The Barnes & Noble Review
In Irish crime writer Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor novel (The Guards, The Killing of the Tinkers, et al.), the irascible ex-Galway policeman has been -- amazingly -- clean and sober for six months. But when his former cocaine dealer, now serving out a six-year sentence in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison, contacts him to ask a favor, Taylor reluctantly agrees -- and soon finds himself matching wits with a serial killer who has a thing for 19th-century Irish dramatist John Millington Synge.
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Two weeks before Stewart (Taylor's coke dealer) was busted, his 20-year old sister was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs. The police ruled it a "misadventure," but Stewart thinks differently and asks Taylor to look into it. Upon further investigation, Taylor learns that a book of Synge's collected works was found under the body. When another young woman -- also possessing a Synge collection -- is found dead at the bottom of a staircase, Taylor knows he's onto something. But as he closes in on the killer, reality intervenes: An old love interest resurfaces and the health of his ailing mother deteriorates…
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Genre fans who enjoy pull-no-punches noir thrillers that are as darkly comic as they are brutally realistic -- such as Charlie Huston's Six Bad Things, Robert Ferrigno's The Wake-Up, or Will Staeger's Painkiller -- should definitely check out Bruen's Jack Taylor novels, especially this one, a scathing blast of righteous, no-holds-barred Irish crime fiction. Pint of Guinness Extra Stout not included. Paul Goat Allen
Seems impossible, but Jack Taylor is sober-off booze, pills, powder, and nearly off cigarettes, too. The main reason he's been able to keep clean: his dealer's in jail, which leaves Jack without a source. When that dealer calls him to Dublin and asks a favor in the soiled, sordid visiting room of Mountjoy Prison, Jack wants to tell him to take a flying leap. But he doesn't-can't, because the dealer's sister is dead, and the guards have called it “death by misadventure.”
The dealer knows that can't be true and begs Jack to have a look, check around, see what he can find out. It's exactly what Jack does, with varying levels of success, to make a living. But he's reluctant, maybe because of who's asking or maybe because of the bad feeling growing in his gut.
Never one to give in to bad feelings or common sense, Jack agrees to the favor, though he can't possibly know the shocking, deadly consequences he has set in motion. But he and everyone he holds dear will find out soon, sooner than anyone knows, in the lean and lethal fourth entry in Ken Bruen's award-winning Jack Taylor series.
Seems impossible, but Jack Taylor is sober-off booze, pills, powder, and nearly off cigarettes, too. The main reason he's been able to keep clean: his dealer's in jail, which leaves Jack without a source. When that dealer calls him to Dublin and asks a favor in the soiled, sordid visiting room of Mountjoy Prison, Jack wants to tell him to take a flying leap. But he doesn't-can't, because the dealer's sister is dead, and the guards have called it “death by misadventure.”
The dealer knows that can't be true and begs Jack to have a look, check around, see what he can find out. It's exactly what Jack does, with varying levels of success, to make a living. But he's reluctant, maybe because of who's asking or maybe because of the bad feeling growing in his gut.
Never one to give in to bad feelings or common sense, Jack agrees to the favor, though he can't possibly know the shocking, deadly consequences he has set in motion. But he and everyone he holds dear will find out soon, sooner than anyone knows, in the lean and lethal fourth entry in Ken Bruen's award-winning Jack Taylor series.
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
BN ID: | 2940169521504 |
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Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
Publication date: | 10/01/2010 |
Series: | Jack Taylor Series , #4 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |