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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780312320270
ISBN number: 0312320272
Label: St. Martin's Minotaur
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: January 19, 2004
Publishing house: St. Martin's Minotaur
Sale Popularity Level: 134609
Studio: St. Martin's Minotaur
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Product Description:
Praised by critics around the globe, The Guards introduces Jack Taylor, a disgraced ex-cop battling boredom and addiction on the gritty Galway streets. Still mourning the decades-old death of his father, stinging from his unceremonious ouster from the Garda Siochana-The Guards, Ireland's police force-and staring at the world through the smoky bottom of his beer mug, Jack has nothing to look forward to. Nothing, that is, until a dazzling woman walks into the bar because of a rumour about Jack's talent for finding things. A riveting hard-boiled novel fueled by dark humour and stark violence, The Guards kicks off an exceptional new series.
Amazon.com Review:
There's something about the job that leads (fictional) cops and PIs to drink, which is why booze always seems to be a minor character in the genre. This is certainly the case in Ken Bruen's debut thriller about melancholy Irishman Jack Taylor, whose luck at finding things keeps him in beer money after he's kicked out of Ireland's Garda Siochna. When the mother of a young suicide victim asks him to investigate her daughter's death, Taylour discovers that Sarah Henderson isn't the only teenager to take a long walk off a short Galway pier. His search for the perpetrator gets his best friend killed, destroys his nascent relationship with his client, and sets him up for a final betrayal few readers will see coming. This promising writer doesn't need all the tricky punctuation and excess quotations from other writers to punch up his sharp, lyrical prose, but these are minor quibbles--he's a newcomer to watch. --Jane Adams
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Rated by buyers 
-
"The Guards" (2001) is a genre mystery in much the same way that "Moby-Dick" is a book about whale hunting.
That's about as far as I'll go comparing the monstrous, densely written classic by Herman Melville and the Spartan poetic prose of Ken Bruen.
On the surface, there's no reason why "The Guards" should work. The novel introduces us to Jack Taylor, who has become Bruen's series character (now appearing in seven novels). Taylour is a collection of clichés: an ex-cop, a drunk, a hard case, a loner, and a closet bibliophile who reads poetry.
Haven't we seen this character before? Yes, over and over and over again.
There's even a scene in "The Guards" where Taylour is brutally pounded on by two burly cops (known as guards in Ireland) and ends up in the hospital. Waking up, and still severely injured, Taylour puts on his clothing and storms out. No hospitals for him!
Yet, Jack Taylour comes across and nothing short of authentic. Bruen skirts over the clichés - seemingly mocking them from the sidelines - and gives us a protagonist that rages against the dying of the light. A character that strides through the pages of "The Guards" like the reincarnation Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op, but wearing a leprechaun hat.
Like Hammett's amoral private detective, Jack Taylour has witnessed so much murder and misery that his sense of compassion, his humanity, has been worn down to a nub. Taylour skates along the edge of right and wrong - not quite sure where the boundaries are anymore.
And it works. Jack Taylour lives and breathes. As a reader, you believe in him.
Then there's the plot - which is a mess for a genre mystery. Allegedly, Taylour is hired by a widow to investigate the alleged suicide of her teenage daughter. Yet, Taylour barely musters up the resolve to mount even a minimal investigation (hey, it might get in the way of his subsequent bender).
But in the end - who cares? The plot is beside the point. The real star of "The Guards" is Bruen's writing: elegant, stark, brutal, comic, and drenched with emotion. This is hardboiled crime fiction that could make James Joyce stab someone in the eye with a broken whiskey bottle.
And let's not forget the setting: the coastal Irish city of Galway. Bruen nails it. He gives us Galway: the city streets, the old hotels, the ancient barrooms, the cemeteries, and the undercurrent of Catholicism, and, of course, the dialog. It sings.
There's a certain satisfaction as a reader discovering your subsequent novelist. Knowing that you've found a writer that you're going to be spending a lot of time with - because you're going to read everything he's written. For me, right now, this is Bruen.
Read "The Guards."
That's really all that needs to be said.
Read "The Guards."
Want to read hilarious literate blather about books and movies? Then head over to Dark Party Review ([...].
Rated by buyers -
I picked up this book purely by chance, for I felt I needed someting a bit light after the heavy history books I had been reading. The book was quite a pleasant surprise, as the writing is excellent! Even though there is a tremendous amount of dialogue, the plot moves along very quickly and the reader is drawn into the tale completely, so that when it ends there is the wish that there was more to come. Luckily, this is the very first book in a series of books concerning the same protagonist, and I fully intend to read all of them!
Rated by buyers 
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The Guards starts out well enough, giving us a terse, almost stream-of-consciousness style look into the mind of former Garda Jack Taylor. Jack, much like so many other hard-boiled protagonists, has a problem with the bottle.
The problem with that bottle provides the main backbone of the book. Don't be fooled into thinking that this book is about a mystery, revenge, or anything even close to that; this book is about Jack Taylour moaning about drinking or about not drinking.
For a book written in such a quick, spaced-out style, the plot moves glacially. And when plot points are revealed, the payoff is practically nonexistent. Mysteries are figured out with no fanfare or suspense, and the reader is left figuring out why any of this is important. Taylour also goes off on tangents that meander way outside of the story...some of these tangents will last for ten pages, with none of them really moving anything forward. At best, the tangents just reinforce the fact that Taylor's a drunk and that he pretty much hates everyone.
Bruen's terse style also allows for very little character description...if any at all. I still have no idea what any of the main characters in the book should look like. I mean, I don't need a detailed description of every hair on their head, but a little nod in the direction of physical description would be nice.
The formatting is also problematic. Maybe Bruen was trying something with the formatting, but it just comes off like he's padded out the novel to the 288 page length. Bruen devotes entire chapters (which are titled erratically, some not titled at all) to a single thought or small exchange with another character. These things should have been one paragraph in the book, but Bruen lays them out to consume 2 1/2 physical pages with about 1/2 a page of content. The formatting does nothing for pacing, either, due to the fact that it's not consistent in showing the passage of time. Sometimes he'll just drop a chapter in, and it seems arbitrary.
Maybe if Bruen had laid this out properly, made it a nice 110 page novella (seriously, there are probably 150 pages of wasted space in this book), this would have been a better read, but the annoyance of needing to flip pages every three seconds just so Jack Taylour can ruminate about a Joy Division album in a standalone chapter really ruins the reading experience.
I gave the book 2 stars because it's mercifully short. You could finish it in a well-motivated afternoon. It has some nice bits and pieces, but it's certainly not worth buying for full price. The formatting makes it a rip-off. Get it from the library, or buy it used.
Rated by buyers -
This is the very first novel in the Jack Taylour series and is a most auspicious start.Taylour lives and works in Galway ,Irish Republic and was formerly a member of the Irish police ,the Garda Siochana .He was not a model employee and that is putting it mildly.A frequent subject of the force disciplinary procedure,an alcoholic and more than a tad Bolshie Taylour was eventually fired for punching an Irish Cabainet Minister caught speeding and then getting a little bit lippy when confronted by the law.Taylour is now-when the book opens-to all intents and purposes a Private Eye ,although since the Irish Republic does not recognise the profession he describes himself as a "finder" .He establishes a minor reputation and earns enough to get by and spens his time imbibing in the city's many hostelries .
He is engaged by Ann Henderson ,an attractive widow ,whose recently deceased daughter Sarah has killed herself.Ann wishes to know why ,and what lies behind the death.The case turns out to be linked to a prominent local businessman ,Planter,who is a golfing buddy and crony of the local head man of the Garda ,Superintendant Clancy a former colleague of Taylour on the force .When Taylour perisists in his investigation he is beaten up by off duty Garda for his troubles .He uncovers evidence of corruption within the Garda and is aided in his fight to get at the truth by the psychotic ex military man Sutton ,a man whose taste for violence is more a little excessive .
The mystery of Sarah's death and its unravelling is only the surface part of this very dark and brooding book .It is equally ,if not more so ,about Taylor's own spiritual and physical odysssey as he battles the demons of his childhood and seeks to rid himself of the burden of his drinking .It is tale of the londg dark night of the soul ,a journey to the other side of the night .Tayalour is death obsessed and haunted ,reading voraciously on the subject and also has taste for noir movies and American noir crime fiction .(The references to authors and their works makes this book a useful primer for people looking for writers in that genre ,new and more classical ).Taylour cannot sustain either love or sobriety for long and this makes him a tragic and bruised hero of the "down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean" variety ,He frequently haunts cemeteries ,and bars hanging out with the street people and winos who rather like Taylour himself must fight every day for what they have in the way of both dignity and money .
The book does not romanticise alcoholism and sees it for what it is -a disease and an illness that means booze ultimately ends up costing more than money as it devours his relationships with ann and the young English singer Catherine Bellingham .
Galway itself is a key figure in the drama -its quays,and back alleys and pubs .Most of all its characters -aplace where tramps can quote and write poetry and barbers converse about Joy Division .(Jack himself likes traditional country music -STOUT FELLOW!)
While not a comfortable read this is a taut and edgy book that lovers of the noirish type of crime writing will devour ,while cosy crime lovers are advised to give it a miss as they will not be happy with its profanity and violence
Rated by buyers -
Bruen doesn't reinvent the murder mystery - he just shifts it's phasing and phrasing. Reading this, you're always comfortable with the genre and shaken by the interpretation. If you love murder mysteries, detective novels, or Irish humor, you'll be at home with this book. A quick read, you find yourself slowing so as not to finish too soon. Can't wait to read the subsequent one...slowly...savoring it like single malt or fine Irish.
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