Ken Bruen
Ken Bruen [b.1951] is one of the most prominent Irish crime writers of the last two decades. Born in Galway, he spent twenty-five years traveling the world before he began writing in the mid 1990s. As an English teacher, Bruen worked in South Africa, Japan, and South America, where he once spent a short time in a Brazilian jail. He has two long-running series: one starring a disgraced former policeman named Jack Taylor, the other a London police detective named Inspector Brant.
Praised for their sharp insight into the darker side of today's prosperous Ireland, Bruen's novels are marked by grim atmosphere and clipped prose. Among the best known are his White Trilogy (1998-2000) and The Guards (2001), the Shamus award-winning first novel in the Jack Taylor series. Along with his wife and daughter, Bruen continues to live and work in Galway. You can find his website at this link.
"Outstanding. Bruen has a rich and mordant writing style, full of offbeat humor. Perhaps the standard bearer for a new subgenre called 'Hibernian Noir.'" - Publishers Weekly
"The next major new Irish voice we hear might well belong to Ken Bruen." - Chicago Tribune
"Bruen's astringent prose and death's-head humor keep this quest for redemption from getting maudlin, just as his 'tapestry of talk' makes somber poetry of the bar-stool laments that serve as dialogue. Even in barrooms, 'there are poets among us,' and sometimes their voices are fierce." - New York Times
"[Ken Bruen's] clipped, bleak writing style captures the pervasive brooding Irish landscape better than any author in a very long while." - Bookpage