The Dramatist

Roughly as many friends told me I would love Ken Bruen as told me I wouldn’t. I would love him because he is a brilliant writer or I wouldn’t because noir is not really my thing and/or I wouldn’t ‘get’ him.

‘They’ (or half of them anyway) were right. I loved The Dramatist.

It is the fourth novel in a series featuring Jack Taylor, former policeman in the Irish Guarda with a self-destructive personality that manifests itself most obviously in a series of addictions (alcohol, booze, nicotine) and poor handling of personal relationships. At the start of The Dramatist he is newly sober (through choice) and free of illegal drugs (because his cocaine dealer is in prison). Ostensibly the plot is driven by Taylor being asked by said show more drug dealer to investigate the death of his sister which has been ruled an accident by police. But really it is just the continuing story of Jack’s meandering, blighted life.

I don’t know how to pitch that the story of one Irish drunk’s life is worth reading so you’ll just have to trust me. Despite the fact that Jack’s investigation runs to not much more than a couple of phone calls and badgering one of his old colleagues a few times there is a load going on here and it’s all captivating. With black ‘you should feel guilty for laughing’ humour Jack struggles with his addictions, entangles himself with women, a priest and some nasty vigilantes and observes the political and social changes in his world in a way that makes it impossible to stop reading. I should also point out that although I haven’t read the first three books in the series there are enough reminiscences to ensure I didn’t feel lost.

The story is told in Jack’s first-person point of view which is normally not something I enjoy but is well-suited here as it allows us to see the best and the worst of Jack who may not be likable but is compelling. Friends, of the kind that don’t mind being dismissed most of the time, and the inevitable enemies swirl in and around Jack’s life. Sometimes he is nice to them, like the lovely moment when he tries to cheer up the elderly lady who runs the small hotel he lives in, but more often he isn’t, because it just doesn’t come naturally. All of them though are totally believable and I really did get sucked into this world. I was going to say ‘drawn into’ but that would suggest I had a choice and after the first 10 minutes or so I had to keep listening.

To be fair the other half of my friends were right too, I don’t always enjoy noir. It’s not the darkness of the subject I mind nearly as much as when there is absolute certainty from the outset that the darkness will prevail. Where there is certainty there is boredom for me as a reader. I like most of all to be kept wondering. What Bruen does to perfection with The Dramatist is tease readers with the possibility that things might not end in darkness after all. While there are events in the story that are very dark indeed there are also incidents in which things for Jack border on peachy and therein lies the tantalising hook. Will this incident trigger his downward spiral? Or that one? Or might there not be a downturn at all? Until the last moment of the book I didn’t know and that’s all I can ask.

It was the end that tipped the book from good to great for me. It’s 36 hours since I uttered a loud “no” upon hearing the completely unexpected event and I still can’t quite rid myself of a lingering sadness. But I also know that the ending was the perfect one for the book and that’s such a rare thing to find that I will savour it, sadness and all. show less

Jack Taylor is a man defined by his vices and weaknesses. Essentially, he is a man whose life has been largely consumed by an abuse of alcohol, pills, cocaine and nicotine. Taylor does nothing half way and his weaknesses have ensured that his personal life is a wreck; he runs women off at a steady pace and his closest friends are the two octogenarian women who run the failing hotel at which he's taken up permanent residence. But, hey, things are looking up for Jack. He's been off the dope and booze for a few weeks and he's even thinking about giving up cigarettes - all because his dealer has been given a six year prison sentence and Jack doesn't have the energy to locate a new supplier.

It is when Jack's dealer summons him to the prison show more to ask for help in finding out why and how his sister was killed that Jack reluctantly resumes his non-paying work as a private detective. The Dramatist is Ken Bruen's fourth Jack Taylor novel, and this time around, Bruen offers a more elaborate and detailed plot than in the previous three. Even so, Taylor's reluctance to get involved in the investigation of what he soon realizes was a murder and not an accidental death allows the author to detail Jack's daily struggles to remain sober and to rebuild the personal life that drugs and booze have taken from him.

This is the heart of the book and, along the way, Jack watches his mother's steady deterioration, is confronted by an old lover while struggling to maintain a new relationship, is challenged by one of his few friends to confront a group of vigilantes and is threatened by a deranged killer. Ultimately, the murder investigation is brought to a successful climax but that was not the most intriguing part of the book for me as a reader and, in fact, the killer's identity came as no great surprise. Rather, I found myself fascinated by the train wreck that is Jack Taylor's life. I rooted for him as he managed to stay off the booze after each personal crisis confronted him but I didn't really expect him to manage it. His personal history filled me with skepticism that his abstinence would last despite the fact that he continued to surprise his friends and even himself by remaining stone cold sober no matter what life tossed at him next.

But be warned: even my skepticism did not prepare me for the ending of this book. I was stunned at its suddenness and power. The Dramatist is the first Ken Bruen novel that I've read without thinking about, and admiring, the author's style more than the novel's plot. Jack Taylor fans will consider this one to be a classic.

Rated at: 4.0 show less

Fourth Jack Taylor mystery set in Galway, Ireland. Jack is off the drugs and booze and has almost given up the smokes, too. But he feels listless, wandering aimlessly through his days and not feeling very alive even though he is physically quite well. When his friend Cathy says that his old drug dealer, Stewart (now incarcerated—the real reason for Jack’s kicking the coke habit) wants to see him about something, he’s dreading it—but he goes. Stewart wants Jack to look into his younger sister’s death, which was deemed an accident when she slipped down the stairs. But oddly, there was a book tucked beneath her with an inscription from ‘the dramatist’ in it. Other things crop up—Jack’s mother’s ill health, a new lady show more friend, rumors of a secret vigilante group forming within the guards—and Jack nearly forgets about it until a second girl dies the same way. The book has a heartbreaking ending that I saw coming about halfway through—that didn’t make it any less painful, though! I love Bruen’s work; it’s raw, gritty and honest, and Jack Taylor, with all his maddening foibles, is one of my favorite characters. Despite the ending, I liked this book better than the last one. This series is not for those who prefer cozies and happy-ever-after endings. show less

Oh my. After reading this installment of the Jack Taylor series, I am hard pressed to figure out how much worse things can get for Jack. I've long said that making Jack Taylor's acquaintance through reading is like watching a train about to wreck on its tracks...you know that something terrible is about to happen, but the reality of how bad it's going to be keeps you watching. But frankly, I wasn't prepared for this one.

As the novel opens, Jack's drug dealer (the very well-dressed, erudite young man) is in prison, put away for six years. He makes it known through Cathy that his sister had been killed and the crime scene made to look like an accident. He wants Jack to investigate. All that was found that was even a little off was a copy show more of a work by John Millington Synge near the body. However, Jack doesn't see murder, and besides, he has his hands full with the husband of an ex-lover. Add to this a crazy vigilante group and a newly-found woman, and you understand why Jack takes his time about getting to the drug dealer's problem. But when a second young woman dies the same way, and a book by Synge is found underneath her body, Jack's forced to take notice.

I love these books, I love these characters, and although Taylor is pitiful (and I do mean just absolutely pitiful), I can't get enough of this guy.

Highly recommended -- if you're after it for the mystery aspect only, you'll miss so much more in this series. I think people who've been following the series will enjoy it (my guess, before I read the next in the series it's a turning point) and will want as I did to read it soon after the Magdalen Martyrs. These books all turn on Jack Taylor's character -- not the element of the whodunits embedded into the story by the author.

Fabulous - and I'm off to order the next. Do NOT read this one without the 3 previous behind you. show less

The fourth book in the Jack Taylor series finds our favourite sometime Galway PI off the drink and drugs and even contemplating giving up the cigarettes too. His drug dealer, Stewart, has been banged up and Jack doesn't want the rigmarole of finding a new one so gave them up and thought he might as well do the same with the booze to get all the hurt out in one go. Six months go by and still clean and sober when Cathy saks him to go see Stewart and when he does he's asked to look into the death of Stewart's sister. She was found at the bottom of her stairs with a broken neck. The verdict pronounced accidental death but Stewart thinks not due to the book that was found under her body. His sister hated the author, J.M. Synge. It's only show more when a second body is found in similar circumstances that Jack actually believes there may be something to what Stewart has to say after all.

While this is going on, Jack also has to deal with his mother's worsening health along with a vigilante group called The Pikemen and the fact that former lover Ann Henderson's new husband doesn't seem to like him. This series is really brutal on Jack and it's a wonder he's survived until now. How much more can teh guy take before he returns to his old ways to numb the pain again?

Once again my wishlist has grown due to the quotes that are included as chapter markers and marked off some music to check out as well. Thank you Mr. Bruen but I'm seriously wondering if you have a heart with the punishment you dole out to your characters. show less

This is more a series that explores the psyche of the tormented Jack Taylor than a mystery series. We all know that Jack has more demons than two ordinary people. But Jack hasn't too much trouble with the mystery of finding the killer of two girls but he does have a lot of trouble dealing with issues from his past. He is clean and sober through most of the book until a catastrophic event at the end changes everything. I love Jack and Ken Bruen does a wonderful job of creating this marvellous character. I can't wait for the next one.

I admired the author's will in making Jack Taylor so fallible in this series, we see him making so many wrong decisions that hurt himself and others. But with the loss at the end of this novel I've lost my own distance and ability to appreciate the art of Jack's flailing. I am not interested in pursuing this anti hero any further.