Cross: A Novel (Jack Taylor Series) by Ken Bruen
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Book Reviews of Cross: A Novel (Jack Taylor Series)
Book Review: Another fine Bruen Mystery
Summary: 5 Stars
Bruen spins another lyrical suspenseful tale with Jack Taylor brooding about past loss while contemplating his future. Bruen is an aquired taste mixing violence and poetry with mystery and suspense, but once you've read and appreciated one of his books you are "hooked." Jack Taylor is an intriguing complex-character capable of extreme violence and extreme feeling. Ireland comes alive in these mysteries- you can almost see the places Bruen describes. Definitely a five star book.Book Review: Keeper of the Celtic Flame
Summary: 5 Stars
Like Galway's cold driving rain blowing horizontal from the North Atlantic, Ken Bruen's prose assaults - relentless, penetrating, no immunity. But just when you're sure he's taken the reader to the limits of despair, Bruen pulls you back in like a Jameson's and a pint of the black. Not that there's any redemption, of course - not in Bruen's vernacular - as you know that your reprieve is fleeting, and that by the time the next chapter turns, this master of contemporary noir will have you convinced that Dante never really got to the bottom of Hell.
But back to help plumb those depths is the inimitable Jack Taylor, the ex-guard, sharp-tongued curmudgeon and the perfect surrogate for Bruen's fierce Celtic rants. Coming off "Priest", I thought black was as dark as it gets, but opening "Cross" with the crucifixion of a Galway youth sets the pace for another Bruen pleasure cruise along the Styx. Remarkably, Taylor is sober - but only as penance and self punishment in denying alcohol's comfort in easing the guilt as substitute-son Cody lies dying, thanks to a bullet meant for Taylor. Not that the storyline is all that critical to Bruen's writing, but "Ban Gardai" Ridge - a female cop and as close to a friend as Taylor can claim - asks Taylor to help get to the bottom of the crucifixion. What follows is another tale of patented Taylor mayhem, unpredictable only in the limits of depravity it crosses.
What is remarkable, given Bruen's sparse and jarring prose, is the extent of the emotions it manages to convey. On nearly every page, a literary gem is hidden - one of those brilliant and pithy lines that could show up in quotes in another's work. There were passages so jolting that I literally set the book aside to reset my bearings and establish a more civilized sense of reality - an experience I can't recall with any other author. Sure, this is brutal, undeniably black, and certainly not for everyone - especially those looking for larger-than-life heroes and happy/sappy endings. But "Cross" and the Taylor novels that precede it do not use violence and darkness gratuitously, but rather as simply a slice of reality and poignancy, as Bruen breaks and twists and reassembles the English language in ways never before done.
Well done, Mr. Bruen. Keep the torch burning!
Book Review: Brutal
Summary: 5 Stars
If there is any such thing as Irish Noir, Ken Bruen is surely near the top of the list of its finest creators. His latest is Cross, the sixth novel in his Jack Taylor series and, though readers of the other five books in the series may find it hard to believe, this is perhaps the most dismally brutal book of the lot. Those in charge of bringing tourists to Galway, Ireland, may not be too happy with Mr. Bruen, I suppose, but Jack Taylor fans will want to get their hands on Cross as soon as they can.
Jack Taylor has never been what anyone would call a social success. He has few friends, no long term relationship, and very little real desire for either. And now that his mother is dead, not that his relationship with her was ever a very healthy one, he has no family. It says a lot about the man that the closest relationship in the world that he has is a love/hate thing that he has going with Ridge, a lesbian member of the Guard, a relationship that has gone on for a long time with neither of them ever expressing much in the way of feelings for the other. Sadly, each of them seems to feel the relationship to be more of an inherited obligation than a choice.
As Cross opens, Jack is still blaming himself for the accidental death of a little girl, something that understandably killed his long friendship with the child's parents. To make matters worse, the young man Jack had come to love almost as a surrogate son after reluctantly taking him on as an investigative partner, is still in a coma after taking a bullet that Jack believes was actually intended for him instead. It is little wonder that most of Jack's waking hours are spent in a constant struggle with himself to avoid falling off the wagon again. He knows that he may have already used up the last "recovery" he had in him and that if he gives into the bottle he may never be sober again.
Things are so bad, in fact, that Jack is strongly considering abandoning his beloved Galway in favor of a move to Florida of all places. But there are a few things he needs to do first. Like helping Ridge in an investigation that she hopes might finally earn her a promotion - by identifying those responsible for crucifying a young boy and leaving him for dead. And maybe, if he takes it seriously, finding out who is responsible for a rash of dog disappearances in one Galway neighborhood, or perhaps even trying to gain some closure with all those whom he has hurt and those others who haunt him even from their plots in the cemetery.
Jack Taylor is indeed a haunted man. His problem is that he knows himself well enough to understand that he has no one to blame but himself for all the failed relationships in his past. But recognizing one's problems is the easy part; doing something about them is a bit harder.
Ken Bruen novels are about human nature as much as they are about criminals and their crimes. Bruen's real story, one that continues from book-to-book, is about the evolution of Jack Taylor, a man who has been physically and mentally beaten up by life itself. None of us wants to be Jack Taylor but we surely cannot help but be fascinated by the man.
Readers new to the work of Ken Bruen would do well to read the Jack Taylor books in the order in which they were written because Jack's story is a complicated one and in order to really appreciate the struggles of a man like him it is best to understand how he got to be the man he is today.
I am already looking forward to the seventh in the series but I almost wish I were just discovering the books and that I had the first six sitting in front of me ready for a marathon reading experience. They are just that good.
Book Review: Weaker and Weaker , Rushed and Very Short
Summary: 2 Stars
I am a fan of Mr. Bruen's work but have noticed a disturbing trend that has deeply effected his work ... today's publishers push their authors to put out more and more material, faster and faster and it is showing in Bruen's work .. his stories are thinner and much shorter ... this one is only 256 pages with large print. If normally spaced I would say it really is closer to 140 pages tops, in essence a long short story ... to push this out the door for $ 25 is an insult to the public and Mr. Bruen's fan base ... his work is suffering because of this . Enough is enough ... I read it in a three hour sitting at Barnes and Noble and never bought it ... this will be the way of many as thin products continue to be forced into the marketplace ...Book Review: not his best
Summary: 3 Stars
i found this to be the weakest of the jack taylor novels. i still, however, believe this to be the second best active detective series (after block,s scudder books). in this one, the plots are interesting but the voice is a little off key.