Customer Reviews

Blitz

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Call it "Irish Noir," "Post-Modern Noir, " or whatever other adjective or descriptive phrase you can come up with; it matters not one bit. There's noir ... and then there's Ken Bruen. Blitz is the sequel to Bruen's The White Trilogy, a series of novels that introduced us to the cops in the South East London squad. A more dysfunctional collection of police officers would be hard to imagine. This time around, their loyalties, their training and what's left of their fragile sanity will be put to the test as they attempt to collar a sociopath who is out there killing cops with a hammer. (Leading Bruen, of course, to insert an irreverent reference or two to the Beatles' immortal "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." Would you expect any less?). The killer, nicknamed "the Blitz" by London's rabid tabloid press, is a total `nutter. As the novel progresses, the reader is left with the sneaking suspicion that this whack-job is probably going to get away with his crimes and maybe even make a few pounds selling his story to the highest bidder. The fact that you are tempted in that direction, however, is dead giveaway that the author has something else entirely up his sleeve.

What Blitz lacks - relatively speaking, that is, compared to some of Bruen's other novels - in terms of sheer primal energy and visceral impact, it more than makes up for by means of a subtle and not-so-subtle sense of humor that is as grim and as dark as it gets. It's not that Bruen has become domesticated. It's just that his technique has become more sophisticated over time. Indeed, the author's implicit indictment of society is all the more searing because it is couched largely in such outlandishly humorous terms in this novel. You'll laugh your arse off in places while reading this book. Five minutes later you'll realize that what tickled your fancy was definitely no laughing matter a' tall. And five will getcha ten that's what the author bloody well intended in the first place! So strap yourself in and grab a motion-sickness bag. You're in for a wild ride through the sights and sounds of a London that will never, ever make the pages of any guidebook.

Read the entire text of this review in MYSTERY NEWS (October/November 2004)

Blitz is the name of a sadistic killer who begins bumping off London bobbies. Tell the truth, I loved BLITZ. I loved the main cop characters, Detective Sergeant Brant and Chief Inspector Roberts, and hope they show up in another book. This is an alcohol-saturated book: it seems all the characters are up till 3 am boozing and look like hell the next day at work. What fun! Wouldn't we all like to be like that, throwing our health to the wind, devil-may-care like. No, probably not. But it is somehow liberating to live vicariously through such tough, hard-as-nails characters. In our overly PC age, when smoking a cigarette is a fineable offense in many places, it does the soul good to see people being free to make mistakes even if only between the covers of a novel. Living badly should be a choice, not a crime, in a free society. Brant and Roberts live badly and are tough, funny and likeable. Ken Bruen has written a series of novels with Jack Taylor as the protagonist which I haven't yet read but have received good reviews. BLITZ is my first Ken Bruen book. Tell you what, mate, it won't be my last.

Once again I am drawn into the gritty world of the London crime scene. In Ken Bruen's books, I am never sure who is more vicious and criminal, the serial killers or the police who are searching them out.

This book has our serial killer going after the police starting off with a traffic warden and aiming toward the protaganist himself, Ken Brant. We have all of the usual police who we got to know in previous books including Brant (of course), Falls, Roberts, the incompetent Super with his "golden boy - snitch" McDonald. Alas, we no longer have my favorite, Lisa since she killed herself in McDead.

This book may be a little rough for many readers and it might be hard to follow by people who have never been exposed to the peculiar language that is spoken in South London (some say that it is English, but I would not swear to that).

If you haven't read Ken Bruen you're in for a treat. His "White Trilogy" is extraordinary. If you want a character that will plumb the depths of your soul, read about Jack Taylor in "The Guards."

Here, in "Blitz," a series of interconnected killings target police officers. Inspector Roberts is on compassionate leave, his wife having been killed in a traffic accident. Police Officer Falls, a Black woman police officer, befriends and is befriended by a young Aryan racist named 'Metal' with unpredictable consequences. And Sergeant Brandt finds himself teamed up with the openly gay Inspector (acting) Sergeant Porter Nash.

With an opportunity to make it into a West End comedy, Bruen modulates the heat so that a few guffaws are followed by a considerable chill as something disturbing is about to occur, followed by more witty dialogue.

You have to get used to his short staccato paragraphs and chapters. The dialogue is what gets you . . . abrubt statements followed by a Murphy's-law series of events.

If there is a criticism it is that in the Roberts-Brandt novels, there is not enough about Roberts or Brandt. Yet as I mentioned above, the story of Jack Taylor as told in "The Guards" shows great depth of character so if there is superficiality in Roberts-Brandt and they seem short of substance, it is by Ken Bruen's choice.

One of the best writers around. Certainly well worth the effort. 5+ stars. Larry Scantlebury

After years of reading George Pelecanos, James Lee Burke, John Harvery, George V. Higgins, Raymond Chandler, Ross Thomas, and others who can turn a phrase while inducing me to turn a page, I've finally started reading Ken Bruen. "Blitz" introduced me to a world so sloppy and hungover it feels as real as anything the aforementioned writers have created.

Here's the 3rd person narrator on Brant, one of the protagonists: "Brant considered asking her for a ride but she looked the deep type. She'd have issues and want to talk after. He hated that." Sharp, politically incorrect, perfectly believable. And the killer, who decides to create his public persona as a vicious murderer who only takes out cops? A complete, drunken screw-up.

Bruen is the real deal. The most exciting thing about finishing "Blitz" was knowing that he's written a shelf and I'm just starting him.

...he'd probably ask Ken Bruen to write his scripts.

Ken Bruen's "Blitz" is a rock `em, sock `em, no-holds-bar brawl of violent men and hard women on both sides of the law - an in-your-face tale told from the wrong side of London.

Remember the days when Lawrence Sanders was bringing crime fiction to the masses with NYPD's tough Captain Delaney and gripping crime drama like "The First Deadly Sin?" Well, carve up Sander's pedestrian prose with a broken-off beer bottle, run Captain Delaney through the gutters for some edge, strip out any regard for political correctness or social redeeming value, and you'll start getting a feel for Bruen's brand of raw drama on the mean streets. There's no genius in the story - a maniac decides to declare open season on London's cops, and starts indiscriminately killing them. In tracking down the murderer, this is not as much a police procedural as it is a character study in misfits and miscreants - and that's just the good guys.

This is black prose that finds beauty along its jagged edges - a searing journey through vicious deeds and twisted minds that builds to an unexpected and cynically satisfying climax. Ken Bruen is the real deal - if you're hooked on Lehane, Child, Huston, Rankin, or Gischler and haven't added Bruen to your reading list, don't wait another day.

Fourth in the Inspector Brant suspense series set in London and revolving around Sergeant Tom Brant, a corrupt, brutal cop with a heart.

My Take
Oh, I was so hoping the opening scene with the shrink would be Brant! It's one of the things I like about Brant--he has no compunctions about destroying self-righteous know-it-alls like Dr. Hazel. Then there's Falls' treatment of a group therapy leader...oh yeah....

It's an interesting mix of cops helping each other and, metaphorically, beating on each other. Bruen writes such a realistic "day in the life" for cops that you can't help but feel the brutality, the frustration, and the negativity even as Bruen slides in bits of hope.
Very unexpectedly Brant and Nash seem to be developing a friendship??! As a result of their tenuous friendship, Nash asks Brant to come to his dad's wedding--hoo boy! It's pretty obvious that Brant considers Nash a friend when you read his putdown of Nash, Senior. Nelson's concern for Falls also seems to be hopeful, eventually.

It's fascinating how beautifully Bruen writes a scene, a story with so few words and yet totally conveys the atmosphere, the slogging frustrations, the despairing hopes. The truths.

The Story
Brant puts the department shrink in his place even as Falls asks Nash for backup the night she fails her sergeant's exam. The same night the Blitz strikes for the first time. WPC Sandra Miller is the first victim. Roberts is on leave with his wife's death and Porter Nash is put in charge bypassing Brant--the powers-that-be are hoping he'll screw up and they can get rid of Nash. Hey, maybe hit the Trifecta and get rid of Brant as well.

We get a peek into Falls' friendship with a skinhead even as she sinks into alcohol and drugs in an attempt to ward off the depression of her recent past. It's her friendship with Metal that saves her life...again and again. Metal has confessed to beating an Arab and Falls reaches out to the assigned detective--with an ultimatum for Metal. A detective whom Falls was not expecting to be such a hunk, at least from Roberts' description. Good thing for Falls that Nelson is attracted...it's all that'll save her even if she is angry at him over nothing.

Meantime, pensioners are getting mugged the day they pick up their checks at the post office and Roberts, as part of his increased energy, points McDonald in the right direction. Too bad, McDonald just can't seem to engage his brain on the work side; his emotions end in disaster.

The reality of police work intrudes with arresting Barry and having to let him go in the morning, in spite of McDonald's pathetic attempts at empathy, but it all comes "right" in the end.

The Characters
Sergeant Brant rips off shopkeepers and criminals and has the back of his fellow cops. Chief Inspector Roberts is another corrupt cop with fewer redeeming values than Brant, but his wife's death seems to spur him on. Says something when his own daughter rags on him to sell the house because she wants her share of the money! WPC Falls has had a slew of ups and downs: her best friend on the force's suicide, a beating that results in a miscarriage, and more. Now she's trying to re-connect with her black side. Sergeant Porter Nash is openly gay and works at being supportive with his fellow cops. PC McDonald is the unit suck-up. He prefers to get ahead by ratting out his fellow cops as opposed to actually doing the work of detecting. Superintendent Brown has ties with crime through his Masonic connections, has all the sensitivity of a dead toad, and hates Brant and Roberts.

Detective Inspector Bob Nelson is the lead on the beating of a young Arab.

John "Metal" Wales is a young skinhead Falls befriends; she figures if you can "turn him, you could turn anything, anyone". Barry Weiss is a "misunderstood lad" in his eyes. He plans to make a name for himself killing coppers. Radnor Bowen is a lower-class snitch who dresses up to play a better confidence game. Too bad he isn't more careful.

Dr. Hazel is the department psychiatrist. A petty bully who "had the backup of "Brutish orderlies, restraints, straitjackets...[and] Thorazine" until he met Sergeant Brant. Harold Dunphy is the news reporter Weiss latches onto to provide the scoop that will set him up.

The Cover
The cover is a bit peekaboo with its white top border and black bottom; the middle strip is tired eyes looking through with a bright red title and deep yellow author's name.

The title is the police work and the name of the serial killer, a Blitz of crime and activity.

Bruen's Inspector Brant is like a Limey Dirty Harry, but ballsier. His habit of knocking heads together and bulldozing over police procedure is pure fun. Bruen's style is intoxicating.

I found this book on sale for a $ 1.00, figured I'd put it on my bookshelf and read it in the future. I picked it up and immediately was drawn in. The characters are very likable, especially Brant, he's sort of drunk Harry Bosch, not giving a sh.t about what anybody said or did. The plot was interesting as well. I was really surprised how GOOD of a book "Blitz" was that I'm not stopping at this one because I just found out Ken Bruen has a written a whole lot of them.

altho perhaps not as interesting, and thought provoking, as the Jack Taylor series, Ken Bruen is definitely one of my new favorite authors and will keep reading his writings..