Vixen (Inspector Brant Series) (Paperback)

by Ken Bruen (Author) "SERGEANT DOYLE HAD his feet up on a stool..." (more)
Key Phrases: Porter Nash, Bomb Squad, Ray Cross (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This new installment in Shamus-winner Bruen's Southeast London police squad thriller series-the little brother to the author's Jack Taylor mysteries-reunites the reader with the incorrigible Inspector Brant, Sergeant Doyle, Police Constable Falls and other old friends. This time Brant and cohorts must investigate a series of deadly extortion bombings masterminded by Angie James, aka "the Vixen." A female psychopath, James coldly manipulates men and women like human pawns to make her plan succeed. Bruen provides the usual grace notes, including quotes from other mystery novels, pithy dialogue and hyper-real violence. James as a malevolent force of nature adds needed energy to the narrative, while new characters like Falls's partner, Patricia Andrews, supply a few fresh faces on the police side. Brant's now trademark nefarious activities make for wickedly funny reading. The best scene in the novel might be when Brant leads Chief Inspector Roberts to a prostitutes' party and gets him drunk. However, overall, the novel seems curiously muted in effect compared to past efforts (Blitz, etc.). Bruen uncharacteristically slows his scenes with explanations, while the central mystery surrounding the Vixen is pedestrian.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Continuing that vicious, black-sheep cousin of McBain's 87th precinct series, Bruen's latest love letter to lowlife London (following The White Trilogy and Blitz) pits his bent coppers against an uneasy menage of opportunists who stumble on some dynamite and extort the police with random bombings. The trio's lowest common denominatrix, a deadly doll named Angie, gets more than chummy with policewoman Elizabeth Falls, whose swift descent past her debauched colleagues in succumbing to the ravages of bad living--no mean feat--provides a brilliantly bad example to her young trainee. The magnificent Sergeant Brant swaggers and sneers at the top of the food chain, trading favors with whores and generally enforcing the law of the jungle. As a bystander observes, "God help us all if they're the good guys." Bruen's lean, mean prose spins out a tale both tight and slight, but his unmistakable affection for irreverent scoundrels on both sides of the law gives this series a brutal,Clockwork Orange ebullience that is certain to please fans of such noir bards as Elmore Leonard, Jim Nisbet, and Scott Phillips. David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (July 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312327307
• ISBN-13: 978-0312327309
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #286,763 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 5 in The Inspector Brant Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very well done., April 9, 2005

By	L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Vixen (Brant) (Paperback)

This is a continuation of White Trilogy/Blitz series. As always, there is Bruen's precise, spare writing, which remind me just a bit of McBain, which lets you get to know the characters without excessive description. He characters are not particularly likable, but always interesting. Not as dark as his Jack Taylor books but still very well done.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coppers More Real than Some May Care to Admit, February 8, 2005

By	Christine Fleming (Huntington Beach, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Vixen (Brant) (Paperback)

The Vixen is crazy as a loon, sensous as Garbo and lethal as black widow. She's a serial killer who is behind a serious of deadly explosions that have been rocking London. She's using her bombs as an attention getter and it's working. She's into extortion and she's looking for a grand pay off. However, the coppers on the Southeast London Police Squad might have a thing or two to say about that.

Detective Sergeant Brandt, Inspector Roberts, Constable Falls and Serteant Porter Falls want to stop the bomber, but they've all got problems of their own that keep popping up in this thriller that is both fast-paced and well written. Buren never uses a twenty-five cent word when a nickel word will do, never uses more words than he has to and he nails every sentence. This is British noir written by an Irishman about policeman that are human, flawed, likeable and sometimes not so likeable. Mr. Bruen's characters, especially Brandt, are more real than some may care to admit. Yes, Brandt may have crossed over the line a bit, but that's exactly the kind of man you want on the trail of somebody like the Vixen. This is stay up all night reading at its finest.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Witchy Woman, March 28, 2007

By	Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If you're a fan of intricate crime novels - arcane forensics and brainy CSI babes running around in lab coats - Ken Bruen's brand of bare knuckled police work in London's seedy southeast side is probably not your cup of, um, formaldehyde. In fact, about the only tools the rude and crude but bone-breaking-ly efficient Inspector Brant and his misfit cronies employ in reducing London's crime rate are brass knuckles and .38's. Likewise, Bruen's prose is about a subtle as a sledgehammer - raw edged stories told without apology, refreshing free of political correctness and daring to offend.

"Vixen" is another gem of the author's twisted brilliance - a simple and stripped down story wrapped around Angie, as cold and heartless a female killer to hit the pages since Caleb Carr's "Angel of Darkness". Recently released from prison, the foxy Angie seduces a pair of small time criminal brothers who are soon blowing up buildings and extorting cops. Typical of Bruen, the plot is merely a convenient background frame the banter and antics of the southeast London's eccentric police force. As expected, this is a fast moving, hard hitting drama laced with black humor and told in Bruen's unique and quirky vernacular. He may not be for everyone, but he is fresh and uninhibited - that rare writer who eschews convention and sets his own course. If you haven't discovered Ken Bruen yet, "Vixen" is as good as any a place to start.