Book Review: Blitz

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Blitz     Amazon US PB Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada PB
Ken Bruen
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: White Trilogy follow-up / Inspector Brant
St. Martin’s, Jul 2004, $12.95, 272 pp.

The police psychiatrist asks South East Detective Sergeant Brant to talk about his tendency towards violence when the patient lights up a cigarette in the non-smoking office and head butts the shrink. As the Super lectures Chief Inspector Roberts over his failure to reign in Brant’s abusiveness, the latter learns his wife died in a car accident. Super has his favorite poster boy handsome PC McDonald take home the distraught Roberts. Officer WPC “Black is Beautiful” Falls fails a key exam while goof McDonald, who almost cost her life, remains the Super’s pet. Still the fair haired McDonald runs into trouble; Brant sets him up to look like a stooge and he had an accident in which hekilled a bloke

While Roberts replaces his wife with alcohol as his companion, Falls turns to drugs and a skinhead for solace, and Brant is on the brink of suspension, The BLITZ murders police officer Sandra Miller. Other cops are killed and soon the South East London Police Squad knows they must stop a vicious serial killer. However, with Roberts deep into mourning and Brant in deep trouble, Porter Nash leads the investigative task force which only angers his superiors, Roberts and Brant.

Living up to its title, BLITZ, fans will feel just that way with this one sitting trip on London’s wild side. Readers get a close up look at several cops struggling with personal problems when the serial killer, seeking publicity, begins a reign of terror that grips London and the audience. The ending is a delightful twist that will leave police procedural lovers seeking more urban noirs from Ken Bruen (see THE GUARDS and KILLING OF THE TINKERS).

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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