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Ken Bruen

Biography

Ken Bruen

Ken Bruen received a doctorate in metaphysics, taught English in South Africa, and then became a crime novelist. The critically acclaimed author the Jack Taylor novels and The White Trilogy, he is the recipient of two Barry Awards and two Shamus Awards and has twice been a finalist for the Edgar Award. He lives in Galway, Ireland.

Ken Bruen

Books by Ken Bruen

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Jack Taylor wakes up from a coma to discover that much of the world has changed since he last walked the streets of Galway. The pandemic had hit while he was under, devastating the lives of many in his beloved city and beyond. Now, as Jack tries to recover from the attack that put him in the hospital and absorb the incredible changes in the world around him, a woman approaches him with a distressing case. Two local nuns have been bludgeoned by a mysterious man wielding a hammer, and more are sure to follow. Initially wary of becoming involved in the investigation, Jack finds he cannot stay away from the mystery surrounding these vicious attacks. He also cannot shake a feeling of darkness that has haunted him since he awoke from his coma --- a darkness that is far too close for comfort.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Jack Taylor has finally escaped the despair of his violent life in Galway in favor of a quiet retirement in the country with his friend Keefer, a former Rolling Stones roadie, and a falcon named Maeve. But on a day trip back into the city to sort out his affairs, Jack is hit by a truck in front of Galway's Famine Memorial, left in a coma but mysteriously without a scratch on him. When he awakens weeks later, he finds Ireland in a frenzy over the so-called "Miracle of Galway." People have become convinced that the two children spotted tending to him are saintly, and the site of the accident sacred. The Catholic Church isn't so sure, and Jack is commissioned to help find the children to verify the miracle or expose the stunt. But Jack isn't the only one looking for these children.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Jack Taylor has never quite been able to get his life together, but now he has truly hit rock bottom. Still reeling from a violent family tragedy, Taylor is busy drowning his grief in Jameson and uppers, as usual, when a high-profile officer in the local Garda is murdered. After another Guard is found dead, and then another, Taylor’s old colleagues from the force implore him to take on the case. The plot is one big game, and all of the pieces seem to be moving at the behest of one dangerously mysterious team: a trio of young killers with very different styles, but who are united by their common desire to take down Jack Taylor. Their ring leader is Jericho, a psychotic girl from Galway who is grieving the loss of her lover, and who will force Jack to confront some personal trauma from his past.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

As well-versed in politics, pop culture and crime fiction as he is ill-fated in life, Jack Taylor is recovering from a failed suicide attempt. In need of money, Jack has been hired as a night-shift security guard. But his Ukrainian boss has Jack in mind for some unexpected off-the-books work --- getting his hands on what some claim to be the first true book of heresy, The Red Book, which is currently in the possession of a rogue priest hiding out in Galway. Despite Jack’s distaste for priests of any stripe, the money is too good to turn down. Em, the woman-of-many-guises who has had a vise on Jack’s heart and mind for the past two years, reappears and turns out to be entangled with the story of the same blasphemous book.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

After much tragedy and violence, Jack Taylor has a new woman in his life, a freshly bought apartment, and little sign of trouble on the horizon. Once again, though, trouble comes to him, this time in the form of a wealthy Frenchman who wants Jack to investigate the double-murder of his twin sons. Meanwhile, Jack is roped into looking after his girlfriend’s nine-year-old son, and is in for a shock with the appearance of a character out of his past. The plot is one big chess game, and all of the pieces seem to be moving at the behest of one dangerously mysterious player: a vigilante called “Silence,” because he’s the last thing his victims will ever hear.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

The latest terror to be visited upon the dark Galway streets arrives in a most unusual form: a Cambridge graduate who becomes murderous over split infinitives, dangling modifiers, and any other sign of bad grammar. Meanwhile, ex-cop Jack Taylor is approached by a grieving father with a pocketful of cash on offer if Jack will help exact revenge on those responsible for his daughter’s brutal rape and murder. Though hesitant to get involved, Jack agrees to get a read on the likely perpetrators. But he is soon derailed by the reappearance of Emily, the chameleon-like young woman who joined forces with Jack to take down her pedophile father and who remains passionate, clever and utterly homicidal.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Ex-cop Jack Taylor has hit rock bottom again. One of his best friends is dead, the other has stopped speaking to him; he has given up battling his addiction to alcohol and pills; and his firing from the Irish national police, the Guards, is ancient history. But Jack isn’t about to embark on a self-improvement plan. Instead, he has taken up a vigilante case against a respected professor of literature at the University of Galway who has a violent habit his friends in high places are only too happy to ignore.

by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr - Fiction, Hard-boiled Mystery, Mystery

Ruined and on the lam, former drug kingpin Max Fisher stumbles upon the biggest discovery of his crooked life: a designer drug called PIMP that could put him back on top. Meanwhile, a certain femme fatale from his past is pursuing a comeback dream of her own, setting herself up in Hollywood as producer of a series based on her and Max’s life story. But even in La-La Land, happy endings are hard to come by, especially with both the cops and your enemies in the drug trade coming after you.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Recovering from the severe mental and physical wounds inflicted from his recent past, former cop Jack Taylor has finally found a modicum of peace. Yet this fragile existence is threatened when a vigilante killer begins targeting the scum of Galway, signing mysterious notes with the moniker “C 33.” The killer addresses these cryptic letters to Jack, trying to goad him into joining the murderous spree.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery

The narrator’s father has died, and his only inheritance is a heavy, leather-bound book. He has never seen it before and has trouble believing that his brutal, ignorant father ever touched something so beautiful. But the volume is well-thumbed, full of aphorisms and advice written in the dead man’s hand. Soon after he reads it, the son finds his life spiraling out of control. If he doesn’t want to follow Daddy to the grave, he had best heed the lessons of the book.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Nothing has ever truly terrified Jack Taylor until he confronts an evil coterie named Headstone, who have committed a series of random, insane, violent crimes in Galway, Ireland.

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Thriller

After Jack Taylor is denied entry to the U.S., he has what he thinks is a meaningless encounter with an odd stranger on his way back to Galway. But the strange man continues to reappear, and he may be connected to a recent string of murders.