Ken Bruen

Stephen Blake is a good man blown in bad directions. He and girlfriend Siobhan, best friend Tommy, IRA terrorist Stapleton, and a particularly American sort of psychopath named Dade, are all on a collision course somewhere on the road between the dive bars of New York, and the pitiless desert of the Southwest.

Struggling to remain sober and overcome a debt to a local thug, Jack Taylor accepts a job tracking down a woman who once befriended the thug's mother, an assignment that proves increasingly challenging and dangerous.

"Jack Taylor has finally escaped his violent life in Galway for a quiet retirement in the country. But on a day trip back into the city to sort out his affairs, Jack is hit by a truck in front of Galway's Famine Memorial, left in a coma but mysteriously without a scratch on him. When he awakens weeks later, he finds Ireland in a frenzy over the so-called "Miracle of Galway." People have become convinced that the two children seen tending to him are...

As well-versed in politics, pop culture, and crime fiction as he is ill-fated in life, Jack Taylor is recovering from a mistaken medical diagnosis and a failed suicide attempt. In need of money, and with former cop on his resume, Jack has been hired as a night-shift security guard. But his Ukrainian boss has Jack in mind for a bit of off-the-books work. He wants Jack to find what some claim to be the first true book of heresy, The Red Book, currently...

Juggling a precarious balance between his physical and addiction recovery efforts, former cop Jack Taylor investigates the work of a vigilante killer who has been sending him cryptic invitations to join him, an effort that jeopardizes Taylor's livelihood, friends and mental health.

The Southeast London Police Squad is plagued by a serial murderer who's determined to give his victims a lesson in manners. The "Manners Killer" believes that anyone who behaves rudely in public (e.g., verbally abuses a store clerk, slaps a child) is fair game. He soon finds that he's no match for Brant, Bruen's amoral, sociopathic brute of a detective. While his methods may be questionable, Brant gets results, and we find ourselves secretly cheering...