The Guards (Jack Taylor Series #1) » (MP3 on CD - Unabridged, 1 MP3, 4 hrs. 41)

Ken Bruen has been an English teacher in Africa, Japan, Southeast Asia, and South America. He lives in Galway, Ireland.

Advance Praise for Ken Bruen and The Guards

“The Guards blew me away. It’s dark, funny, and moving—just for starters. With a sharp eye and a lyrical voice, Ken Bruen takes us on a powerful odyssey through the mean streets of Galway, straight into the Irish heart. Bruen’s tale is a potent draft of desire and hopelessness, conviction and surrender, inadvertent heroism and unexpected grace. This is mystery writing of a high order.”—T. Jefferson Parker, author of Black Water and Silent Joe

“The Guards is a wonderful book, wrenching and real, fast, funny and wise in every sense. Why the hell haven’t I heard of Ken Bruen before? He’s a terrific writer and The Guards is one of the most mesmerizing works of crime fiction I’ve ever read. I’m going to read the rest of his work now, so don’t bother me for a while. And when he’s got a new one, send it to me quick. This guy is the real thing.”—James W. Hall, author of Blackwater Sound

“The Guards is raw, hard, bitter, and amazing. It’s got that ancient feel to it, as of a primal story being retold with a fine, careless Irish swagger. It’s as if Bruen made up his mind to tell us this story whether we wanted to hear it or not. Oh, we do. For sure.”—Jon A. Jackson, author of Badger Games

“The Guards is an astounding novel, a poetic account of a desperation as deep and cold as the North Sea, retribution, and resurrection. It’s so good I can’t think of it as a crime novel. It’s a fine book with some crimes.”—James Crumley, author of The Final Country

“The Guards is a pint and a half of perfect book. Make it this year’s specialty of the house.”—Boston Teran, author of The Prince of Deadly Weapons

“The Guards kicked my ass—it’s up there with the best. If Elmore Leonard got together with James Joyce to write a Spencer novel, this is what you’d get!”—David Means, author of Assorted Fire Events

Publishers Weekly

Bruen flaunts genre cliches (the tough cop who loves books; the beating victim who insists on checking himself out of a hospital too soon) on virtually every page of this outstanding debut mystery. He gets away with it thanks to his novel setting, the Irish seaside city of Galway, and unusual characters who are either current or former members of the Garda Siochana, the Guards, Ireland's shadowy police force. Bruen, a teacher of English in schools in Africa and Japan, has a rich and mordant writing style, full of offbeat humor. "You don't know hell till you stand in a damp dance hall in South Armagh as the crowd sing along to `Surfing Safari,' " says Jack Taylor, kicked out of the Guards for various booze-related infractions and now working sporadically as a "finder." An attractive woman pays him to look into the supposed suicide of her teenaged daughter, and Taylor manages to stay sober long enough to do it, after a fashion. There's a tendency toward cuteness (three-line lists dot the already sparse narrative), and Bruen is determined to tell us just how well read and well listened his hero is by dropping in dozens of references to writers and musical groups. But these are minor failings. With the recent accidental death of Mark McGarrity, the American who wrote (as Bartholomew Gill) about a top Dublin cop, Bruen now has a chance to become that country's version of Scotland's Ian Rankin-and perhaps the standard bearer for a new subgenre called "Hibernian Noir." (Jan. 13) Forecast: Blurbs from T. Jefferson Parker, James W. Hall, Jon A. Jackson and James Crumley will help ensure better than average sales for a first novel import.