every three seconds just so Jack Taylor can ruminate about a Joy Division album in a standalone chapter really ruins the reading experience.

I gave the book 2 stars because it's mercifully short. You could finish it in a well-motivated afternoon. It has some nice bits and pieces, but it's certainly not worth buying for full price. The formatting makes it a rip-off. Get it from the library, or buy it used.

Irish alcoholic and ex police officer, Jack Tyler, has made visiting bars and getting drunk his daily activity, and there was barely any room for anything else. Then one ordinary night, a woman comes in with a request for him, to solve her daughter's apparent suicide so it would be ruled as a murder. Jack takes the case, and when he is attacked because of it, he's sure there is more to the suicide story. While doing the few investigative activities that he could fit in between heavy drinking, he and Ann, the suicide girl's mother, share a short romance that goes up in flames. Jack goes clean and sober, but new challenges arise as a "friend" of his tries to throw him off the wagon.

When I started this book, it was confusing and hard to read, but it gets easier as it goes. Though I was highly unsatisfied with the mystery end of the book, the drama of it was relatively good. We get to see Jack's battle with drinking, while circumstances give him every reason to pick up the bottle. We get to get into his head and live his entire life, while also seeing the important people around him die of tragic deaths. The ending, which is rather predictable, is also enjoyable.

Considering that this is the first book by this author, I would give him a chance in a few years when his writing improves. After 10 years of writing, I'm sure he will be a huge bestseller, but for now, he still needs to learn what works in crime fiction and what doesn't.

If you like George Pelecanos' early work, you almost certainly will like this writer. Bruen's writing style takes sparse to a whole new level. Most of these chapters are 2-3 pages at most but this is not a criticism. The book is very focused. If you are looking for a travelogue of Galway, Ireland disguised as a mystery, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a well-written, sparse but focused, dark (and reading the other reviews I don't really need to expound on this) novel. This is a great way to spend a couple of days.

Believable, in-your-face, and real; you are there, sitting across the table, eavesdropping at the next bar stool. It leaps off every page and makes you part of Jack Taylor's world. I was grabbed from the first sentence of the first page by the self-destructive soul of Jack Taylor; a soul that could only be cauterized by alcohol and cocaine. Yes, that's dark. But it's too narrow an assessment. If you have a dark side ( and how many of us have, if we're honest) you will find a memory or two in the lost evenings and anguished mornings of Jack Taylor. But where there is dark, there must also be light. And that light is there, perhaps dim at times, but it's there. It's there in the women who love him, in the people who still trust him, in the friends who care for him, in himself too: his ability to pick himself up again, his sense of justice, his attempts to find and punish the evil ones. There's the humour too, always there, black humour maybe, but it's the fabric that saves Jack Taylor and the people who populate Ken Bruen's Galway from absolute despair. Yes, Jack Taylor finds his anaesthetic in cocaine and alcohol. But he also finds it in books. It seems at times that he could just as easily be tempted into Charlie Byrne's as into his local pub. If you love to read (and I suspect you wouldn't be reading this unless you do) you'll be able to 'stack' Jack Taylor's selections on your own book shelves as you get lost in this dark trek through the netherworld of Galway.
Maybe Ken Bruen is doing for Galway what Joyce did for Dublin in Ulysses: giving us a map of a Galway that is rapidly disappearing under the paws of the Celtic Tiger.
That's it. Buy the book, tell your friends, buy some more................

I enjoyed this book. It is a fairly straightforward mystery set in the Irish town of Galway. The main character is a down and out ex-Garda who investigates the suicide of a teenage girl. I think the story is more about a man finding himself than the actual mystery. The rainy, Irish setting lends a bit of gloom to the setting and the secondary characters are quite interesting. An intriguing read, I look forward to more books from Mr. Bruen.

A gritty, alcohol-fuelled private investigator novel set in Galway, Ireland. This is very much in the vein of the 'down and out" detective novels I have read, but transplanted to Ireland and better written than most. There are some differences however as the main character, does not really solve or investigate anything but rather just goes from one drunken, blacked-out binge to another stirring up trouble that eventually solves many of the problems itself. I enjoyed the literary interest of the main character and the author uses this to add some great background flavour to the story. The Irish setting also provides for some unique characters, interestingly different local practices and settings.

It's a short book. I don't think I've read a book this fast before but haven't said that much of the quick finish was that I didn't want to put it down, enjoying the bleak but real world the author had created.

Ken Bruen is a writer who writes mysteries, as opposed to mystery writer. He might blanch at that statement, as his creation loves his hardboiled heroes and books, but it's the truth. He can be hard boiled, too. But there is wit, passion and plenty of poetry in books. And while Jack Taylor and all his over-the-top pathetic drunkeness may stretch the rules of credulty at times. Bruen makes his crashes more a triumph of a survivor than an elgy for a hopeless drunk.

This is Ken Buen's first novel and what a debut. He introduces us to his main character ex Garda Jack Taylor who has destroyed much of his life through drinking. Yet there is something there in the dark places that still shines within Jack Taylor in his new guise as a private detective. The dialogue is snappy and fast paced. I enjoyed this book and for a first effort it is quite the impressive debut. I look forward to more from Ken Bruen.

This novel came highly recommended both by the book jacket raves and by the woman at the cash register where I bought it. Unfortunately it did not live up to its glowing billing. Although Bruen has a strong authorial voice, and the Galway point of view was interesting, he could not overcome a pile of nagging problems. First, the story is not much in terms of intrigue, brain-work, or suspense. Bottom line, nothing much happens of any compelling interest and the climax is easily foreseeable. Second, the author seems to know he's got a lightweight story, which he camouflages by using elongated printing techniques (check out the sentences strung out down the page, one word at a time, apparently to add impact to the narrator's thoughts) and prose affectations (see the many quotes, jokes, anecdotes, and pseudo-profundities, some anonymous, some attributed to various sources, sprinkled throughout) that are interesting at times but become annoying over the course of the book. Third, I wasn't at all sold on the tough-guy posturing of the hero, Jack; just having Jack blow up and insult people in key scenes was a real cop-out and suggests that the author didn't develop the character well. And what of his obvious literate, sensitive side? The dumb-brute-who-deep-inside-is-an-art-and-literature lover stuff seemed a stretch.
Which leads to the book's final problem(s): there were way too many overly familiar situations. . . Begin with the outcast cop as hero. He's an alkie battling the bottle and his personal demons. He's also a bit of a lunkhead but then, he's an amateur philosopher, too. His ex-partner is now the Guards' head honcho and his adversary. A hot babe comes to him with a case, and yup, he can't help but fall for her, too.
Be forewarned, this book is a stylistic exercise in tough-guy prose. In fairness, it's not an entirely unsuccessful exercise, as the author clearly has talent. But it's still an exercise and left me disappointed.

If you like Ian Rankin, you will like Ken Bruen. Mr. Bruen is just a bit more...brutal, I think, although both really get into the dark aspects of their characters and subjects. I have read five of Mr. Bruen's books, and look forward to more, even though they make me afraid of what is possible in our world.

Well, I read the mixed reviews here and the jacket reviews.
I thought I was in for a good read regardless, because this book was a runner up for the Edgar, after all It just had to have potential!

It just doesn't work for me. Here are a few reasons:
It is a page turner. Maybe because there are only 75 words on some pages, and quite a few chapters are only a page and a half long. Extensive use of white space.

Second, because the story takes place in Ireland I thought I could learn a little more about this facinating culture. Not so, because the vernacular is so foriegn to me that I can't understand what they are talking about at times. Ever been to a foriegn move? See the subtitles down there? You don't get that in the book, and he's writing in English. Maybe if you're intimately familiar with European culture you'll understand the vague references to popular events and people. Goes over this good 'ol boy's head.
Lastly, I am a fan of the hard boiled detective story told in the first person. They're just fun, and I enjoy 'em. This one didn't work because the character just feels flat, without much dimension. Bruen could have fleshed him out more, and was often on the right track. But in keeping with the sparse language, we don't learn much--or care much--about him.
Not for me, didn't finish it.

As I said--"Not for me" Take it as you will. Is this review helpful? If you love KB, no, it's not. Never heard of the dude? Think about it.

Private investigators, that staple of American literature and criminal justice, do not exist in Ireland. The Irish will not tolerate informers. That leaves only fools--and drunks--to look into cases the Guard have closed or ignored. To the Irish, truth is not as important as silence.
The Guards is at first glance a little tale with an anti-hero, but proves to be much more.

I've finally started the Jack Taylor series, after having come to Bruen through London Boulevard and Once Were Cops, and I'm hungry for anything I can get my hands on. If you're a fan of his spare yet powerful style of prose, The Guards will not disappoint.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book, but Bruen's writing style is different and I found it sometimes difficult to follow. Because I was a captive audience and it's all I had to read at the time, I plowed through it and actually enjoyed it. To be fair, this is his first novel I read so maybe the second one will be easier.

There are few writers better than Ken Bruen, who does more with less words than anyone out there. The Jack Taylor series, if you like beautifully dark and hypnotically painful, is for you. Don't miss a single Jack Taylor book.

Like being trapped by a drunk who insists in telling you his incoherent life story with special emphasis on his resentments, puerile philosophical insights, and excerpts from bad Irish and C&W music. Don't go there. Galway was a nice town, it may still be, but there must be better ways to experience it.

This is Ken Buen's first novel and what a debut. He introduces us to his main character ex Garda Jack Taylor who has destroyed much of his life through drinking. Yet there is something there in the dark places that still shines within Jack Taylor in his new guise as a private detective. The dialogue is snappy and fast paced. I enjoyed this book and for a first effort it is quite the impressive debut. I look forward to more from Ken Bruen.