British Mysteries

The main character, Jack Taylor, is a former member of the Irish Garda, but he's been booted and is taking up the P.I. line instead. Bruen frequently references favorite American crime novelists and this book borrows extremely heavily on a rich American noir tradition - without the poetry of Chandler or Cain to back it up, however, this is just a painful story about an alcoholic who tries to help a woman find out if her daughter had committed suicide or was murdered. There are plenty of sidebars to the story - the bar owner who has been a surrogate father to Jack, the woman who helps him out with research, the colorful wino Jack befriends, the bad news fellow ex-Garda, Sutton, whom Jack should stay miles away from - but of course, doesn't. The only fresh thing about this book is the Irish atmosphere it's soaked in - I didn't think the characters were particularly engaging, and I don't even, as a reader, demand that I like them - I just like to be emotionally engaged in some way.

The one thing I felt was very strong was Bruen's portrayal of Jack's drying out from booze in the hospital, his efforts to stay sober, and his eventual descent back into alcoholic hell. It seemed inevitable, but I was pulling for Jack to make it out alive, and you might feel the same. The curiosity of the second book would be to see whether or not Jack has resumed his mighty struggle against alcohol - and I use "mighty" in the Irish sense of the word. Recommended only to the afficionado of the truly dark, with the setting being the twist.