The White Trilogy

Irish author Ken Bruen is a leading practitioner of what has been called "postmodern noir." Three of his novels from the late 90's (A WHITE ARREST, TAMING THE ALIEN and THE McDEAD) have been collected in trade paperback format and entitled THE WHITE TRILOGY. Raw and violent, darkly humorous and, at times, poignant and moving, THE WHITE TRILOGY may be compared favorably to James Ellroy's "LA Quartet." While Bruen's books perhaps lack the scope of those latter novels, they more than match them in gut-wrenching intensity and inventiveness. To read this book is to tour a decadent and decaying London that tourists and visitors can only pray they never encounter. The three novels that comprise THE WHITE TRILOGY trace the exploits of Detective Inspector Roberts and Detective Sergeant Brant as they track a gang of urban vigilantes who prey upon East End drug dealers. Simultaneously, they seek to identify the psycho who is murdering the members of the English National Cricket Squad and attempt to avenge the brutal murder of Robert's estranged brother at the hands of Irish gangster Tommy Logan. In the process the lines between right and wrong, good and bad, and between the coppers and the criminals gets more than a little blurred. Roberts plays cool and calculating opposite the vicious and troglodyte Brant. Together the two represent a kind of twisted law enforcement yin and yang. But upholding law and order is less a priority for them than is maintaining an edge, getting ahead, punishing the "punters" and just plain surviving another day on the streets and at "the nick." Are these two buggers hardboiled? You'd need an ice pick to even put a dent in their collective persona. It's a good thing that Roberts and Brant are cops. If they weren't they'd make public enemy number one look like a bloody boy scout by comparison. Bruen tells his story with clipped, staccato prose that jumps rapidly from scene to scene, often with only minimal transition. The net effect is a bit like looking at the world through a kaleidoscope with a broken lens. And this is a world in which loyalty has very little meaning, where retribution is the coin of the realm and where redemption - although theoretically still possible - is in very short supply. THE WHITE TRILOGY can be read easily in one or two sittings. Indeed, it seems designed to be read in just that way - the literary equivalent, perhaps, of the proverbial weekend "bender." You won't have a hangover when you're finished but you will surely be gasping for air. Oh, you'll probably also be aching for a bit of the "hair of the dog" ... at least in the form of Bruen's next remarkable novel!

These 3 novellas are just classic. The pacing, writing style, and point of view are a wonder to behold. All Bruen's characters have strengths, warts, and vulnerabilities; we see the mix of good and bad as a continuum with varying shades of grey, not black and white(of course, there are "white" arrests, and a liberal dose of noir.) The large menu of characters and the omniscient point of view prevents Bruen from developing the personality quirks as thoroughly as (say) an Ian Rankin, but this is not to say they are 2 dimensional. Strangely, even Bruen's characterizations of the foibles of the criminals, and how they got these foibles, makes for vaguely sympathetic reading. How do you draw the line between a criminal who cannot find the handle to overcome weaknesses of personality or DNA, and the coppoers who have many of the same flaws, but manage, by accident, to channel these weaknesses? not always clear. A great read. i truly regretted finishing it. If anything, I think this series is even stronger that the Guards.

This book was unreal and just served to reinforce my belief that when it comes to hard-boiled crime nobody does it better than the Brits! Bill James Harpur and Isles series, John Harvey's Charlie Resnick books, Russell James, Derek Raymond and Peter Turnbull's Glasgow P Division procedurals-the list goes on and on and is just breathtaking as one works through these writers. Anyway, The White Trilogy is dark, funny, cynical, tough,uplifting and hard to put down once you start. Let me put it this way, if you went to see the movie "Bad Lieutenant" and didn't walk out and are glad you didn't-get your hands on The White Trilogy. As much as I am into diversity in my reading material, after reading this book I am straight into Bruen's The Guards. Trust me on this-better yet take the "Bad Lieutenant" test by renting it and you'll know whether to invest in this gem.

Rhythm and Blues, Chief Inspector Roberts and Sergeant Brandt, R & B, serve the Queen and the nation in southeast London, a very tough part of the world. They face a variety of professional issues and personal crises. Not to say the least of which is a murdering criminal force that they are asked to keep in check.These are three short stories written between 1998 and 2000, joined together in 2003. The stories relate to eachother and while the joinder is not seamless, Bruen's writing is sufficiently jolting so that the stories feel contiguous.Bruen writes like the fifties. You see Mickey Spillane and Phillip Marlowe. Tough stuff. Great dialogue. He writes sharply. There are vigilante assassins, cheating wives, men suffering from vainglory, cheating husbands all along with pugnacious prose and teary endings. There's a sense of humor between the two men and the other characters. When Inspector Roberts is asked by Brandt how long it's been since he gave up smoking, Roberts says "five years, four weeks, two days and [looking at his watch] nine hours. More or less."There's no morality here. In fact some have criticized Bruen and the Trilogy for that but I submit he gives us a series of freeze frames on the south and east of London, and morality is but an also ran.Brilliant, brilliant stuff. I can't recommend him enough. Larry Scantlebury

Ken Bruen's real gift seems to be the wedding of extremely dark, violent British noir & the shining transcendental themes of human redemption. A remarkable achievement & my favorite series by Ken Bruen.Enjoy!-Steve.