Description Selected as one of “Six of the Best – independently published authors tipped to succeed” Publishing News
Jack Taylor, traumatised, bitter and hurting from his last case, has resolved to give up the finding business. He owes the local hard man a debt of honour and it appears easy enough. Find “the Angel of the Magdalen” – a woman who helped the unfortunates incarcerated in the infamous laundry.
He is also hired by a whizz kid to prove that his father’s death was no accident. Jack treats both cases as relatively simple affairs. He becomes involved with a woman who might literally be the death of him, runs dangerously foul of the cops and unearths a story that will drag his sanity to its limits. A policewoman who tests his tolerance may hold the key to both cases, and if he can suppress his contempt for her he may survive. He is finally clean and sober but the unfolding events will not only shake his sobriety but bring him as close to death as he could ever have imagined. As in The Guards and The Killing of the Tinkers, the City of Galway berates, cajoles, torments and enchants him at every confused step he takes. He is about to discover the true meaning of martyrdom, and the awful legacy of suicide will finally be bequeathed to him.
“Irish writer Ken Bruen is the finest purveyor of intelligent Brit-noir.” The Big Issue
“Why the hell haven’t I heard of Ken Bruen before? He’s a terrific writer and The Guards is one of the most mesmerizing works of crime fiction I’ve ever read... This guy is the real thing.” James W. Hall, author of Blackwater Sound
Ken Bruen, born in Galway in 1951, is the author of fourteen novels, including The Guards (2001), the highly acclaimed first Jack Taylor novel. In January he is the lead author of the Minotaur imprint in the US, where he is regarded as the hottest thriller writer since Ian Rankin.
Author Ken Bruen was a finalist for the Edgar, Barry, and Macavity Awards, and the Private Eye Writers of America presented him with the Shamus Award for the Best Novel of 2003 for The Guards, the book that introduced Jack Taylor. Ken received the best series award in February 2007 for the Jack Taylor novels from The Crime Writers Association of America. The Dramatist was nominated in March 2007 for a Gumshoe Award for the BEST EUROPEAN CRIME NOVEL of 2006.
Ken Bruen was born in Galway in 1951, where he now lives. After turning down a place at RADA and completing a MA in English he spent twenty-five years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, S.E. Asia and South America.
The Guards, Ken's first Jack Taylor novel was published to glowing reviews in 2001 and has become a international bestseller. It was followed by The Killing of the Tinkers, The Magdalen Martyrs and The Dramatist.
The highly acclaimed first Jack Taylor novel.
"An elegiac novel of despair and redemption. Bleak, amoral and disturbing, The Guards breaks new ground in the Irish thriller genre, replacing furious fantasy with acute observation of humanfrailty." Irish Independent
The second Jack Taylor novel, a no-holds-barred noir thriller, a whodunnit with attitude. “Irish writer Ken Bruen is the finest purveyor of intelligent Brit-noir.” The Big Issue
