Description At first it was straightforward – Dublin authors to write on their city... Then we turned the concept on its head, as you do in noir. The Irish are fascinated by how we appear to the world, so let’s have a look, we thought, at how this city appears from the outside. In addition to a couple of us locals, let’s take a cross section of the very best of today’s crime writers from America, as well as Britain, and those between.
– Ken Bruen, from the introduction.
Brand new stories by Ray Banks, James O. Born, Ken Bruen, Reed Farrell Coleman, Eoin Colfer, Jim Fusilli, Patrick J. Lambe, Laura Lippman, Craig McDonald, Pat Mullan, Gary Phillips, John Rickards, Peter Spiegelman, Jason Starr, Olen Steinhauer, Charlie Stella, Duane Swierczynski, Sarah Weinman and Kevin Wignall.
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
The third Jack Taylor novel. Traumatised, bitter and hurting from his last case, Jack has resolved to give up the finding business. However, he owes the local hard man a debt of honour and it appears easy enough: find “the Angel of the Magdalen”.
Compared to William Burroughs's Naked Lunch, Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers, and Norman Mailer's Why Are We in Vietnam? Ken Bruen’s American Skin is a unique take on the American dream from a master of noir.
