Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM
![[4.5 stars]](../images/spots/6_paw_45.gif)
Dramatist
Amazon US TPB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada TPB Amazon Canada HC
Ken Bruen
Class/Genre: Mystery
Series: Jack Taylor # 4
St. Martin’s Minotaur, $29.95 hardcover, 242 pages
Jack Taylor is sober once again—off pills, booze, and powder. His only remaining vice is cigarettes, and he’s cutting back on those, too. The main reason he’s clean is that his dealer is in jail, and he has little choice but to stay clean. When that dealer asks him to visit him in Mountjoy, Jack wants to tell him to take a flying leap, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t because the dealer’s sister is dead, and the Garda have declared it “death by misadventure.”
Stewart begs Jack to investigate his sister’s death, sure only that the police haven’t lifted a finger to see it through. Jack’s reluctant to get mixed up in this, even though it’s what he does, with varying degrees of success, for what might be termed a living. But he goes ahead anyway, because the one thing Jack Taylor never paid attention to was common sense. His investigation brings Jack in close contact with a group of vigilantes, an old flame, and a new woman, and what he stirs up may have deadly consequences for everyone involved.
I can never say enough about Bruen. He’s one of those writers you either get or you don’t. His prose is pared down, lean and muscular, not a single word out of place. It’s a lot like poetry that way. And it’s a brutal, punch-you-in-the-face sort of poetry that knocks your breath from your lungs and then brings it back with a shot of terrible beauty.
Jack is a frightening character. You’d never want to hang out with him for real, but by gum, he’s a great literary companion, spouting quotations by his favourite writers at just the right moments.
Catherine Thompson - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM
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