A Fifth of Bruen: Early Fiction of Ken Bruen [Paperback]

Ken Bruen (Author), Allan Guthrie (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2006

“[A] beautiful book. . . . This is a must have for all [Bruen’s] fans.”—Jon Jordan, Crimespree Magazine

“If you love complex, thought-provoking work, then you’ll find something in this collection to intrigue you. If you love Bruen, there’s no doubt you’ll already have cracked the spine.”—Russel McLean, Crime Scene Scotland

Early novellas, short stories, and poetry by the two-time Edgar Award–nominated author of The Guards and London Boulevard. Includes All the Old Songs and Nothing to Lose, considered Ken Bruen's first foray into crime fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] beautiful book... [T]his is a must have for all [Bruen's] fans." -- Jon Jordan, Crimespree Magazine

About the Author

Ken Bruen is the two-time Shamus Award-winning author of the Jack Taylor crime novels, the Brant series, and London Boulevard, soon to be a major motion picture, written and directed by Oscar winner William Monahan (The Departed). He lives in Galway, Ireland. Allan Guthrie is the Edgar Award-nominated author of Kiss Her Goodbye (Hard Case Crime), and others, including most recently, Savage Night (Harcourt).

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Busted Flush Press, LLC (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976715724
• ISBN-13: 978-0976715726
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,257,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Mystery Writer Today, March 27, 2007

By 

Grad Student (Glen Cove, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: A Fifth of Bruen: Early Fiction of Ken Bruen (Paperback)

Every story from the first to the latest written by Ken Bruen has never disappointed me. He is the best writer of this style today. I read everything he writes and recommend it to all my contacts.

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy for the short novels, November 23, 2011

By 

Peter (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Fifth of Bruen: Early Fiction of Ken Bruen (Paperback)

I must confess to not being a fan of short stories as they have a tendency to bait the hook of interest with me but then be too brief to follow through on my interest.

Bearing that in mind, I picked up this book mainly because Ken Bruen is a very good writer and I was hoping that he would do well.

The book is made up of a number of short stories and two short novels, apparently Bruen sold these stories in his early days at the local pub before he made a big name for himself internationally.

To be honest, the book turned out to be what I expected. The two short novels were sensational, very gripping and worthy of attention, the short stories on the other hand were too brief and unfulfilling for me.

The stories have a number of things in common - they feature men who drink hard and have serious personality issues. They are paragraphs in each short novel that make you sit back and think about what you just read and say Wow.

Taking into account my dislike of short stories, this book is a definite winner with me.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A FIFTH OF BRUEN, June 9, 2010

By 

Beth I. Morey (Belle Fourche, SD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: A Fifth of Bruen: Early Fiction of Ken Bruen (Paperback)

Excellent book with a lot more material than I expected. I took this with me on a week's vacation and never cracked the covers of the other paperbacks I brought.