Review: The Guards

What an odd, strange book. Not criticism at all, because I liked it a whole lot, but I suspect the rhythm pace writing Will be sticking in my brain for quite some time.

Although this is the first of Bruen's books to cross the Atlantic, he's been a fairly prolific writer since his first book, Rilke in Black, was published in the UK back in the mid 1990s. As his career developed, he adopted a very terse, minimalistic, almost poetic style of one-line sentences, interspersed with trios of single words like I just did in the above paragraph. At first, it's jarring but eventually, I got used to it. Especially because it really added to the book, and to the mindset of the main character, Jack Taylor.

Jack used to be a Garda Siochana, a policeman in the Irish force. He got booted out for bad behavior and a nasty alcohol habit, and now stumbles along in Galway, acting somewhat like a PI but generally hanging out in Grogan's and gaining literary sustenance from his huge stash of poetry volumes and crime novels. But then, while sitting on a barstool, Ann Henderson walks in. Her daughter, age sixteen, has committed suicide--or has she? Ann doesn't think so and wants Jack to investigate. Why? "They say you're good because there's nothing else in your life," she responds. And so it goes.

THE GUARDS is definitely more of a noir novel than any kind of mystery. Jack doesn't really solve the case, he stumbles around some more, going on many benders, landing in a mental hospital, breaking his fingers left and right. His friends die, his best chance at love is thwarted, and there's just an overall sense of melancholy and despair. And yet, perhaps the best scene in the book is the chapter where we discover just how much Jack adores books. Interestingly, though quite strangely, the book is littered with quotes from various crime novels--Pelecanos, T Jefferson Parker, Bill James, Dutch Leonard, just to name a few such authors. I got used to it but I have to admit, part of me wondered if all those quotes were considered to be fair use or whether Bruen had to pay something....but since there were no attributions in the copyright page, I'm assuming fair use. The point, though, I suspect, is that all these quotes illuminate that Jack's basing his PI skills on the books he reads. He tries so hard to be like the crime fiction heroes, but in the end, he's only a broken man with an uncertain future.

Certainly, Jack Taylor is a difficult hero, but one I do wish to read more of. Luckily, the second book, THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS, is out in UK paperback with the third book to follow this month. Although I know he'll be messed up for a good long while, maybe, just maybe, the end of the road will be marked with a dim, blinking light--one that might just signify hope and redemption.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Sarah - RAM

Book Review: The Guards