The Guards

“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 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 show more 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

Hard-boiled, poetic, fierce, heart-wrenching, heart-warming, tender: ex-Garda Jack Taylor can make you laugh and cry on the same page. The mystery is secondary; the primary story is about Jack Taylor. This is the first of the series set in Galway. Some authors don't hit their stride until later in a series but Bruen hit the ground running. He has certainly won a fan in me.

Bruen's been in my radar for a while but this was my first. I loved it. Jack Taylor's an alcoholic but he loves to read and that's good enough for me. Riddled with psychos and corrupt cops and pedophiles and random acts of brutality, this was a treat. I'll look for the next couple in the series just to see where he can go from here.

The lyrical prose and the perfect Galway patter were seductive but in the end, I couldn't find it in me to like this drunk with a habit of violence and a passion for books.

I'd heard good things about the Jack Taylor series. They made a TV series about it so I thought, it can't be all bad if it's been on the tele now, can it?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6n2MA7ibww


"The Guards" starts well enough. The style is a kind of Nineties Philip Marlowe, if Marlowe had been an alcoholic from Galway who was well-read, didn't think much of himself or anyone else, constantly took the piss out of himself and was pretty hopeless at investigating things.

Jack Taylor's main achievements in life so far have been drinking and getting himself thrown show more out of the Garda (although not for drinking).

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Gerry O'Brien, and found myself enjoying listening to Jack's self-mocking description of his first case as an unlicensed PI investigating the suicide of a teenage girl.

Let me share the close of chapter one with you. It'll give you the flavour of the thing. Jack is on his way home from too many glasses of Back Bush to recall and has stopped to pick up some chips, with a cod thrown in to make it seem more substantial.:

"Is there anything more comforting than doused in vinegar chips? The smell is like the childhood you never had.

As I approached my flat, I was in artificial contentment. Turning to my door, the first blow caught me on the neck. Then a kick to the cobblers. For mad reasons, I hung on to the chips. Two men, two big men, they gave me a highly professional hiding. A mix of kicks and punches that came with the rhythm of precision.

Without malice but with absolute dedication. I felt my nose break. Would swear it made a crunch sound.

One of them said, "Get his hand. Spread the fingers." I fought that. Then my fingers were splayed on the road. It felt cold and wet. Twice the shoe came down. I roared for all I was worth. They were done. The other said, "Won't be playing with himself for a bit." A voice close to my ear, "Keep your nose out of other people's business."

I wanted to cry, "Call the Guards", as they headed off. I tried to say, "Buy your own chips!" but my mouth was full of blood."

I thought that was wonderful.

Sadly, Jack turned out to be the kind of man you sometimes meet, usually while consuming alcohol in a public place, who at first seems both charming and wise. His voice is soft, his bright verbal plumage is borrowed from the finest writers and he's happy to share the wisdom that his suffering has won him. By the fourth or fifth pint, the shine wears off, the borrowed feathers moult and you start to see that the charm is there to hide a man addicted to drink and prone to violence who knows in his heart that he's broken.

If your response to such a man is, "Well he is who is and he could be worse. Good luck to him." then I think you'll be reading the whole series. If, like me, you cannot find it in yourself to like this self-harming drunk with a habit for violence, then you'll be stopping after the first book.

The book itself is not so much about solving a crime as about seeing the kind of man Jack is, the kind of man he might be if he were able to stay sober and to understand the childhood that produced such flawed potential.

It's many decades since I last spent any time in Galway but Ken Bruen seems to me to present a credible version of the place and its people and that alone is reason enough to read the first book.

Decide for yourself. Click on the SoundCloud link below and let Gerry O'Brien cast Ken Bruen's spell over you.

https://soundcloud.com/ulverscroft/the-guards-by-ken-bruen 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 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!

The Guards by Ken Bruen is the first entry in his original series featuring Jack Taylor. Jack, currently living in Galway has the dubious record of having been expelled from the Irish police force, the Guardia for excessive drunkenness. He does the work of a PI but doesn’t like to refer to himself in that term as, in Ireland, it can be confused with the word “informer” which is mightily frowned upon.

This book is so much more than a crime story. In fact the crime is very much a secondary story, given to us in small doses. Instead it reads more like a diary, filled with Jack’s personal references, thoughts on life and on being Irish. With his unique writing style, Bruen has produced a intelligent, character driven story that has show more left me hungry for more.

A lot of books give you flawed heroes, but Jack Taylor stands heads and shoulders above them all. Stumbling through life, addicted to alcohol , prone to blackouts, creating one mess after another, Jack still has the ability to make you root for him. No matter how down and out he gets (and he seems to get pretty low), he manages to pick himself up and carry on. Jack is a book lover, or as he would say, “a hoor for books” and always has the appropriate quote for whatever situation he finds himself in.

I think this is the type of book one either loves or hates. It has a strong, hard-boiled style than may not appeal to everyone. As for me, Jack Taylor is a character I’m looking forward to reading more about. Irreverent and gritty, funny and wise, The Guards has just whetted my appetite. show less

I want to be clear up front. This book is not going to be for everyone. It is bleak. It isn't really much of a mystery. It doesn't follow conventional writing rules. You might not like the main character. You probably shouldn't like the main character. If you find yourself reading it and wondering why. Stop, walk away and find yourself another novel.

If, however, you are like me and the writing catches you immediately. If Taylor despite all his flaws and heartbreak speaks to you. If the writing style seems to crackle in your brain. Keep reading because you are in for a treat.

I actually found Bruen's writing style a little off putting in The White Trilogy. Enough that I had never gone back but I decided I was going to watch the TV show show more this summer and before I did I should give the book a shot. I am glad I did. I have immediately moved onto the next in the series. show less