Book Review: Dramatist

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

Dramatist     Amazon US TPB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada TPB Amazon Canada HC
Ken Bruen
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Jack Taylor # 4
St Martin's Minotaur, March 2006

Bruen's protagonist Jack Taylor returns. To the reader's delight, Jack has foresworn alcohol and cocaine and is moving cautiously through the first tentative weeks and months of sobriety. Still a voracious reader, Jack spends his time in his favorite used bookshop, at a bar tended by a good friend, and entertaining his elderly landlady.

An unlikely request from an unlikely petitioner arrives - Jack's drug dealer wants to see him. Jack travels to the man's prison visiting room in Dublin and is bemused to find himself accepting an assignment to investigate the death of the drug dealer's sister. Soon another young woman has died in the same manner - with a book by the Irish playwright Synge found near her body.

As with Bruen's other books featuring Jack Taylor - the investigation of the crime takes a back seat to the character of Jack himself. It would give too much away to even hint at the devastating blow waiting in the final pages. Bruen is one of the best writers working today - and Jack one of the most intriguing protagonists.

Very, very dark and highly recommended.

Woodstock - RAM

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