They’re all here, too: the beautiful client who may be hiding something, the brooding tough but tender P.I.

Not that alcoholic P.I.s are particularly original, but somehow Bruen manages to not only make the many clichés of the genre come alive all over again, but he blows them out of the water in The Guards (2001), Taylor’s astounding and audacious debut. So when his arse is kicked off Ireland’s national police force, the Garda Siochna, for his excessive drinking and his tendency to shoot off his mouth, he decides to become a private eye in Galway (“the dirtiest city in Ireland”). As such, The Devil goes beyond suspense and noir conventions into the realm of the philosophical.“Expect nothing, and by Christ, you’re entitled to even less”Ī man of few joys, but many great sorrows.Įx-Guard JACK TAYLOR may not be good at much, but he does seem to have a talent for substance abuse, melancholy, astounding loyalty for his friends, and finding things.

So why not pick on the Mother Teresas of the world? In an early chapter, the Prince of Darkness says he'll plague Taylor merely for 'a spot of diversion.' However, could it be that like God, the Devil has a plan and Taylor isn't playing his part? It's one possible interpretation. The satanic character claims Taylor is cramping his style. The question of why the Devil would pick on Taylor in particular is raised throughout the book. Fans of the series will find this familiar territory, although Bruen has raised the stakes considerably by bringing Old Scratch into the picture. Taylor's pain is masked with bleak Irish humor-sometimes laugh out loud funny. The question is, how can he defeat the Devil?īruen writes choppy, terse prose that can read like poetry. As Taylor gathers more evidence that he is, in fact, facing off with Lucifer, the suspense builds as he realizes he must stop him. However, even if references are lost on novice readers, the story's compelling plot and Taylor's biting anguish and wit will pull them in. The book revisits many previous stories in the series, so reading them first may help. After a time, not even booze and drugs will ease his pain.

However, it seems the Devil may have it in for the beleagered protagonist, because people Taylor cares about start dying in gruesome ways. Taylor washes his anxieties down with healthy doses of Jameson and Xanax. After being denied entry into the US, Taylor comes face-to-face with what appears to be the ultimate nemesis-the Devil himself. In his eighth Jack Taylor novel, Ken Bruen pulls out all the stops.

The devil ken bruen