MY KEN BRUEN TOP TEN

Recently I wrote an a remembrance of Ken Bruen for CrimeReads about recently departed friend. I also intended to put a top ten list of my favorite titles of his. They decided it was better to run it without it, wanting to end it on the last paragraph. I decided to post it here to both give the uninitiated some places to start and possibly point to some books fans may have missed. I put them in publishing order.  Take into consideration, I haven’t read his general fiction or American Skin, a book many love. Also, there were several other Jack Taylor books I’d love to shoehorn in here.

1.     RILKE ON BLACK (1996) - The first ken Bruen crime novel established all we could rely on, entertaining characters living on the edge, style, pitch black humor, and little “moral fiber”. The prose has the speed and impact of bullet from a .357.

2.     THE HACKMAN BLUES (1997) – Tony Brady could be Ken’s most realized character and the rest of the cast pops. You may not like many of the people in this book, but you will know where they come from and they will entertain the hell out of you.

3.     TAMING THE ALIEN (1999) – His second book with Brandt and company with the detective sergeant hitting the states to take down the female half of a thrill-kill couple in New York, then to San Francisco to get even with the bloke who assaulted him with a tea kettle and trashed his 52nd Precinct collection. Packed with style, humor, and fun brutality.

4.     LONDON BOULEVARD (2001) – Ken’s take on Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard. A former thug looking for a new life out of prison hides out from the gangster who wants to pull him back in as a handy man at the mansion of an aging actress who has her own designs for him. One of his best endings.

5. THE GUARDS (2001) – Ken introduces us to Jack Taylor in his Anti-social glory in a case that shows how our past follows us. A vivid yet bleak snapshot of Galway and Ireland of that time.

6.     THE MAGDELYN MARTYRS (2003) – A look at one of the Catholic Church’s worst sins. Taylor’s drug dealer has him track down the nun who got is mother out of the infamous Magdelyn laundry. Ken hits everything this series explored and gives his best twist.

7.     MAX with Jason Starr (2008) – The third in the Max and Angela and the most meta. With the unlikely crime boss and his femme fatale Achilles heel going at it, this time with a demented wanna’ be true crime writer. You can feel these two writers having fun, bouncing off one another. A great use of author Laura Lippman as well.

8.     TOWER with Reed Farrel Coleman – Ken’s poignant side came out more as he took the point of view of one of two friends who get caught up in a life of crime. The crime fiction equivalent of Lou Reed and Springsteen doing a concept album.

9.     CALLOUS (2021) – This felt like what was to be the start of a new series, even with an appearance of someone who seemed like Jack Taylor passing the torch. Three dysfunctional American siblings inherit a house in Ireland and have to fight the drug dealers who want it for a lab.  A black comic look at family and culture clashes.

10.  GALWAY’S EDGE (2024) – Not only his last book, but what he believed to be his last Jack Taylor. You can see how far both the character and writer had come. I can’t help but think how he passed away just after this book featuring the character most associated with him had no more to say. He even went out poetic.