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Makes Hell Look Like a Happy Place There is some small injustice in describing Ken Bruen's "The Dramatist" as simply "noir". While all of Bruen's writing is bleak - in-your-face crime fiction with no regard for inane political correctness or modern niceties, "The Dramatist" reads like a chainsaw to the gut - an emotional tour de force that will leave fragments of Bruen's broken prose haunting your subconscious weeks after you've turned the last page. Yeah, this is black - Stygian black, about as...
Jack Taylor number four. I'm on a roll. More dark, disturbing, hard-boiled entertainment. Hang on just a minute. Lemsip and yoghurt. Daily fare for a re-invented Jack?! Not drinking, no drugs, virtually quit smoking and - yeah - that's correct - attending mass fairly regularly! Has Jack finally succumbed to a life less wired? Huh? So why the hell do you keep getting beaten up?! Are you still the 'finder' everyone admires, albeit in a rather disingenuous fashion? Who the hell are the Pikemen? Are...
THE DRAMATIST (Unlicensed investigator-Ireland-Cont) – ExBruen, Ken – 4th in seriesBrandon, 2004 – Trade paperbackJack Taylor is clean and sober and fighting hard to stay that way. A drug dealer, now serving time, hires Jack to investigate the death of his sister. Under her body was a book by Synge, into which the words "The Dramatist" had been written on the title page. When a second student dies with a copy of the same book, it's clear these are not random acts.*** Ken Bruen's writing is excep...
Ken Bruen's 'The Dramatist' easily captured my attention. The main character, ex-guard Jack Taylor, is charmingly frank. The dialogue is fast and terse. There is a sweeping tension that carries the story forward.I wanted to love the novel.I ended up liking it.[Spoilers ahead]The ending is reminiscent of Jean-Paul Sartre and Peter S. Beagle (A Fine and Private Place in particular). Jack Taylor is sober, clean, and nearly off cigarettes. His life's still a mess but, during the course of the novel,...
This is the fourth book in the Jack Taylor series of novels, and the fifth one that I've read. And the seventh book of Ken Bruen's I've gotten through in the past couple of months. There is something predictable about Bruen. There are set ups and scenes he uses over and over again, and there are almost stock characters, or at least character types he keeps bringing out. But, even with a certain level of predictability he still packs a huge punch. Even, though as a reader I feel a little ashamed
The 4th bookGalwayTwo StudentsDeath Booze Drugs Redemption Jack Taylor going trough hell to reach the light
Description: Seven months after his mother's stroke, and continuing on his path of sobriety and healthier living, Jack is called on to investigate the death of a female university student, Sarah Bradley, who has fallen from a roof while dressed in theatre costume. A ring of paper around her wrist contains an apparent suicide note written in her blood, and Gardaí assume the death to be drug related. Jack is hired by university professor Eugene Gorman to investigate the case, suspecting that the g...
Jack is sober throughout this book, yet the read was depressing with just a couple of bright spots. Then even those two turned dark. I’m not ready to drop the series yet, though. I have to see how long this man can survive in the hellhole he creates for himself.Bruen’s books have a certain style that makes them short. Choppy sentences, short sentences each on their own line, pages containing quotations from other authors create a quick read.
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Sometimes I wonder why I am hooked on this series. It upsets me, depresses me and gets inside my mind. I simply care too much about Jack Taylor and his ability/inability to stay sober/clean. The writing is exceptionally tight and sharp in these novels which is something I truly appreciate. The mysteries are often secondary to Jack's life, the people he encounters and Galway. It is noir at its finest.The ending of this novel, which I quite literally knew was coming in some form, broke me. And yet...
Wow......I was going to say that I couldn't believe that we got through a Jack Taylor novel without drinking binges, and I like Jack when he's sober.Until that gut-punch at the end. Seriously, Ken, how could you!?
If I learned anything from reading Ken Bruen’s The Dramatist, it’s that Ireland is a crap hole. Not really, but that’s the way it seems after reading this Noir-ish mystery novel. It’s all the protagonist’s fault. His name is Jack Taylor, and he used to be a guard (the Irish term for a policeman). He got kicked out a few years ago and now he’s a self-destructive and guilt-wracked drunkard, cocaine addict, and reluctant sometimes-P.I. Most of his friends and acquaintances are equally depressing. I...
From IMBd:A female student dies from a fall from the roof of the university. She is dressed in a theatre costume and wears a ring of paper with a quote from the play "Deirdre of the Sorrows" typed within. When drugs are found in the young woman's blood, the Police assume suicide as the cause of death. The Literature Professor of the dead student believes that his student has been murdered and asks Jack for help.4* The Guards (Jack Taylor, #1) 3* The Magdalen Martyrs (Jack Taylor, #3) 4* The Dram...
I’ve spent much of my time reading the first four of Bruen’s Jack Taylor books trying to figure out what makes them so good. The plots do matter – the twist at the end of The Killing of the Tinkers pushed that one back into elite territory, and I found myself gripped at the end of The Magdalen Martyrs too. And this one definitely falters in the plot department. Where we’ve had political complications and individuals with deep and troubled backgrounds, this one turns on a too-conventional serial
At page 135, I decided to waste no more of my life reading this book, and while taking a huge breath of relief, shut the cover forever. I almost never totally abandon a book in such a fashion, but at page 135 I still was not at all intrigued by the plot and I still felt I could care less what happened to the "epic" Jack Taylor. Additionally the events that had transpired in the book to this point were so dull that between chapters I found immense relief in setting the book down to stare at the w...
Oh my. After reading this installment of the Jack Taylor series, I am hard pressed to figure out how much worse things can get for Jack. I've long said that making Jack Taylor's acquaintance through reading is like watching a train about to wreck on its tracks...you know that something terrible is about to happen, but the reality of how bad it's going to be keeps you watching. But frankly, I wasn't prepared for this one.As the novel opens, Jack's drug dealer (the very well-dressed, erudite young...
Jacket notes: "The impossible has happened: Jack Taylor is living clean and dating a mature woman. Rumour suggests he is even attending mass... The accidental deaths of two students appear random, tragic events, except that in each case a copy of a book by John Millington Synge is found beneath the body. Jack begins to believe that "The Dramatist," a calculating killer, is out there, enticing him to play...."As stated several times before, I love this Jack Taylor series by Ken Bruen. This book i...
This is book 4 in the Jack Taylor series which the TV show is based upon. I hesitate to say I enjoy these books because they are somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster, depressing, upsetting, even maddening at points and The Dramatist is no exception. It would be easy to say that Jack Taylor is his own worst enemy but unfortunately that isn’t the case, he has plenty of enemies.This book starts with Jack in an unusual place, cold stone sober, off drink and drugs and trying to limit the cigarettes...
Having been to Ireland as the guest of a film festival and having driven about the whole country, (no great feat), I must say, I don't recognize any of the places in PI, Jack Taylor's world. Jack's creator may as well have thrown in a couple of werewolves and vampires for the hell of it because the Ireland that I saw was no more like like 1940's Los Angeles or Detroit of pick-your-time than Disneyland. Noire-ville? The city of Galway, where these Jack Taylor books take place, is an arts center a...
As always Bruen packs quite a punch in a small, tight package. I can't say much for fear of spoilers but suffice it to say the book leaves the reader with glimpses into Irish life with a disturbing feeling of growing unease and yet eager to read more about Jack Taylor, a former guard in Galway, Ireland. Jack's demons won't let him alone for long and we can't stop looking ... (view spoiler)[The Jack Taylor series is hard boiled and no holds barred and this one is no different than previous books