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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Salem Main Library | MYSTERY Bruen, K. | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stayton Public Library | M BRUEN | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Still stinging from his unceremonious ouster from the Garda Síochána-the Guards, Ireland's police force-and staring at the world through the smoky bottom of his beer mug, Jack Taylor is stuck in Galway with nothing to look forward to. In his sober moments Jack aspires to become Ireland's best private investigator, not to mention its first-Irish history, full of betrayal and espionage, discourages any profession so closely related to informing. But intruth Jack is teetering on the brink of his life's sharpest edges, his memories of the past cutting deep into his soul and his prospects for the future nonexistent.Nonexistent, that is, until a dazzling woman walks into the bar with a strange request and a rumor about Jack's talent for finding things. Odds are he won't be able to climb off his barstool long enough to get involved with his radiant new client, but when he surprises himself by getting hired, Jack has little idea of what he's getting into.Stark, violent, sharp, and funny, The Guards is an exceptional novel, one that leaves you stunned and breathless, flipping back to the beginning in a mad dash to find Jack Taylor and enter his world all over again. It's an unforgettable story that's gritty, absorbing, and saturated with the rough-edged rhythms of the Galway streets. Praised by authors and critics around the globe, The Guards heralds the arrival of an essential new novelist in contemporary crime fiction. The Guards is a 2004 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel.
Author Notes
Ken Bruen was born in 1951 in Galway, Ireland. He was educated at Gormanston College, Meath and later at Trinity College Dublin where he earned a PhD. in metaphysics. He spent 25 years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, Asia and South America. Ken Bruen's works include the well reeived White Trilogy and a book entitled The Guards, which won a Shamus Award .He also edited an anthology of stories set in Dublin entitled Dublin Noir. His writing speciality is crime fiction. Some of his other works include The Killing of the Tinkers, The Magdalen Martyrs, and The Dramatist and Priest, which was nominated for the 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. Ken Bruen is also the recipient of the first David Loeb Gooodis Award in 2008 for his dedication to his art.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bruen flaunts genre cliches (the tough cop who loves books; the beating victim who insists on checking himself out of a hospital too soon) on virtually every page of this outstanding debut mystery. He gets away with it thanks to his novel setting, the Irish seaside city of Galway, and unusual characters who are either current or former members of the Garda Siochana, the Guards, Ireland's shadowy police force. Bruen, a teacher of English in schools in Africa and Japan, has a rich and mordant writing style, full of offbeat humor. "You don't know hell till you stand in a damp dance hall in South Armagh as the crowd sing along to `Surfing Safari,' " says Jack Taylor, kicked out of the Guards for various booze-related infractions and now working sporadically as a "finder." An attractive woman pays him to look into the supposed suicide of her teenaged daughter, and Taylor manages to stay sober long enough to do it, after a fashion. There's a tendency toward cuteness (three-line lists dot the already sparse narrative), and Bruen is determined to tell us just how well read and well listened his hero is by dropping in dozens of references to writers and musical groups. But these are minor failings. With the recent accidental death of Mark McGarrity, the American who wrote (as Bartholomew Gill) about a top Dublin cop, Bruen now has a chance to become that country's version of Scotland's Ian Rankin-and perhaps the standard bearer for a new subgenre called "Hibernian Noir." (Jan. 13) Forecast: Blurbs from T. Jefferson Parker, James W. Hall, Jon A. Jackson and James Crumley will help ensure better than average sales for a first novel import. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Jack Taylor's a drunk. He was a drunk while a member of the Garda Siochana, the Irish national police, and even more inclined to the habit since being terminated for decking a loudmouth with too much political clout. Now he cobbles together a living as a quasi-p.i. Here and there in Galway, he's known as a steady man for finding things. Perched precariously and more or less permanently on his favorite barstool, Jack Taylor will listen to the bereft, if he's not too far into his pints. Ann Henderson, lovely, grieving, distraught, has lost a child, her daughter. Suicide, Garda officials insist, but Ann doesn't believe it for a minute: not her Sarah. She thinks a murder is being hushed up in behalf of those with the money and influence to buy that kind of silence. And she wants Jack to sober up long enough to prove her right. "They say you're good," she tells him, "because you've nothing else in your life." For the moment, then, Ann's in his life, brightening it, burnishing its edges with hope. Solving the mystery of Sarah's death becomes as important to him as it is to her. But soon there are other deaths to contend with, along with threats, beatings, and finally one climactic betrayal. Hard-boiled, eccentric, darkly comic: Bruen (The McDead, 2001, etc.) bows to but doesn't just mimic James M. Cain and the other great noirists in a breakout novel not to be missed.
Booklist Review
Cranky, hard-boozing Jack Taylor isn't a private eye; he's a "finder." Ousted from Ireland's police force, the Garda Siochana (or Guards), he ekes out a living on the unmodernized margins of Galway, thanks to "a minor reputation [that] began to build on a false premise." When Ann Henderson walks into the pub that serves as Taylor's office, asking him to prove that her daughter Sarah was not a suicide but a murder victim, Taylor finds himself investigating a sex-and-murder tangle--and in love. There's not much crime solving here; Taylor is a terrible investigator, prone to blackouts and long, meditative walks. In fact, he may raise the bar for antiheroes as he spends nearly the entire book without acting. Bruen has a sly, dark humor that is appealing, yet sometimes his character's antinew, antitourist, antieverything stance is a bit self-congratulatorily, well, Irish. It's hard to say whether Bruen has literary leanings or pretensions, but he mixes innovation and clichein equal measure, and it's sure that some readers will be drawn into the world of The Guards. Keir Graff
Library Journal Review
Jack Galway's life is spiraling downward. Dumped from the Garda Siochana ("the Guards"), Ireland's elite police force, he now passes his days drinking in a friend's bar. Enter Ann Henderson, a woman searching for her missing daughter. Jack agrees to take on her case, learning about Ann's daughter as well as other young women who have recently disappeared. Soon, he becomes personally involved with his client and her plight and works toward resolving it despite a strange sense of hopelessness that hangs over the action. While there is ultimately some form of resolution, first novelist Bruen makes no effort to tie everything up in a neat and happy ending. The writing is less hard-boiled than lyrical, with a definite edge that perfectly fits the story. This one should be popular in public libraries with fans of crime fiction, especially those who appreciate the art of good writing.-Craig Shufelt, Lane P.L., Oxford, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.