Jack Taylor, former police, is sitting in a pub drinking when a woman asks him to investigate the death of her daughter. It was ruled a suicide, but she thinks the girl might have been murdered.
Jack Taylor is a rather depressing character and everything you don’t want in a police officer, although he’s not with the police anymore. He drinks a lot, takes drugs and is violent. The longest he’s sober in this novel are 13 days, twelve of them in a rehab centre.
Even if you disregard all this things, his life is still pretty bad. All the people he cares about are either dead or die during the novel or leave him for someone else.
Although the character is less than ideal, the writing is good. Ken Bruen manages to get the reader to see everything without extremely long descriptions. He uses enough words to make you understand how all the places are (city, pubs, streets...), but nothing is long enough to be boring.
The story is interesting enough to be read even if you don’t like the character too much... until you find out how it ends. The main problem I had with the ending is that the case solves itself. Jack doesn’t really do much, other than nagging a few people. The case is great and the progress Jack makes is very good, considering that he has close to no resources, but the ending was disappointing.
Jack Taylor is a rather depressing character and everything you don’t want in a police officer, although he’s not with the police anymore. He drinks a lot, takes drugs and is violent. The longest he’s sober in this novel are 13 days, twelve of them in a rehab centre.
Even if you disregard all this things, his life is still pretty bad. All the people he cares about are either dead or die during the novel or leave him for someone else.
Although the character is less than ideal, the writing is good. Ken Bruen manages to get the reader to see everything without extremely long descriptions. He uses enough words to make you understand how all the places are (city, pubs, streets...), but nothing is long enough to be boring.
The story is interesting enough to be read even if you don’t like the character too much... until you find out how it ends. The main problem I had with the ending is that the case solves itself. Jack doesn’t really do much, other than nagging a few people. The case is great and the progress Jack makes is very good, considering that he has close to no resources, but the ending was disappointing.
Well, at least the writing was good??? :) Better luck with your next read.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I loved the writing. The rating would have been higher if I had ignored the last ten pages.
DeleteYour review sounds almost verbatim like what I said about Ken Bruen's The Dramatist. Great writing, but lackluster mystery, and a main character whose life is so shit-tastic it's amazing he's even able to function. I had high hopes that the first in the series would be better than the later ones. Sorry it didn't work out for you, Hellen. :(
ReplyDeleteI had read some very positive reviews about this novel but I should have looked at the middle rated reviews. Everybody is complaining about the same things. That should have been a warning.
DeleteIf you don't count all the drinking, the book was good and I liked it, but to me it looked like Bruen didn't know how to end it and just wrote something to quickly finish the book.
OK, I have to read this guy.
ReplyDeleteThere are several people who liked it a lot. I hope you like it.
DeleteI find crime hard to get into largely because the protagonists all lead such awful lives and have suffered through such horrible histories. I'd love to see a well-adjusted cop with a penchant for hot chocolate and fluffy bunnies one day!
ReplyDeleteThere are many crime novels where the protagonists lead normal lives. Maybe not perfect, but not awful either.
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