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Headstone (Jack Taylor Novel of Terror) [Hardcover]

Ken Bruen
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)

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Book Description

October 4, 2011 Jack Taylor Novel of Terror
Acclaimed Irish crime writer Ken Bruen has won numerous awards for his hard-charging, dark thrillers, which have been translated into ten languages. In Headstone, an elderly priest is nearly beaten to death and a special-needs boy is brutally attacked. Evil has many guises and Jack Taylor has encountered most of them. But nothing before has ever truly terrified him until he confronts an evil coterie named Headstone, who have committed a series of random, insane, violent crimes in Galway, Ireland.

Most would see a headstone as a marker of the dead, but this organization seems like it will act as a death knell to every aspect of Jack’s life. Jack’s usual allies, Ridge and Stewart, are also in the line of terror. An act of appalling violence alerts them to the sleeping horror, but this realization may be too late, as Headstone barrels along its deadly path right to the center of Jack’s life and the heart of Galway. A terrific read from a writer called “a Celtic Dashiell Hammett,” Headstone is an excellent addition to the Jack Taylor series (Philadelphia Inquirer)

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Editorial Reviews

Review


Praise for Headstone

“Hard hitting&hellip a remarkable series.” –Publishers Weekly

“Headstone is an excellent addition to the Jack Taylor series.” –Philadelphia Inquirer

“Ken Bruen is brilliant. While HEADSTONE is the stuff of nightmares, it is also the stuff of redemption, even at great cost. You will feel wrung out after reading this one, but all the gladder for it.” –Bookreporter

“Headstone is one of the year's best reading pleasures.” –David J. Montgomery, Crime Fiction Dossier

“Bruen is threatening to become a mass cult figure in the U.S. as well as a critical favorite.” –Allen Barra, The Atlantic

“A nonstop rampage of intrigue, mayhem, lunacy and dark-dark-dark humor.” –Shelf Awareness

“A welcome entry. B+.” –Avid Mystery Reader

About the Author

Ken Bruen was born in Galway, Ireland. After turning down a place at RADA, and completing a doctorate in Metaphysics, he spent 25 years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, South East Asia and South America. An unsheduled stint in a Brazilian prison where he suffered physical and mental abuse spurred him to write and, after a brief spell teaching in London, he returned to Galway, where he now lives with his daughter. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Mysterious Press; First Edition edition (October 4, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0802126006
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802126009
  • Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #649,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Ken Bruen is one of my favorite authors, and I pre-order every title in the Jack Taylor series. Elizabeth Ray  |  11 reviewers made a similar statement
The prose is beautiful, idiosyncratic and evocative. David Montgomery  |  7 reviewers made a similar statement
You will feel wrung out after reading this one, but all the gladder for it. Bookreporter  |  5 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the year's best reading pleasures October 12, 2011
Format:Hardcover
I once called Ken Bruen "the dark poet of contemporary noir" (yes, I'm quoting myself -- sue me) and his latest novel, Headstone, confirms that his status is unchallenged. This is a fascinating, powerful and, yes, dark crime novel that only enhances Bruen's already amazing reputation.

Irish private eye Jack Taylor is back for his ninth go-round with demons both natural and otherwise. A gang of young thugs is preying on some of Galway's innocents, and Taylor takes it on himself to stop them.

Headstone is typical of the series. The plot is straightforward, but elegantly wrought. It's violent, but not bloody. The prose is beautiful, idiosyncratic and evocative. As always, Bruen's style is uniquely his own. Nobody else can write like this and they'd be crazy to try.

Venerable editor and bookseller Otto Penzler could not have chosen a better novel with which to relaunch the Mysterious Press, his publishing imprint now located at Grove/Atlantic. Headstone is one of the year's best reading pleasures.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars laughed until i cried October 21, 2011
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
As with all of Bruen's works, this one was a page turner; so much so that as i started it on a short plane trip, i stayed at the airport to finish and missed a connection, but it was well worth it. Taylor's best days are past, but he still can whoop a** and Bruen can still make me laugh until i cry. Well done Mr. Bruen!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Bruen's iconic Irishman, Jack Taylor, PI, is a colorful rogue, a drunk who has weathered the incongruencies of his own life and collected his share of enemies. Knocking back his whiskey of choice, Taylor provides no end of insights into Irish culture, troubled history and the pervasive influence of Holy Mother Church on the population. For all the enemies he has made along the way- and they are many and bitter- Jack remains the go-to investigator, formerly on the force, whose wily methods and willingness to do harm when necessary brings results. In Headstone, Jack's associate, former drug-dealer and current Zen practitioner Stewart and Garda Ridge, a lesbian in a marriage of convenience with little hope of career promotion, appear to be the only constants in a ruined life, but even they are frequently driven to distraction by the incorrigible Taylor and his destructive ways.

His past littered with losses, Jack is temporarily euphoric, filled with hope for the first time in years awaiting the arrival of a lady he has met in England when a threat from a violent group targeting society's weakest citizens suggests serious troubling brewing, violence that will include Taylor, Ridge and Stewart as collateral. But Jack is sidetracked by a lucrative finder's fee earned from a cold-eyed prelate that ends tragically. Likewise, hiss efforts to save a friend's daughter from a greedy spouse turn sour in the light of day, Jack reeling with outrage and betrayal. Then Taylor is trapped in a nightmare, proof of the limitless cruelties of God's creatures. Splayed across a headstone by the evil cult, Jack is given a lesson by some nasty individuals, one of whom holds a serious grudge against him, Garda Ridge and Stewart in imminent danger as well, serious wrongs to be avenged. Bruen's writing is so utterly charming and curmudgeonly, acerbic and authentic, it is impossible not to fall in love with his flawed protagonist, an unredeemable drunk with an ear for poetry, a love of whiskey, a conscience that flickers to life in his dreams and a scarred heart made to be broken. Luan Gaines/2011.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Swimming against the critical tide on this one
"Headstone" was my fourth Bruen book, three of them in the Jack Taylor series.
I now realize how stupid it was of me to have read even one of these, but to have endured four... Read more
Published 3 days ago by Jim M.Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and Thrilling. Another Great Addition to the Taylor Canon.
Ken Bruen is writing some of the best hard-boiled, noir, detective fiction available. His writing is terse and sharp, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, and communicates volumes with... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Child King
5.0 out of 5 stars "I'm almost afraid to voice it but I think he's close to happy"
The words on the title of this review were said by Stewart, and he is talking about no other than Jack Taylor, our beloved main character, who is always battling inner demons and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Sebastian Fernandez
4.0 out of 5 stars A good dose of Bruen
When I first read The Guards years ago I dismissed Jack Taylor as a rip-off of Block's Matt Scudder. Ex cop. Unoffical PI. Alcoholic or ex-alkie depending on the time line. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Old Hawkeye
5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Writer
Jack Taylor is not your average P.I. Forced from the Garda, he has since spent years back in his native Galway, sunk in alcoholism, drugs and depression. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Sandra Kirkland
4.0 out of 5 stars Jesus Wept
In HEADSTONE, like other novels by Ken Bruen, the prose lifts off the page and sings for the reader. Bruen is a great stylist. Read more
Published 7 months ago by o.trublu
3.0 out of 5 stars Down the Darkest Alley
Have heard a lot about Bruen and decided to give him a shot. I like noir - Ellroy, Vachss, those guys. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Brian Thompson
1.0 out of 5 stars Silly and poorly-written twaddle
I just finished reading a.................book
other people were raving
about.
It was about a drunk............... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Buffalo Barnes
5.0 out of 5 stars Slante
What could be more fitting on the eve of St. Patrick's Day than to read the ninth book in the Jack Taylor series, perhaps as good as they come. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ted Feit
5.0 out of 5 stars Ireland's "Jack Bauer"
No one writes a flawed character better that Ken Bruen. Jack Taylor is an alcoholic, pill popping ex Guard in Galway, Ireland. He has a caustic tongue but a heart of gold. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Sandra D. Tooley
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