Another violent and mind bending book by Ken Bruen featuring the down and trodden Jack Taylor. In this book Jack continues his downward spiral into his own soul. He is once again forced to make decisions that have dire consequences. Bruen pushes this book further than any of his other Jack Taylor books when he puts Jack into a situation where he is forced to walk with evil or save his own life. Drink, drugs and self-remorse for so many of the events in Jack's past are the continuing theme in thi...

I almost didn't finish this one. Ken Bruen's style of writing is abrupt and hard to follow. I'm glad I did though, because the story was good, if frustrating. He never really reveals everything, so you're left to fill in a lot by yourself. There are about 20 different languages he throws in there for reasons I'm not sure of. However, I enjoyed the characters. I only wish I had read some of the other Jack Taylor novels first. That seems to always be a problem for me. When I go to the library, I w...

Trying to imagine the color of "Irish Noir"; if it's a really, really dark green, then Jack Taylor's world must be bottom-of-the-ocean dark. He's been sacrificing body parts for too long; he needs to, somehow, re-connect with Laura, enjoy life for a book or two...before someone sends him her head in a box.

What can I say? I'm in the tank for Bruen and his Jack Taylor.10/10

Another book I grabbed so I could complete a challenge task (headstone on the cover). What a mistake! I absolutely hate hardboiled noir fiction and had Goodreads book page shown this as such, I would have passed it up. Add to that the disjointed writing style (very lyrical but difficult to read and comprehend) and the plot jumping all over the place, and what I found was a hot mess. Definitely not a series I would continue.Check out this passage on page 5 I was coming off the worst case of my

I'll admit that I'm a sucker for flawed characters (think John Rebus). Well, Jack Taylor is over-the-top flawed, and yet still maintains some spark of decency within him. It's just that the spark doesn't always come in what most of us would call "good deeds." I found myself holding my breath at times while reading this - kind of like watching a movie through spread fingers over my eyes. But it all made sense and tied together in a "noirish" way.

No one writes a flawed character better that Ken Bruen. Jack Taylor is an alcoholic, pill popping ex Guard in Galway, Ireland. He has a caustic tongue but a heart of gold. His nemesis, Father Malachy, is assaulted and ends up in a coma. Soon after, Jack is assaulted and two of his fingers cut off. Someone is mailing his friends tiny tombstones identical to one Jack had received. He realizes someone is targeting what they consider to be social misfits: Jack’s friends, Ridge and Stewart who are ga...

It's been a while since I've sought out and read an entire series back to back -- not since the Banks noels of Peter Robinson. These Jack Taylor novels, with one exception, were totally addictive. By setting them in Galway, Bruen gives us witness to its change from a remote Irish community to one fully in the 21st century, changes not aways to the good. With big city problems. Jack Taylor, approaching 50, lifelong resident, does not aways wrap up cases at the end of each book, rendering the seri...

An excellent thriller, dark and totally scary. The writing is so understated and the prose so expertly done that it leaves you reeling in shock at what's happening in the story. A fantastic read if you love dark, thrillers. Not gory, bloody, but psychologically scary and riveting. The language of place and the insights into local world view are bonuses on top of the great characters and story.

Description: . In Headstone, an elderly priest is nearly beaten to death and a special-needs boy is brutally attacked. Evil has many guises and Jack Taylor has encountered most of them. But nothing before has ever truly terrified him until he confronts an evil coterie named Headstone, who have committed a series of random, insane, violent crimes in Galway, Ireland.Most would see a headstone as a marker of the dead, but this organization seems like it will act as a death knell to every aspect of

I'm afraid this series may be........................ past its sell-by date. First off, what on earth is up with................... all the ellipses? It took enough to grow accustomed to Jack'sConstantIncessantIntrusivelist-making. But now, 9 books in, Bruen's finger has got stuck on the period key. It's not charming. The Headstone group came off as unrealistic and the lack of Guard or media interest in the killings (or at least the lack of mention of same) felt off. Jack had some fine moments

The most brutal and brilliant of the Jack Taylor series, HEAD STONE, the 9th book in the series elevates Taylor to a whole new level - one where his demons escape his maddened mind and find their way towards the surface. Jack is pursued by a gang calling themselves Headstone, their purpose to eradicate the perceived ‘weak’ in Darwinism like fashion – targeting special needs people, drunks, druggies, and homosexuals. For Jack, his inner circle all feel the brunt of this senseless violence, natura...

Ken Bruen has redeemed himself with this addition to the Jack Taylor series after the experiment with the over the top previous book in the series. Once you introduce "the devil" as the antagonist into a detective series it could have been a struggle to recover. Mr. Bruen blames it on the Xanax. In this installment of the series the antagonist calls himself "Headstone", a character that Jack Taylor had a run in with in his past. Taylor is an Irish PI who loves his whiskey and loves Ireland he is...

Violent but interesting as usual. Hard to not appreciate the character Jack Taylor and his own special brand of ethics. Feels touched when blessed by a nun but wants as little to do with the church as possible. Loves books and quotes from two of my favorite authors, James Lee Burke and Carol O'Connell, loyal to his friends, well for the most part, and helps those less fortunate them himself. Yet I wonder how much more violence his own body can withstand though he never backs down nor backs away....

What could be more fitting on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day than to read the ninth book in the Jack Taylor series, perhaps as good as they come. It is a kick-off novel from a new imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Press, and serves well as a guide to the future.As in the previous volumes in the series, the troubled Irish PI wallows in drinks and drugs, violence and evil. It begins with the brutal beating of a priest, where no love is lost between Jack and the victim. Then Jack,

Back to black - and a Jay. Back to Jack Taylor; cannot stay away for long, Jack. 'Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.' Irish saying, appropriate for Taylor who often bites off more than he can chew. A group called Headstone, enough to terrify Jack, this manifestation of pure evil. Who are these monsters who beat up an elderly priest. A special needs boy is brutally attacked. They appear to have an agenda as their violent spree spreads through Galway.Jack needs to act, needs t...

This book was really brilliant in the ways that count in a book like this. Jack Taylor was a strong voice,great black humor,the social commentary on Ireland which is common in this series and his friends Stewart,Ridge was great as supporting cast. I also liked that for the first time in this series, you read the story from POV of other characters than first person Taylor. That was fresh,different take. It feels weird to think he wrote the best book in this series in the 9th book. I rate this one...

Probably the best book in the Jack Taylor series so far. As in the other entries the plot takes a back-seat, as character development of Taylor, and the gritty writing style are the real highlights.

In HEADSTONE, like other novels by Ken Bruen, the prose lifts off the page and sings for the reader. Bruen is a great stylist. If Cormac Mccarthy co-wrote a book with James Lee Burke, it would come out a Ken Bruen novel. Bruen is easy to read, but his stories and his characters always leave me feeling slightly soiled, like I've just peeked in the dresser drawers while visiting a friend's house. And that is the lighter side of a Ken Bruen book. Bruen's main character, Jack Taylor, is an alcoholic...

After I finish a "Jack Taylor" novel by Ken Bruen, I say to myself: the next novel can not get any darker. This one does and is probably one of his better ones. It has everything a "crime noir" novel needs to have to be great. Great dialogue, truly evil bad people, a truly flawed and screwed up good guy, a great setting and a couple of great sidekicks: Ridge and Stewart.In this story a former nemesis of Taylor reappers to carry out his own version of Darwinism. Along the way Taylor deals with a