Blitz

After years of reading George Pelecanos, James Lee Burke, John Harvery, George V. Higgins, Raymond Chandler, Ross Thomas, and others who can turn a phrase while inducing me to turn a page, I've finally started reading Ken Bruen. "Blitz" introduced me to a world so sloppy and hungover it feels as real as anything the aforementioned writers have created. Here's the 3rd person narrator on Brant, one of the protagonists: "Brant considered asking her for a ride but she looked the deep type. She'd have issues and want to talk after. He hated that." Sharp, politically incorrect, perfectly believable. And the killer, who decides to create his public persona as a vicious murderer who only takes out cops? A complete, drunken screw-up. Bruen is the real deal. The most exciting thing about finishing "Blitz" was knowing that he's written a shelf and I'm just starting him.

...he'd probably ask Ken Bruen to write his scripts. Ken Bruen's "Blitz" is a rock `em, sock `em, no-holds-bar brawl of violent men and hard women on both sides of the law - an in-your-face tale told from the wrong side of London. Remember the days when Lawrence Sanders was bringing crime fiction to the masses with NYPD's tough Captain Delaney and gripping crime drama like "The First Deadly Sin?" Well, carve up Sander's pedestrian prose with a broken-off beer bottle, run Captain Delaney through the gutters for some edge, strip out any regard for political correctness or social redeeming value, and you'll start getting a feel for Bruen's brand of raw drama on the mean streets. There's no genius in the story - a maniac decides to declare open season on London's cops, and starts indiscriminately killing them. In tracking down the murderer, this is not as much a police procedural as it is a character study in misfits and miscreants - and that's just the good guys. This is black prose that finds beauty along its jagged edges - a searing journey through vicious deeds and twisted minds that builds to an unexpected and cynically satisfying climax. Ken Bruen is the real deal - if you're hooked on Lehane, Child, Huston, Rankin, or Gischler and haven't added Bruen to your reading list, don't wait another day.

Blitz is the name of a sadistic killer who begins bumping off London bobbies. Tell the truth, I loved BLITZ. I loved the main cop characters, Detective Sergeant Brant and Chief Inspector Roberts, and hope they show up in another book. This is an alcohol-saturated book: it seems all the characters are up till 3 am boozing and look like hell the next day at work. What fun! Wouldn't we all like to be like that, throwing our health to the wind, devil-may-care like. No, probably not. But it is somehow liberating to live vicariously through such tough, hard-as-nails characters. In our overly PC age, when smoking a cigarette is a fineable offense in many places, it does the soul good to see people being free to make mistakes even if only between the covers of a novel. Living badly should be a choice, not a crime, in a free society. Brant and Roberts live badly and are tough, funny and likeable. Ken Bruen has written a series of novels with Jack Taylor as the protagonist which I haven't yet read but have received good reviews. BLITZ is my first Ken Bruen book. Tell you what, mate, it won't be my last.

Call it "Irish Noir," "Post-Modern Noir, " or whatever other adjective or descriptive phrase you can come up with; it matters not one bit. There's noir ... and then there's Ken Bruen. Blitz is the sequel to Bruen's The White Trilogy, a series of novels that introduced us to the cops in the South East London squad. A more dysfunctional collection of police officers would be hard to imagine. This time around, their loyalties, their training and what's left of their fragile sanity will be put to the test as they attempt to collar a sociopath who is out there killing cops with a hammer. (Leading Bruen, of course, to insert an irreverent reference or two to the Beatles' immortal "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." Would you expect any less?). The killer, nicknamed "the Blitz" by London's rabid tabloid press, is a total `nutter. As the novel progresses, the reader is left with the sneaking suspicion that this whack-job is probably going to get away with his crimes and maybe even make a few pounds selling his story to the highest bidder. The fact that you are tempted in that direction, however, is dead giveaway that the author has something else entirely up his sleeve. What Blitz lacks - relatively speaking, that is, compared to some of Bruen's other novels - in terms of sheer primal energy and visceral impact, it more than makes up for by means of a subtle and not-so-subtle sense of humor that is as grim and as dark as it gets. It's not that Bruen has become domesticated. It's just that his technique has become more sophisticated over time. Indeed, the author's implicit indictment of society is all the more searing because it is couched largely in such outlandishly humorous terms in this novel. You'll laugh your arse off in places while reading this book. Five minutes later you'll realize that what tickled your fancy was definitely no laughing matter a' tall. And five will getcha ten that's what the author bloody well intended in the first place! So strap yourself in and grab a motion-sickness bag. You're in for a wild ride through the sights and sounds of a London that will never, ever make the pages of any guidebook. Read the entire text of this review in MYSTERY NEWS (October/November 2004)

If you haven't read Ken Bruen you're in for a treat. His "White Trilogy" is extraordinary. If you want a character that will plumb the depths of your soul, read about Jack Taylor in "The Guards."Here, in "Blitz," a series of interconnected killings target police officers. Inspector Roberts is on compassionate leave, his wife having been killed in a traffic accident. Police Officer Falls, a Black woman police officer, befriends and is befriended by a young Aryan racist named 'Metal' with unpredictable consequences. And Sergeant Brandt finds himself teamed up with the openly gay Inspector (acting) Sergeant Porter Nash.With an opportunity to make it into a West End comedy, Bruen modulates the heat so that a few guffaws are followed by a considerable chill as something disturbing is about to occur, followed by more witty dialogue.You have to get used to his short staccato paragraphs and chapters. The dialogue is what gets you . . . abrubt statements followed by a Murphy's-law series of events.If there is a criticism it is that in the Roberts-Brandt novels, there is not enough about Roberts or Brandt. Yet as I mentioned above, the story of Jack Taylor as told in "The Guards" shows great depth of character so if there is superficiality in Roberts-Brandt and they seem short of substance, it is by Ken Bruen's choice.One of the best writers around. Certainly well worth the effort. 5+ stars. Larry Scantlebury