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The Killing of the Tinkers (2002)

by Ken Bruen

Series: Jack Taylor (2)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4581653,695 (3.63)94
When Jack Taylor blew town at the end of The Guards, his alcoholism was a distant memory and sober dreams of a new life in London were shining in his eyes. In the opening pages of The Killing of the Tinkers, Jack's back in Galway a year later with a new leather jacket on his back, a pack of smokes in his pocket, a few grams of coke in his waistband, and a pint of Guinness on his mind. So much for new beginnings. Before long he's sunk into his old patterns, lifting his head from the bar only every few days, appraising his surroundings for mere minutes, and then descending deep into the alcoholic, drug-induced fugue he prefers to the real world. But a big gypsy walks into the bar one day during a moment of Jack's clarity and changes all that with a simple request. Jack knows the look in this man's eyes, a look of hopelessness mixed with resolve topped off with a quietly simmering rage; he's seen it in the mirror. Recognizing a kindred soul, Jack agrees to help him, knowing but not admitting that getting involved is going to lead to more bad than good. But in Jack Taylor's world, bad and good are part and parcel of the same lost cause, and besides, no one ever accused Jack of having good sense.… (more)
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» See also 94 mentions

English (14)  French (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (16)
Showing 1-5 of 14 (next | show all)
The crime itself didn’t seem to be the main part of the plot ( )
  jimifenway | Jan 24, 2024 |
Edgy, pitch-black humour." Guardian
  BISofPEI | Apr 25, 2023 |
I loved his swan heroics. This is an author developing a seriously messed up protagonist. Likable and despicable all in one. He loves to end his book with a bang. Looking forward to the next one. ( )
  Je9 | Aug 10, 2021 |
Slightly less coherent than the first Jack Taylor with some genuinely bizarre choices. Bruen gives generous shout outs to other writers that he admires name-checking McBain and Lawrence Block and nodding to George Pelecanos at least 3 different times in the book. Oddly, though, every time he mentions Pelecanos, he spells it differently. This is not one of the characters spelling it badly, its the narrator. This may well be the worst edited book i have ever read. In many ways it feels completely unproofed and similar to a self-published manuscript. Weird.

There are huge inconsistencies and leaps of logic and an ending that is supposed to be nihilistic, but is just bonkers. I can almost forgive the whole affair for giving me suggestions for other books to read and for quoting chunks out of things like Chandler's Simple Act of Murder, but this one has me worried. I'll give Bruen another chance, but if that's as poorly presented as this, I'm done. ( )
  asxz | Mar 13, 2019 |



“The Killing of the Tinkers” is a lonely book.

I used to read a fair amount of crime fiction. A lot, actually. In the last years I've found myself reading less of it, and in the last years I find that the novels I give up on the soonest are crime novels. Why? Well. For several reasons. For starters the term "noir" is being used today as something of a buzzword. It’s used with the same promiscuity as the snack food industry uses ketchup. I’ve lost count on the number of books I’ve given up on because of that. I don’t want to read an author that just likes to play a noir game. I want an author that really pays attention to reality and logic. Ken Bruen is one of the happy few that despite a few wobbles, and missteps, has been able to avoid tumbling into oblivion (I’m still reading the early Bruen. I’m still withholding judgment on the late Bruen).

After having a taste of Jack Taylor in "The Guards", I was ready for some more. Ken Bruen has a noir writing style that perfectly captures the flavour of the local underground in which the characters live, including the drugs that often exist but are rarely written about in mainstream fiction. Ken Bruen is stylistically in a class of his own. Right from the first page, Bruen hits a faultless noir mood and doesn’t let go until the very last page. The book is full of despair and it takes a special author to be able to find something beautiful and honest in such unrelenting despair, and Bruen is the guy to do it.

If Jack Taylor is your run-of-the-mill detective, what isn’t definitely standard, is Bruen's prose. Not only are you hammered on the head with the Queen’s English, but Bruen has a unique writing style in which he sometimes uses poetry that fits the prose pitch-perfect, even in the middle of a paragraph, or when using a list. Raw poetical prose at its finest.

“The Killing of the Tinkers” isn’t overly concerned with detailing the detection process, and the mysteries are actually easily solved, but that's beside the point. Noir is all-pervasive throughout the book. And maybe that’s why Jack Taylor drinks so much, maybe to stop himself from seeing, not only the worst parts of the world around him, but also himself.

As I said in another review, Bruen is an acquired taste.
" ( )
  antao | Dec 10, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 14 (next | show all)
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Es führt kein Weg zurück

Thomas Wolfe
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Für Cathi Unsworth
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Der Bub ist wieder in der Stadt.
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When Jack Taylor blew town at the end of The Guards, his alcoholism was a distant memory and sober dreams of a new life in London were shining in his eyes. In the opening pages of The Killing of the Tinkers, Jack's back in Galway a year later with a new leather jacket on his back, a pack of smokes in his pocket, a few grams of coke in his waistband, and a pint of Guinness on his mind. So much for new beginnings. Before long he's sunk into his old patterns, lifting his head from the bar only every few days, appraising his surroundings for mere minutes, and then descending deep into the alcoholic, drug-induced fugue he prefers to the real world. But a big gypsy walks into the bar one day during a moment of Jack's clarity and changes all that with a simple request. Jack knows the look in this man's eyes, a look of hopelessness mixed with resolve topped off with a quietly simmering rage; he's seen it in the mirror. Recognizing a kindred soul, Jack agrees to help him, knowing but not admitting that getting involved is going to lead to more bad than good. But in Jack Taylor's world, bad and good are part and parcel of the same lost cause, and besides, no one ever accused Jack of having good sense.

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