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The Dramatist: A Novel

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Reading Ken Bruen, as anyone who ever has will tell you, is like playing with fire; you know that your feelings, your emotions and your sensibilities are apt to get burned, but you just can't resist the almost primal allure of the heat and flame. Well, reading THE DRAMATIST, the author's fourth novel featuring alcoholic ex-Guard Jack Taylor, will make cauterizing a raw nerve with a blow torch seem like a pleasant diversion. With Bruen's trademark terse prose, dialogue as hard as Connemara marble and as sharp as an icy wind off the Irish Sea, this one will - to borrow a line from James Ellroy - leave you "reamed, steamed and dry-cleaned." And that's all before you get to the absolutely horrific and unspeakable denouement on the novel's penultimate page. All that yawns ahead of Jack Taylor at the end of this incandescent work is utter darkness and it seems impossible to conceive of a way whereby even he - the ultimate "survivor" - might find his way back into the light.

The three previous Jack Taylor novels suffered from the fact that, in them, the author devoted so much time and energy to introducing and exploring the tortured psyche of his main character that some elements of good plot development were neglected. Not so this time around. In The Dramatist Bruen manages to weave together an intriguing and wholly coherent story line with the kind of in-depth character study that is so much a part of what makes this series so blasted good. This novel is still largely character-driven, to be sure, but in it Bruen uses plot in service of character and not merely as a necessary but regrettable evil. All the pieces fit together here and all of Jack's chickens come home to roost. It's in this novel, in other words, that all of the fragmented, jagged and jarring aspects of Jack Taylor's life and personality - so painstakingly depicted in those three earlier books - coalesce and redound to Jack like some kind of high-voltage karmic thunderbolt. This is crime fiction written on the scale of Sophoclean tragedy.

If you are unfamiliar with Ken Bruen's work in general and with the Jack Taylor novels in particular, THE DRAMATIST is a great place to make the acquaintance of both. It represents the author firing on all cylinders. Fans of Bruen's work, and those already acquainted with Jack Taylor, be forewarned: nothing in those earlier novels will prepare you for what transpires at the end of this one. But, in retrospect, everything there should have done so.

Read the full text of this review first published in MYSTERY NEWS (August/September 2004)

There is some small injustice in describing Ken Bruen's "The Dramatist" as simply "noir". While all of Bruen's writing is bleak - in-your-face crime fiction with no regard for inane political correctness or modern niceties, "The Dramatist" reads like a chainsaw to the gut - an emotional tour de force that will leave fragments of Bruen's broken prose haunting your subconscious weeks after you've turned the last page. Yeah, this is black - Stygian black, about as dark as fiction gets.

Galway ex-Guard Jack Taylor is back, who as a favor to his imprisoned former drug dealer is pulled into the investigation of the death of a college student. The apparently accidental fall down a boarding house staircase, while tragic, looks benign enough. Except for the unexplained volume of Irish playwright J.M. Synge ("A Playboy of the Western World") tucked under her body. But what seems to initially be an unexplained coincidence turns sinister when a similar fate visits another student. As expected from Burke, the mystery of the apparent murders, while compelling, fades a bit into the background under the ferocity and intensity of the irreverent and unrepentant Jack Taylor. And as always, the ridiculously well read Bruen spices this bare-knuckled tale with an eclectic collection of quotes from Synge (as expected), Robert Crais, James Lee Burke, Sean Burke, Matthew Stokoe, and several more. The Irish melancholy and fatalism reads as thick as a Galway sea fret as Taylor lumbers through the crimes and busted love affairs as well, leading to a climax that while fitting with the tone and timbre, nonetheless hit me like a two-by-four between the eyes.

The prolific Bruen continues to write like nobody in the business today. I'll concede, if you enjoy beautiful action hero-type people straight from People Magazine, complete with neat and happy little endings to wrap them up, then Bruen's jagged tales of sparsely written brutality may have you billing OT with your analyst. But if you're looking for that off-the-beaten track maverick who'd prefer to rewrite the genre than follow the pack, get to know this guy.

Ken Bruen's writing is exceptional. It's tight, involving, brutal, funny, and tragic all at the same time. While there is a mystery here, it is really the study of Jack that is the focus. Although I recognized the killer fairly early on, and I saw the end coming just before it happened, it made the end no less shattering. This is not an emotionally easy series to read, and certainly not for the cozy reader, but one I cannot rate highly enough.

This is the fourth novel in Bruen's dark and brooding Galway series. Jack Taylor is battered by nearly every sling and arrow the Fates can muster, but he is still standing. Bruen is both moralist and philosopher as he chronicles Taylor's journey through a life rife with violence and devoid of any apparent meaning. This is a world where, as Vonnegut might say, God has gone out for a coffee break and forgotten to come back. Taylor, a profoundly imperfect alcoholic, does his best to follow his own moral compass. He tries to do the right thing. When moved to violence he is like the left hand of an absent god. Or is he the Devil's Right Hand? It's hard to say. His personal tragedies and hardships have approached Job like proportions. As Samuel B. would say: "I can't go on. I'll go on." Don't let Bruen's fondness for quoting Thomas Merton or Pascal fool you though. These novels are still ripping good entertainment despite the philosophical underpinnings. Yup, they're "Noir" alright. And Hank Williams was a "country singer". So what? The univeral themes of literature change very little, if at all. Bruen is not a slave to the form of the "crime novel". He uses that form to express himself much as a fine guitarist might use a 12-bar blues as a basis for the most individualistic or idiosyncratic playing. These novels have the weight and heft of a well-used hurley, or 'camaan', the ancient Irish weapon-cum-sporting implement that Taylor both delivers and receives lessons with. Take a firm but relaxed grip and swoosh it through the air. Think about the scumbag down the block who sold crank to your teenage nephew. What are you gonna do next?

Jack Taylor gone sober? Teetotaling makes the ex-policeman more morose than usual, if that's possible. Perpetually trudging through life with an attitude that could shrivel steel, Jack without the booze --- well, let's just say it isn't pretty.

Stewart, Jack's ex-drug dealer --- current drug dealer until a stint in Mountjoy Prison interrupted business --- asks Jack to look into the death of his sister, Sarah. Jack reluctantly agrees to check it out, but his heart isn't really in it. He's not only been sober for months, he's been involuntarily celibate. Whether due to either of those two factors or another of his numerous woes, his mind has a tendency to wander, sidetracking him with a vengeance. In addition to everything else he's dealing with, he's trying to avoid the question of what to do about his ailing mother. Despite his crushing personal problems, Jack manages to do a fair bit of investigating. And his investigation turns up some stunning irregularities surrounding Sarah's death --- irregularities that are peculiar enough to make him want to delve a little deeper. It dawns on him that he may be looking at murder here. When there's another death with identical circumstances, Jack is more than convinced. But he can't seem to get anyone else to care.

Along comes Margaret, who miraculously takes an interest in poor Jack, and he allows himself to wallow in happiness for a little while. But he should know better than to let his guard down. Good stuff just doesn't happen to Jack. Then, while recuperating from an encounter with an old girlfriend's new husband, he runs afoul of the Pikemen, vigilante guards with a vow to take up where the law leaves off. They proudly don't deny responsibility for a couple of recent brutal attacks. And they aren't very nice to Jack. So just where do they fit into his investigation?

Meanwhile, the "swan killer" from somewhere in his past keeps showing up at odd times, almost as though he were stalking Jack --- but why? He says it's to thank him and because he wants them to be friends. Jack, as you might imagine, is dubious. Could there be a connection to the dead girls?

As always, Jack's mouth brings him a great deal of pain, some of it emotional but much of it physical. He can't seem to maintain control --- of his life or his tongue.

Now, as he's starting to feel pretty darned good about things, they go bad --- spectacularly bad. "An event was coming down the pike, already shaping in its black destructive energy and preparing to rip my life in pieces, pieces that would never be restored." The "event" will leave you gasping. Truly, Jack may never recover from this one.

While Ken Bruen's stories are really a powerful character study of Jack Taylor, a man headed toward self-destruction, he manages to work in a mystery around the edges. But it's not the mystery that's compelling. It's simply Jack and his outlook on life. This Jack Taylor installment will rock your world --- way more than the first three.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

In The Dramatist, Jack Taylor finally appears to be cleaning up his act though out of force rather than choice: his dealer has been busted and incarcerated. When his jailed former supplier asks Jack to investigate the suspicious death of his sister, Jack agrees against his better judgment.

As usual with the Jack Taylor series, the mystery storyline is intriguing but not as interesting as the story of Jack himself. His character is seemingly evolving by forgoing alcohol and cocaine, mending fences with his ailing mother, and actually dating a woman properly. His continual struggles to stay sober are compelling and tragic. The Dramatist is the best entry in the series so far, and has an ending that is absolutely jaw-dropping.

It's the writing tha makes Bruen so enjoyable. The stories of descent into hell via alcohol, cigs, and bad behavior are engrossing, but Bruen's ability to write his way into greatness is his skill. Jack Taylor sober? Not likely. But the story line and prose make it believable. Bruen has captured both Irleand and alcoholics (is that redundant?) better than anyone in modern mystery fiction.
Ron Lealos author of Don't Mean Nuthin'

Poor Jack Taylor! No Matter how hard he tries to stay clean and sober, and to stop smoking, there's always something that comes along ansd just sets him back once again. Tyis excellent series gets better with each book and Jack grows (and then diminishes) with each new issue. This one doesn't at first appear to be too much of a trouble, and should not have any adverse effect on Jack, but the reader always suspects in the back of his or her mind that something is bound to happen. Just when the main plot is solved (with another trial of bodies following him) and Jack tries to breathe a sigh of relief, fate intervenes and creates a terrible tragedy for him. There is sort of an epilogue, but we'll just have to wait for the next book to discover how Jack handles (or doesn't) this latest calamity to befall him.

Jack Taylor is a man defined by his vices and weaknesses. Essentially, he is a man whose life has been largely consumed by an abuse of alcohol, pills, cocaine and nicotine. Taylor does nothing half way and his weaknesses have ensured that his personal life is a wreck; he runs women off at a steady pace and his closest friends are the two octogenarian women who run the failing hotel at which he's taken up permanent residence. But, hey, things are looking up for Jack. He's been off the dope and booze for a few weeks and he's even thinking about giving up cigarettes - all because his dealer has been given a six year prison sentence and Jack doesn't have the energy to locate a new supplier.

It is when Jack's dealer summons him to the prison to ask for help in finding out why and how his sister was killed that Jack reluctantly resumes his non-paying work as a private detective. The Dramatist is Ken Bruen's fourth Jack Taylor novel, and this time around, Bruen offers a more elaborate and detailed plot than in the previous three. Even so, Taylor's reluctance to get involved in the investigation of what he soon realizes was a murder and not an accidental death allows the author to detail Jack's daily struggles to remain sober and to rebuild the personal life that drugs and booze have taken from him.

This is the heart of the book and, along the way, Jack watches his mother's steady deterioration, is confronted by an old lover while struggling to maintain a new relationship, is challenged by one of his few friends to confront a group of vigilantes and is threatened by a deranged killer. Ultimately, the murder investigation is brought to a successful climax but that was not the most intriguing part of the book for me as a reader and, in fact, the killer's identity came as no great surprise. Rather, I found myself fascinated by the train wreck that is Jack Taylor's life. I rooted for him as he managed to stay off the booze after each personal crisis confronted him but I didn't really expect him to manage it. His personal history filled me with skepticism that his abstinence would last despite the fact that he continued to surprise his friends and even himself by remaining stone cold sober no matter what life tossed at him next.

But be warned: even my skepticism did not prepare me for the ending of this book. I was stunned at its suddenness and power. The Dramatist is the first Ken Bruen novel that I've read without thinking about, and admiring, the author's style more than the novel's plot. Jack Taylor fans will consider this one to be a classic.

Bruen's fourth installment in Jack Taylor's via dolorosa-Galway intersection proves as dark as the preceding tales, and the double-whammy ending leaves you moved--even if you saw tangentially it coming, the blow still knocks you back. This novel, taking place around the time of the second invasion of Iraq, provides an underlying back-chatter of more current events (circa 2002-3) that hint at comparisons and contrasts with Jack's own struggles. I don't know how loose Bruen intends these oblique commentaries to be; they might benefit from tightening up so as to illuminate Jack's inner character more vividly. At times, dependably brisk as this latest novel is, it does appear to have been written in a rush of thoughts through a flurry of images, so the actual plot of the detective and his manhunt appears more in the background than in the earlier novels, and that's saying something!

While I don't even really read mysteries, and these Jack Taylor books are my exception, I am aware that for Bruen, the powerful character of his protagonist overshadows all else around him. This provides a harrowing and entertaining psychomachia, but the inner demons that battle in Jack's soul need more release into the outside of the Galway that he stalks. The contrasts between interior and exterior states, too often tamped down, need to be riled up. The whole Pikeman subplot remained too vague. Same problem with the song references and lyrical snips scattered into the text: how these fit Jack at that moment's sometimes relevant, sometimes superfluous. At times it's more as if you're reading Jack's blog than his thoughts.

That is, the ties between the events out in the doom-laden world and Jack's own tendencies to retreat from this threatening array of specters need tighter alignment for this book to work more as a literary effort and not merely a solid, but genre-bound, pageturner. Bruen's shown in past books how convincingly he can portray Jack Taylor's agonies, and while I rate this effort a bit lower than the others, this is only by comparison to earlier books eloquently showing off Jack at his worst and best.

The pages do whisk past, and the characters supporting or thwarting Jack pop up dependably from his past; triumphant again are Mrs. Bailey, looking out over five decades over the diminishing of all that the less prosperous Ireland had led her to treasure, bangharda Ridge/Nic an Iomaire, his acerbic foil again, and nicotine-stained clerical nemesis Fr. Malachy. Newcomer Margaret needs more depth, however--she's too briefly sketched to convince that she could be Jack's lover. Ann and Coffey too jump out and recede almost in a blink of a couple of scenes. The Swan Killer makes his return, but he too seems locked into a caricatured plot device rather than as a rounded figure.

Finally, the Connemara Coast Hotel episode shows Bruen's strength and weakness. Good: the bits of Irish on the bus, the hint of a scealin, or little story to be told. Disappointing: the cliched dialogue and the slightly-off a true rendering of how a teen Yank might talk to an Irish local. Bruen's close here, but unlike his Irish characters, for whom he seems spot on in putting their speech on the page, the Yank's caricatured, and Bruen seems to be stooping towards the facile stereotype that he resists with so many other people in his Jack Taylor series. Why drag Jack all the way out there only to have him rush back? I understand it's to set him up with an introduction to Margaret, but the potential richness that this chapter's opening suggests for a welcome change of scene remains largely ignored. I do like the twist on Jesus' calling in the passers-by to share in the funeral feast (rather than a wedding?), however, for its sly social commentary. Why Jack did not recall the Gospel passage at this point surprised me.

All in all, another satisfying book; I wonder why, however, we Americans must always lag a book behind the British publication, which is always one book ahead. While the fifth book, "The Priest," recently appeared over there, we over here just got the fourth. Still, knowing another few hours with Jack and company awaits, this only heightens anticipation. The way Jack breaks into a character's house and what he does there near the end needed more care; it's too slapdash in its rendering. The main antagonist here may be a bit predictable and unbelievable in his fulsome speechifying as he forestalls his end, and the sudden shock added to the conclusion does throw you off, but there's enough loose ends still left for this novel, once more, to play out bloodily into Jack's next conflict. The denouement hints of many more complications to come.