A chilling tale following the relationship of Shea, an Irish cop/sociopath and his partnership with Kebar, an NYPD officer on the take against his will. Kebar is a cold and ruthless cop, at least with the criminals, but he dearly loves his sister, who suffers from mental illness, and her housing is expensive. So Kebar is strong-armed into passing police info to the mob in exchange for money. This puts him on a slow burn, until Shea comes on an exchange program from the Irish government. Shea has his own dark side, and soon Kebar and NYC will never be the same. Bruen is great at getting inside his characters' heads, even if, as in Shea's case, its not somewhere you are comfortable to be. Quick cameo from Jack Taylor in the beginning, and the ending was great. A dark but very entertaining book. A quick read. Basically a novella in the form of a novel, but in much the same way as the best of James Cain. All the story of a novel is there with multiple lines and complexity of character, but stripped down to the bare essentials.That said, the story feels a bit rushed. Not the prose, but the actual structure of the story. At about the halfway point, the I'm-making-it-up-as-I-go shows through a little. It feels like an early draft, ideas introduced but not always fully explored. New characters taking over late in the story. But an early Bruen draft is still Bruen, and there's a lot to like here.Dark. Lightning fast. Solid.
What do You think about Brooklyn Requiem (2010)?
Good story, interesting style, too clever for it's own good. Very quick read.
—reifei
A brisk, haunting noir from a sharp Irish author.
—sheri
