Ken Bruen ~ Purgatory

just finished reading the latest and greatest from Ken Bruen, Purgatory, in his Jack Taylor series. Ken is the master of the noir koan. No one writes with more acid humour cut to the bone, no one approaches him in his cynicism. I’ve read all of him (hey, i did miss one, the prior to this in the Taylor series, Headstone, but it’s happily on its way to me) and this is my favorite, bar none. he’s also a great enthusiast and narrative archivist of popular culture, bands and tv shows liberally sprinkled throughout (my fave, Breaking Bad, or course puts in an appearance), and he’s a real reader’s writer, perfect epigraphs headlining each on the dozens of chapters, invocations of fave writers of his and mine, like Sara Gran and Megan Abbott.
what an incredible body of work. this makes the 10th in the Taylor series. if you’re new, play fair and start at the beginning with The Guards. lots of mayhem with the revolving cast that would make starting with Purgatory a really bad idea. you’ll not regret reading the whole set, as well as all of Ken’s other work.
“So many times, a passage from a book reflected exactly the current of my life. But never did my life reflect a single piece of uplifting writing in all my reading years. My life didn’t imitate fiction; it mocked it.”
brilliant as always.
purgatory

 

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