Once Were Cops - Softcover

Bruen, Ken

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312540175 ISBN 13: 9780312540173

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2009

Synopsis

Michael O'Shea is a member of Ireland's police force, known as The Guards. He's also a sociopath who walks a knife edge between sanity and all-out mayhem. When an exchange program is initiated and twenty Guards come to America and twenty cops from the States go to Ireland, Shay, as he's known, has his lifelong dream come true--he becomes a member of the NYPD. But Shay's dream is about to become New York's nightmare.

Paired with an unstable cop nicknamed Kebar for his liberal use of a short, lethal metal stick called a K-bar, the two unlikely partners become a devastatingly effective force in the war against crime.

But Kebar harbors a dangerous secret: he's sold out to the mob to help his sister. Her rape and beating leaves her in a coma and pushes an already unstable Kebar over the edge just as Shea's dark secrets threaten boil over and into the streets of New York.

Once Were Cops melds the street poetry of Brooklyn and Dublin into a fast-paced, incomparable hard-boiled novel. This is Ken Bruen at his best.

About this title

Review:

Praise for Ken Bruen:

"Ken Bruen is hard to resist, with his aching Irish heart, silvery tongue, and bleak noir sensibility...[Bruen] writes with extraordinary delicacy." --Marilyn Stasio, "The New York Times Book Review"

"Bruen exploits the dark potential of the mystery form to its fullest." -"Washington"" Post Book World"

"Dazzling. Bruen's style is clipped, caustic, heartbreaking, and often hilarious."--"Cleveland Plain Dealer"

"Bruen is a brilliant, lyrical, deeply moving writer who can make you laugh and cry in the same paragraph and whose characters are so sharply portrayed that they almost walk off the page at you. If you like Ian Rankin, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, and the like, Bruen is definitely a writer to reckon with." --"The Denver Post"

"Bruen's furious, hard-boiled prose, chopped down to its trademark essence, never fails to astonish....among the finest noir stylists of his generation." --"Publishers Weekly" (starred review)

"Bruen's tommy-gun prose, lacerating dialogue, and hard-boiled worldview combine to provide entertainment of high order in dealing with low instincts." --"New York"" Daily News"

"The next major new Irish voice we hear might well belong to Ken Bruen." --"Chicago"" Tribune"

"Bracing, eccentric, hard-boiled, unforgettable." --"New Orleans"" Times-Picayune"

"Spare and unforgiving, Bruen's novels are among the best." --"Rocky Mountain News"

"Bruen has established himself as a master of hard-boiled noir." "--Miami Herald"

Advance Praise for ONCE WERE COPS:
"An acknowledged master of contemporary noir, Bruen touches all his usual themes in his trademark clipped postmodern style, a deft shorthand that enables him to romp at will through genre cliches to quickly reach deeper and more dangerous depths. No one is safe as this shocker spins wildly toward a violent finish." --"Publishers Weekly"

"Bruen, poster boy for noir, keeps you guessing until the denouement...An unlovely tale impossible to put down. Readers asked at year's end to list the nastiest, most violent cop novels of 2008 will certainly remember this one." --"Kirkus Reviews"

"Shea is an otherworldly malevolence who makes ONCE WERE COPS a chilling and deeply creepy read. That Bruen renders such a remarkable character in what be called clipped free verse is further proof of his writing talent." --"Booklist"

"[Shea] is all about in-your-face provocation. So is Bruen in this stand-alone thriller. Suggested for public libraries as an example of first-rate nouvelle cuisine a la noir." --"Library Journal"

“Bruen tells the story brilliantly...the pacing is intense...one of the darkest portrayals of policing since James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential.” –"The San Francisco Chronicle"

"Bruen, a master of modern noir, render his prose in short staccato bursts, which is curiously mesmerizing--and, at the book's gruesome end, downright terrifying. A-" --"Entertainment Weekly"

"[A] stripped-down dark thrill ride...No one is safe as this shocker spins wildly toward a violent finish." --"Publishers Weekly"

"Shea is an otherworldly malevolence who makes ONCE WERE COPS a chilling and deeply creepy read. That Bruen renders such a remarkable character in what be called clipped free verse is further proof of his writing talent." --"Booklist"

"Bruen tells the story brilliantly. The dialogue captures both Irish and New York accents. The pacing is intense. And the prose is at once vivid and as tight as anything this side of a haiku." --"The Salt Lake Tribune"

"Bruen tells the story brilliantly...the pacing is intense...one of the darkest portrayals of policing since James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential." -"The San Francisco Chronicle"

"Bruen, a master of modern noir, render his prose in short staccato bursts, which is curiously mesmerizing--and, at the book's gruesome end, downright terrifying. A-" --"Entertainment Weekly"

"[A] stripped-down dark thrill ride...No one is safe as this shocker spins wildly toward a violent finish." --"Publishers Weekly"

"Shea is an otherworldly malevolence who makes ONCE WERE COPS a chilling and deeply creepy read. That Bruen renders such a remarkable character in what be called clipped free verse is further proof of his writing talent." --"Booklist"

"Bruen tells the story brilliantly. The dialogue captures both Irish and New York accents. The pacing is intense. And the prose is at once vivid and as tight as anything this side of a haiku." --"The Salt Lake Tribune"

Bruen tells the story brilliantly the pacing is intense one of the darkest portrayals of policing since James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential. "The San Francisco Chronicle"

Bruen, a master of modern noir, render his prose in short staccato bursts, which is curiously mesmerizing--and, at the book's gruesome end, downright terrifying. A- "Entertainment Weekly"

[A] stripped-down dark thrill ride...No one is safe as this shocker spins wildly toward a violent finish. "Publishers Weekly"

Shea is an otherworldly malevolence who makes ONCE WERE COPS a chilling and deeply creepy read. That Bruen renders such a remarkable character in what be called clipped free verse is further proof of his writing talent. "Booklist"

Bruen tells the story brilliantly. The dialogue captures both Irish and New York accents. The pacing is intense. And the prose is at once vivid and as tight as anything this side of a haiku. "The Salt Lake Tribune""

Bruen tells the story brilliantly the pacing is intense one of the darkest portrayals of policing since James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential. The San Francisco Chronicle

Bruen, a master of modern noir, render his prose in short staccato bursts, which is curiously mesmerizing--and, at the book's gruesome end, downright terrifying. A- Entertainment Weekly

[A] stripped-down dark thrill ride...No one is safe as this shocker spins wildly toward a violent finish. Publishers Weekly

Shea is an otherworldly malevolence who makes ONCE WERE COPS a chilling and deeply creepy read. That Bruen renders such a remarkable character in what be called clipped free verse is further proof of his writing talent. Booklist

Bruen tells the story brilliantly. The dialogue captures both Irish and New York accents. The pacing is intense. And the prose is at once vivid and as tight as anything this side of a haiku. The Salt Lake Tribune

"

"Bruen tells the story brilliantly...the pacing is intense...one of the darkest portrayals of policing since James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential." --The San Francisco Chronicle

"Bruen, a master of modern noir, render his prose in short staccato bursts, which is curiously mesmerizing--and, at the book's gruesome end, downright terrifying. A-" --Entertainment Weekly

"[A] stripped-down dark thrill ride...No one is safe as this shocker spins wildly toward a violent finish." --Publishers Weekly

"Shea is an otherworldly malevolence who makes ONCE WERE COPS a chilling and deeply creepy read. That Bruen renders such a remarkable character in what be called clipped free verse is further proof of his writing talent." --Booklist

"Bruen tells the story brilliantly. The dialogue captures both Irish and New York accents. The pacing is intense. And the prose is at once vivid and as tight as anything this side of a haiku." --The Salt Lake Tribune

About the Author:

Ken Bruen has been a finalist for the Edgar and Anthony Awards, and has won a Macavity Award, a Barry Award, and two Shamus Awards for the Jack Taylor series. He is also the author of the Inspector Brant series. Several of Bruen's novels have been adapted for the screen: The first six Jack Taylor novels were adapted into a television series starring Iain Glen; Blitz was adapted into a movie starring Jason Statham; and London Boulevard was adapted into a film starring Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley. Bruen lives in Galway, Ireland.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0312540175
• ISBN 13: 9780312540173
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304