Headstone

The new novel in the award-winning Jack Taylor series by Ireland's most acclaimed crime writer.

Headstone is an excellent addition to the Jack Taylor series

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

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 US as well as a critical favourite

A nonstop rampage of intrigue, mayhem, lunacy and dark-dark-dark humour

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.

Some people help the less fortunate. Others kill them. 
 
Evil has many guises. Jack Taylor has encountered most of them but nothing before has ever truly terrified him until a group called Headstone rears its ugly head. An elderly priest is viciously beaten until nearly dead. A special needs boy is brutally attacked. A series of seemingly random, insane, violent events even has the Guards shaken. 
 
Most would see a headstone as a marker of the dead, but this coterie of evil intends to act as a death knell to every aspect of Jack's life as an act of appalling violence alerts him to the horror enveloping Galway. 
 
Accepting the power of Headstone, Jack realizes that in order to fight back he must relinquish the remaining shreds of what has made him human - knowledge that may have come too late to prevent an act of such ferocious evil that the whole country would be changed forever - and in the worst way. 
 
With awful clarity, Jack knows that not only might he be powerless to stop it but that he may not have the grit needed to even face it.

The Devil

The eighth novel in the award-winning Jack Taylor series by Ireland's most acclaimed crime-writer.

Jack Taylor has become one of today's most interesting shamuses

Brilliant... Bruen's Galway is certainly not Bord Failte-approved, but once again he has delivered a disturbing story that casts a very cold eye on the state of our nation

A fast-paced tale of black arts and white lies

The perfect antidote to any dreary days on your holiday, The Devil will spice things up in no time

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 unscheduled 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.

America - the land of opportunity, a place where economic prosperity beckons: - but not for PI Jack Taylor, who's just been refused entry. 
 
Jack resumes his old life in Galway. But when he's called to investigate the frenzied murder of a student, he remembers an encounter with an over-friendly stranger in the airport bar. A stranger who seemed to know rather more than he should about Jack. 
 
After several more murders and too many encounters to be coincidental, Jack believes he may have met his nemesis. 
 
But why has he been chosen? And could he really be dealing with the Devil himself?

Blitz

A violent and unrelenting thriller, re-released to tie-in to the 2010 film starring Jason Statham.

Turning the police procedural on its head - violent cops, psycho villains, black humour and blood-red Brixton.

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 unscheduled 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.

The Cop 
 
Detective Sergeant Brant is tough and uncompromising, as sleazy and ruthless as the villains he's out to get. While his violent methods may be questionable, Brant always gets results. 
 
The Killer 
 
A psychopath has started a killing spree across London. Calling himself 'The Blitz', his weapon of choice is a workman's hammer. And his victims are all cops. 
 
The Target 
 
The police squad are desperate to catch the killer before he catches up with them. And Brant is top of his list...

London Boulevard

A grippingly dark and uncompromising novel, re-released to tie-in to the 2010 film starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley

Truly great entertainment, permeated with a dark and disturbing strand that'll stay with you long after the final denouement.

Bruen is the finest purveyor of intelligent Brit-noir...delectably dark and nastily entertaining

Bruen combines staccato prose and hard-edged dialogue with gritty realism and a terrifying look at London's dark underbelly. This one packs one hell of a powerful punch.

Unnervingly clever...Bruen has a patent on flinty dialogue and a disquieting feel for the language of violence.

A crackingly written, taut and well-characterised crime yarn.

Irish crime writer Ken Bruen has a stylish line in mean-streets poetry

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 unscheduled 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.

When Mitchell is released from prison after serving three years for a vicious attack he doesn't remember, he reluctantly finds himself caught up with Robert Gant, a ruthless lowlife with violent plans. 
 
Attempting to stay out of Gant's way, Mitchell finds work as a handyman at the mansion of a faded movie actress. When she eagerly plies him with cash, cars and sex, Mitch starts to wonder if even this job comes with a catch. 
 
But it isn't long before Mitchell's violent past catches up with him. When people close to him start getting hurt, Mitchell is forced to act, and take brutal on revenge on those who've stolen his life...

Sanctuary

Galway PI Jack Taylor is back on another dark, uncompromising road-trip through the underworld of Irish crime.

Tightly structured and compelling ... You don't want to meet Jack Taylor in person, but if you're a crime fan, you do want to read every book he features in.

Ken Bruen is finally getting his due. Priest is grimy, brooding, pawkily funny and wholly original. Great.

A gripping story of guilt and redemption.

Sanctuary...packs a powerful punch. Taylor's alcoholic self-disgust is utterly convincing, and the supporting low life characters in the story are deftly and vibrantly drawn through pared-to-the-bone prose. Unforgettable.

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 unscheduled 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. 
 
Sanctuary is the seventh novel in the award-winning Jack Taylor series.

Two guards; one nun; one judge. 
 
When a letter containing a list of victims arrives in the post, PI Jack Taylor is sickened, but tells himself the list has nothing to do with him. He has enough to do just staying sane. His close friend Ridge is recovering from surgery, and alcohol's siren song is calling to him ever more insistently. 
 
A guard and then a judge die in mysterious circumstances. But it is not until a child is added to the list that Taylor determines to find the identity of the killer, and stop them at any cost. 
 
What he doesn't know is that his relationship with the killer is far closer than he thinks. And that it's about to become deeply personal. 
 
Spiked with dark humour, seasoned with acute insights about the perils of urbanisation, and fuelled by rage at man's inhumanity to man, this is crime-writing at its darkest and most original.

Cross

A novel of dark alchemy; a terrifying, uncompromising road-trip to Hell - and back.

Where Bruen really scores is in his intimate explorations of Taylor's character, Galway City and of modern Ireland. Using language like a weapon, his humour stops the reader drowning in rain, Jameson's and self-pity. Less a whodunit that a what-to-do-about-it, this is a compelling portrait of a haunted man.

Bruen's writing is as bleak and spare as Taylor's take on modern Ireland, but you'll end up hooked on this series of home-grown, gritty crime stories as Jack Taylor is on Ireland.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough - if you like stark reality, if you can handle one man making his own decisions about his life ... then do yourself a favour and read Cross.

Vintage Ken Bruen. Clipped prose and mordant humour are coupled to a plot that's just about as violent as anything he has ever written. Bruen has the uncanny ability to describe the most touching of moments with heart-rending effectiveness and lyrical beauty.

Ken Bruen is one of Ireland's leading crime writers...this is snappy, knowing writing.

Ken Bruen was born in Galway. Having spent 25 years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, South East Asia and South America, he now lives in Galway city with his wife and daughter. Priest, the fifth novel in the Jack Taylor series, is available in Corgi paperback.

A boy has been crucified in Galway city. 
 
People are shocked; the broadsheets debate how the brutal death reflects the state of the nation; the Irish Church is scandalized. No further action is taken. 
 
Then the sister of the murdered boy is burned alive and PI Jack Taylor decides to take matters into his own hands. 
 
Taylor's investigations take him to old city haunts where he encounters ghosts - living and dead. But what he eventually finds surpasses even his darkest imaginings

Priest

Set in Galway, Ireland, a dark controversial novel by a new crime-writing star.

Ken Bruen is finally getting his due...Priest is grimy, brooding, pawkily funny and wholly original. Great.

Ken Bruen's novel takes us down some dark and mysterious roads where Irish angst meets 21st-century reality in a gripping story of guilt and redemption.

Bruen writes tight, urgent, powerful prose, his dialogue is harsh and authentic and Jack Taylor has become one of today's most interesting shamuses.

Grim and elegiac by turns, Bruen is a distinctive talent who has integrated his inner fury and American noir influences to establish a powerful, original and controversial presence.

Priest is hardboiled in the best way, unforgiving and unforgettable.

Tightly structured, compelling ... You don't want to meet Jack Taylor in person, ever, but if you're a big crime fan, you do want to read every book he features in.

Priest makes for an enjoyable if slightly melodramatic read and marks the welcome return of a fine writer.

... Totally absorbing ... a highly recommended read.

... Brilliantly executed and full of significant popular allusion and Irish attitude.

Bruen's tightly coiled prose strikes like a piss-soaked rattler.

Sharp, punch and unsettling, Priest is a masterpiece.

... An intensely dark maelstrom ... excellent.

Bruen should be valued as one of the most challenging and memorable writers in the genre at the moment.

Ken Bruen was born in Galway. Having spent 25 years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, South East Asia and South America, he now lives in Galway city with his wife and daughter. Ken Bruen's earlier Jack Taylor novels are published by Brandon Press in Ireland.

Ireland, awash in cash and greed, no longer turns to the Church for solace or comfort. But the decapitation of Father Joyce in a Galway church horrifies even the most jaded citizen. 
Jack Taylor, devastated by the recent trauma of personal loss, has always believed himself to be beyond salvation. But a new job offers a fresh start, and an unexpected partnership makes him hope that his one desperate vision - of family - might yet be fulfilled. An eerie mix of exorcism, a predatory stalker, and an unlikely attraction conspires to lure him into a murderous web of dark conspiracies. The spectre of a child haunts every waking moment. 
Bleak, unsettling and totally original, Ken Bruen's writing captures the brooding landscape of Irish society at a time of social and economic upheaval. Here is evidence of an unmistakeable literary talent.

Ken Bruen

Breath-taking . . . Jack Taylor is a mix of penitent and avenging angel

A Jack Taylor Noir Thriller

Someone is scraping the scum off the streets of Galway, and they want Jack Taylor to get involved. A drug pusher, a rapist, a loan shark, all targeted in what look like vigilante attacks. And the killer is writing to Jack, signing their name: C-33. 
Jack has had enough. He doesn’t need the money, and doesn’t want to get involved. But when his friend Stewart gets drawn in, it seems he isn’t been given a choice. In the meantime, Jack is being courted by Reardon, a charismatic billionaire intent on buying up much of Galway, and begins a tentative relationship with Reardon’s PR director, Kelly. 
Caught between heaven and hell, there’s only one path for Jack Taylor to take: Purgatory.

Ken Bruen

Praise for Purgatory

Noir doesn't get much blacker

Breath-taking . . . Jack Taylor is a mix of penitent and avenging angel

Books by Ken Bruen

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