Ken Bruen (1951–2025)
Author of The Guards
About the Author
Ken Bruen was born in 1951 in Galway, Ireland. He was educated at Gormanston College, Meath and later at Trinity College Dublin where he earned a PhD. in metaphysics. He spent 25 years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, Asia and South America. Ken Bruen's works include the well reeived White show more Trilogy and a book entitled The Guards, which won a Shamus Award .He also edited an anthology of stories set in Dublin entitled Dublin Noir. His writing speciality is crime fiction. Some of his other works include The Killing of the Tinkers, The Magdalen Martyrs, and The Dramatist and Priest, which was nominated for the 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. Ken Bruen is also the recipient of the first David Loeb Gooodis Award in 2008 for his dedication to his art. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Courtesy of Serpent's Tail Press
Series
Works by Ken Bruen
Fade to...Brooklyn 2 copies
To Have and to Hold 2 copies
Wednesday's Child 2 copies
Brant (Inspector Brant #4) 1 copy
McDead 1 copy
Saubermann Kriminalroman 1 copy
The Jack Taylor Series, Books 1-3: The Guards, The Killing of the Tinkers, and The Magdalen Martyrs (2015) 1 copy
Colt 1 copy
Vixen (Inspector Brant, #5) 1 copy
The Dead Room 1 copy
Danny Boy 1 copy
Angel Of Hospitality 1 copy
Time of the Green 1 copy
The Green Lie 1 copy
2012 1 copy
Blitz (Inspector Brant, #4) 1 copy
Associated Works
Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels (2012) 280 copies, 10 reviews
Bibliomysteries: Crime in the World of Books and Bookstores, Volume One (2013) — Contributor — 242 copies, 14 reviews
The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives (2009) — Contributor — 239 copies, 5 reviews
Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer (2010) — Contributor — 149 copies, 26 reviews
Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century (2011) — Contributor — 26 copies, 1 review
Borderland Noir: Stories & Essays of Love & Death across the Rio Grande (2015) — Contributor — 4 copies
D*CKED: Dark Fiction Inspired by Dick Cheney — Contributor — 4 copies
Crime Factory Issue 1 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1951-01-03
- Date of death
- 2025-03-29
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Trinity College, Dublin (Phd Metaphysics)
Gormanston College (County Meath) - Occupations
- novelist
English teacher - Agent
- Lukas Ortiz
- Short biography
- Ken Bruen besuchte das St. Joseph’s College in Galway City, später das Trinity College Dublin, an dem er über Metaphysik promovierte.
Bevor er zu schreiben begann, hatte er 25 Jahre lang als Englischlehrer in Afrika, Japan, Südostasien und Südamerika gelebt und gearbeitet. Heute ist er Mitglied eines literarischen Zirkels um Jason Starr, Reed Farrel Coleman und Allan Guthrie. Seine Bücher wurden mit zahlreichen Preisen geehrt, u. a. mit dem renommierten Shamus Award und dem französischen Grand prix de littérature policière.
Bruen lebt mit seiner Frau und einer gemeinsamen Tochter in seiner Geburtsstadt Galway.
Seit 2010 wird mit Jack Taylor eine auf seiner Jack-Taylor-Buchserie basierende Fernseh-Krimireihe produziert. - Nationality
- Ireland
- Birthplace
- Galway, County Galway, Ireland
- Places of residence
- Galway, County Galway, Ireland
- Place of death
- Galway, County Galway, Ireland
- Map Location
- Ireland
Members
Reviews
Against all odds, Galway’s best known fixer is still alive & kicking. Well…kicking may be an exaggeration. Jack Taylor is in a bit of a funk. All the years of hard living are catching up with him & a recent loss has him in a tailspin.
If that weren’t bad enough, people around him are dropping like flies. A lovely young cop who made the mistake of being seen with him, another he used to work with…both were killed in brazen attacks. If he didn’t know better, Jack might think he’s show more the common denominator. Oh wait…
Jack has always been a well read guy so I hope he’s up on his Faulkner because the past has just come roaring back to haunt him. The story picks up on events from book #11 (Green Hell) one of the best in the series IMHO. In this instalment, someone is out to destroy everyone Jack cares about before finishing him off. The reason? Well, that would be telling. But we soon learn why an unlikely trio of killers has painted a target on his back.
Jericho is a young Galway girl who’s….uh….a little different (I really don’t want to tick her off). She’s come back to get revenge for a loved one & as far as she’s concerned it’s all Jack’s fault. But she needs help & quickly recruits a couple of locals who have their own bones to pick with the former guard. And so begins a deadly game designed to make him suffer. Let’s face it, Jack doesn’t have a lot of friends left & he’s in no shape to take another emotional hit. But having nothing to lose can be very liberating.
Jeez Louise, this one had me looking over MY shoulder, never mind Jack’s. The first “Holy Crap” moment comes at 5% in & the narrative keeps you nervous as you try to anticipate Jericho’s next move. In typical style, the author mixes violence with Jack’s darkly humorous observations on books, sport, politics & Irish culture. It should come across as the story of a bitter man who’s hit rock bottom but Bruen includes small moments that give us a glimmer of hope for his long suffering anti-hero. I had no idea where this was going & I defy any reader to predict how it ends. All I’ll say is if you happen to suffer from ornithophobia you might want to follow Jack’s lead & keep the Jameson nearby.
It’s bleak, Irish noir laced with the blackest of humour. In other words, it’s Bruen. So I’ll end with this. Jack, we have to chat. I love you like a brother & worry about you between books. But after the events of this one, I’m rethinking our relationship. Maybe we should keep it casual. You know, like infrequent pen pals or something 😳 show less
If that weren’t bad enough, people around him are dropping like flies. A lovely young cop who made the mistake of being seen with him, another he used to work with…both were killed in brazen attacks. If he didn’t know better, Jack might think he’s show more the common denominator. Oh wait…
Jack has always been a well read guy so I hope he’s up on his Faulkner because the past has just come roaring back to haunt him. The story picks up on events from book #11 (Green Hell) one of the best in the series IMHO. In this instalment, someone is out to destroy everyone Jack cares about before finishing him off. The reason? Well, that would be telling. But we soon learn why an unlikely trio of killers has painted a target on his back.
Jericho is a young Galway girl who’s….uh….a little different (I really don’t want to tick her off). She’s come back to get revenge for a loved one & as far as she’s concerned it’s all Jack’s fault. But she needs help & quickly recruits a couple of locals who have their own bones to pick with the former guard. And so begins a deadly game designed to make him suffer. Let’s face it, Jack doesn’t have a lot of friends left & he’s in no shape to take another emotional hit. But having nothing to lose can be very liberating.
Jeez Louise, this one had me looking over MY shoulder, never mind Jack’s. The first “Holy Crap” moment comes at 5% in & the narrative keeps you nervous as you try to anticipate Jericho’s next move. In typical style, the author mixes violence with Jack’s darkly humorous observations on books, sport, politics & Irish culture. It should come across as the story of a bitter man who’s hit rock bottom but Bruen includes small moments that give us a glimmer of hope for his long suffering anti-hero. I had no idea where this was going & I defy any reader to predict how it ends. All I’ll say is if you happen to suffer from ornithophobia you might want to follow Jack’s lead & keep the Jameson nearby.
It’s bleak, Irish noir laced with the blackest of humour. In other words, it’s Bruen. So I’ll end with this. Jack, we have to chat. I love you like a brother & worry about you between books. But after the events of this one, I’m rethinking our relationship. Maybe we should keep it casual. You know, like infrequent pen pals or something 😳 show less
According to this author there are no private eyes in Ireland ,so what Jack Taylor, a hard-drinking ex-cop, does is look for things. In this case he is hired by a distraught woman , to look into the "questionable" suicide of her daughter and of course this leads him into some down-right nasty places. You might be thinking, another drunken, tortured antihero? Tired and cliched, right? Well wrong, because this fine crime novelist has managed to put a fresh face on this well-traveled genre. His show more prose is fast, lean and lyrical at times and who couldn't love a broken hero who has a passion for books that equals ours! This is only book one and I'll be back for the rest, you can bet on it! show less
Tommy Ryan, once a member of the Garda siochana (Guardians of the Peace) in Ireland, has left under a cloud and emigrated to the United States after losing his wife and daughter. He now lives in New York where he works in construction walking the high girders, something usually only done by American Indians but turns out Ryan has a flair for it. As he says:
“You have a guy who lost everything, what the sweet Jesus is going to scare him now.”
One day, after works, he goes in search of a show more drink and meets Merrick, Jewish ex-cop, ex-PI, and now bar owner and they strike up an immediate friendship. Merrick quit the PI business after his partner ended up in a coma but he has never been able to completely walk away from their last job – a particularly vicious serial killer who has a particular taste for very young boys. He also likes to taunt his pursuers with graphic descriptions of what he does t his victims. Recognizing a kindred spirit in Ryan (both ex-cops who aren’t above a little graft), Merrick asks Ryan if he would be interested in helping with the case. Ryan just can’t refuse especially when he begins to suspect that the perp just might be a cop.
Merrick is reminiscent of the pulp noir fiction of the mid-20th c. probably not surprising since author Ken Bruen is one of Ireland’s foremost writers of the hard-boiled and noir genres. As in all good noir, both Ryan and Merrick are flawed, open to corruption, and with self-destructive qualities that make them dangerous both to themselves and others. The stylized writing, the use of Irish dialect, and the fast pacing throughout give the story a type of rhythm common to the genre. The characters tend to be somewhat one-dimensional alpha males fueled by alcohol and testosterone. When they’re not fighting (and frequently killing) suspects, Ryan and Merrick spend a lot of time beating up on each other over some small slight – male bonding through violence. And as in earlier Noirs, women get short shrift – their main purpose is to play loyal helpmate to the protagonists. Even the so-called ‘tough broad’ persona tends to be willing to take a great deal of verbal, if not physical, abuse from her man – an insult that would cause a no-holds barred brawl between the men is seen by her as a bit of sweet flirtation. There is also a bit of interesting social commentary to be found between the swearing, fighting, drinking, and killing if one cares to look for it.
Because of the violence, the stylized writing, and the male-centric quality of Merrick, this novel will not appeal to everyone. However, for fans of noir, both old and new, Merrick makes for a fast, sometimes humorous, and very entertaining read. show less
“You have a guy who lost everything, what the sweet Jesus is going to scare him now.”
One day, after works, he goes in search of a show more drink and meets Merrick, Jewish ex-cop, ex-PI, and now bar owner and they strike up an immediate friendship. Merrick quit the PI business after his partner ended up in a coma but he has never been able to completely walk away from their last job – a particularly vicious serial killer who has a particular taste for very young boys. He also likes to taunt his pursuers with graphic descriptions of what he does t his victims. Recognizing a kindred spirit in Ryan (both ex-cops who aren’t above a little graft), Merrick asks Ryan if he would be interested in helping with the case. Ryan just can’t refuse especially when he begins to suspect that the perp just might be a cop.
Merrick is reminiscent of the pulp noir fiction of the mid-20th c. probably not surprising since author Ken Bruen is one of Ireland’s foremost writers of the hard-boiled and noir genres. As in all good noir, both Ryan and Merrick are flawed, open to corruption, and with self-destructive qualities that make them dangerous both to themselves and others. The stylized writing, the use of Irish dialect, and the fast pacing throughout give the story a type of rhythm common to the genre. The characters tend to be somewhat one-dimensional alpha males fueled by alcohol and testosterone. When they’re not fighting (and frequently killing) suspects, Ryan and Merrick spend a lot of time beating up on each other over some small slight – male bonding through violence. And as in earlier Noirs, women get short shrift – their main purpose is to play loyal helpmate to the protagonists. Even the so-called ‘tough broad’ persona tends to be willing to take a great deal of verbal, if not physical, abuse from her man – an insult that would cause a no-holds barred brawl between the men is seen by her as a bit of sweet flirtation. There is also a bit of interesting social commentary to be found between the swearing, fighting, drinking, and killing if one cares to look for it.
Because of the violence, the stylized writing, and the male-centric quality of Merrick, this novel will not appeal to everyone. However, for fans of noir, both old and new, Merrick makes for a fast, sometimes humorous, and very entertaining read. show less
“I don’t do sun. I’m delighted with the lack of rain and anything over is over-indulgence. I don’t trust it. Makes you yearn. For things that cannot last.”
“I read. I read a lot. Between bouts of booze, I get through some print. Mostly crime...”
“There’s always been books. All my bedraggled life, they’ve been the only constant.”
Ken Bruen died this past March. He was a terrific Irish crime writer and in honor of his passing, I reread The Guards, the first in his Jack show more Taylor series. It was just as good as they first time I read it. Jack Taylor is an alcoholic ex-guard (police officer). He is not officially a private detective but does side jobs for desperate people, in between the occasional bender or two. In this story, he looks into a young woman’s mysterious death, which has been labeled a suicide. Bruen’s writing is lean and razor-sharp. As a bonus, he likes to muse on the books that he is currently reading. If you have not read him, give him a try. show less
“I read. I read a lot. Between bouts of booze, I get through some print. Mostly crime...”
“There’s always been books. All my bedraggled life, they’ve been the only constant.”
Ken Bruen died this past March. He was a terrific Irish crime writer and in honor of his passing, I reread The Guards, the first in his Jack show more Taylor series. It was just as good as they first time I read it. Jack Taylor is an alcoholic ex-guard (police officer). He is not officially a private detective but does side jobs for desperate people, in between the occasional bender or two. In this story, he looks into a young woman’s mysterious death, which has been labeled a suicide. Bruen’s writing is lean and razor-sharp. As a bonus, he likes to muse on the books that he is currently reading. If you have not read him, give him a try. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 89
- Also by
- 38
- Members
- 7,494
- Popularity
- #3,266
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 359
- ISBNs
- 476
- Languages
- 12
- Favorited
- 49
