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    Purgatory
    Purgatory
    Purgatory
    Audiobook5 hours

    Purgatory

    Written by Ken Bruen

    Narrated by Gerard Doyle

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Jack Taylor thinks he has a chance at last to rest and heal from the myriad mental and physical traumas that beset him. However, after a skateboarder long suspected of dealing drugs to children is shot dead in mid-air during a public performance, Jack receives a crytic message with a picture of the skateboarder, a clipping about a rapist gone free through procedural error, and a chilling invitation: “Your turn.” The note is signed simply “C 33.”From the author considered “among the most original and innovative noir voices of the last two decades” (Los Angeles Times Book Review) comes a mystery as labyrinthine as any Jack has yet encountered-and perhaps even more deadly. Purgatory is Ken Bruen at his best: lyrical, brutal, and ceaselessly suspenseful.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateNov 5, 2013
    ISBN9781622312177
    Author

    Ken Bruen

    Ken Bruen is one of the most prominent Irish crime writers of the last two decades. He received a doctorate in metaphysics, taught English in South Africa, and then became a crime novelist. He is the recipient of two Barry Awards, two Shamus Awards and has twice been a finalist for the Edgar Award. He lives in Galway, Ireland.

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    Reviews for Purgatory

    3.5/5

    43 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Jack Taylor can't catch a break: no matter how hard he tries to avoid it, he just can't keep himself from being involved in another messy situation. First, his old clerical nemesis asks him to recover a missing Virgin Mary statue, which leads to serious injury for one of his friends. Then, a serial killer appears to be on the loose in Galway and sends cryptic messages to Jack. Before long he's involved, not only in the search for the killer, but also a connection with a very unusual billionaire financier. There's the usual action, some of it rather grisly, until the end and the identity of the killer is revealed. That's not the end of it, however, for the author has left open two plot lines, which means hopefully, we'll soon find out.
    • 4/5
      Bruen has matured and does more than shovel despondent wretchedness at you as he ages Taylor (complete with hearing aid). Many lit, music, contemporary references, murders, binges, and Dublin on its last legs, but hope is not completely lost as in the earlier books. I need a star on the horizon to keep me going in life, and in books. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want a crapworld rubbed in my face all the time. Sometimes that seems to be Bruen's goal.
    • 4/5
      This is a Jack Taylor novel, and I enjoyed the tv show on netflix, so I was looking forward to trying out some of the novels. While some of Bruen's writing style bugs me, overall I enjoyed this one. I wish the TV show included a homosexual female cop like the one Taylor relies on in this book. Perhaps such inclusiveness would have hurt ratings, especially in more conservative parts of Ireland, but I like the dynamics in this book with such a character involved.
    • 4/5
      Jack Taylor is in a relatively calm place. Recovering from events of the previous book he’s off the drink and drugs and he’s even given up smoking. Those that have spent time with Jack previously will know that things are about to change and not for the better. This 10th instalment in the series sees the eponymous hero receiving notes from a vigilante killer who wants Jack to join in on the fun. But the notes find Jack in a can’t be bothered kind of mood, even telling a potential client “No.” before she even opened her mouth. So the vigilante moves on to Stewart, Jack’s sole remaining true friend, and start sending notes to him instead while still trying to get Jack involved. Meanwhile, there’s a new player in town, Reardon is looking to buy up all of Galway and also takes an interest in Jack and this introduces him to Kelly, Reardon’s PA, the wrong sort of woman that Jack always seems to get involved with. So who is the vigilante known as C33 and why are they determined to get Jack involved?This is a brutal series and this book may be the worst so far but only if you’ve been following along with Jack’s story to date. Don’t ever become friends with Jack Taylor, don’t fall for him and don’t even do a job for him. In fact, don’t even talk to him if you know what’s good for you. Best stay away altogether. The darkness that surrounds Jack is still an ever present as is his caustic put-downs, often at the expense of those closest to him. Lots more recommendations on the book front when Jack’s bookshelves are once again filled by his local dealer. This time around he’s on a women crime-writers kick. He’s also trying to increase my to watch list as well when he re-organises his DVD shelves.Another fine entry into an excellent series which I would urge you not to be the first one you pick up otherwise you might not read another Ken Bruen book again.
    • 4/5
      I like narratives with a distinctive voice. That said, I find narrators with a truly distinctive voice can take a bit of getting used to. My first perusal of the opening pages of Ken Bruen's 'Purgatory' didn't inspire me to read further and I let most of a month slip by, reading other things, until the deadline presented by my crime reading group came sharply into focus.== What's it about? ==Someone calling themselves C33 is killing crooks in Galway. Ex-guard Jack Taylor isn't interested in getting involved, despite receiving personal notes from the killer suggesting he might like to 'play'. Jack's friend, Stewart, is interested and courting danger. Will Jack help him solve the case?Meanwhile, Reardon, a billionaire determined to buy up Galway, is intent on turning Jack into his pet, and Jack begins a relationship with Kelly, Reardon's assistant. But what do these two really want with Jack Taylor?==What's it like? ==Unsurprisingly, considering its positioning as noir fiction, the tone and content is dark, miserable and violent. Bruen isn't afraid to maim and / or kill off his characters and those who survive seem to mostly spend their time drinking and drugging themselves into oblivion. Jack in particular begins the book 'on the wagon', but it isn't long before he's stumbling along beside it.This is the tenth book in Bruen's 'Jack Taylor' series so fans will doubtless be used to their anti-hero's rather sweary nature and ability to survive anything the city's mad men and semi-corrupt cops can throw at him. In a previous outing he has evidently lost some fingers and his desire to be a PI - his ostensible trade. In fact, it is not until page 253 of 283 that Jack notes laconically: 'Finally did a detective thing'. Clearly, Bruen recognises that his character's role up to this point has been more passive drunk than active investigator.This hint of metafictionality grows throughout 'Purgatory'. Each short chapter is prefaced with one or two quotations, taken from literature, Irish sayings and songs, celebrities and, um, characters from this book. In the final chapters, Jack, our first-person narrator, begins to refer to old cases by the names of earlier books in the series. Somehow this feels quite appropriate in a story already littered with cultural references: Jack's life seems to partly consist of watching a string of drama series that were axed after one or two seasons; Kelly has a thing for Oscar Wilde; and these two characters visit a bookshop that happens to have a display of noir fiction in the window. Perhaps Jack's cultural engagement is meant to show the reader that, despite his professed skill with the hurley, he is redeemable.The frequent references to political and sporting events root this novel firmly in a particular time period which feels relevant now but will mean it dates quite quickly. Given Bruen's success and that of the hit TV series based on this character, I doubt that's a concern. There is also a very strong sense of place, though not necessarily a place you'd want to live in. Galway is vividly rendered through its population: the Guards, the drunks, the bartenders and baristas who adopt new customs that horrify Jack.Bruen writing as Jack Taylor adopts an abrupt style which is somewhat lacking in verbs. This is a typical extract:Before she could speak, I said'No.'Knocked her back.Her mouth made a small O of surprise. I knew the gig.The touching photo.Some heart-kicking story.Her son/daughter/husbandmissingwas a great/caring/loveable individual,andcould I find them, what happened to them?The whole usual awful parade of misery.It took maybe fifty pages for me to acclimatise to this style, which isn't as long as it sounds; if all the sentences in this book were bundled into regular sized paragraphs, the book itself would be at least two thirds shorter. Once I had adapted, Jack's distinctive voice and dark humour were a good enough reason to keep reading, despite a rather slim plot.As a hard-boiled anti-hero, Jack succeeds brilliantly. He is persistently blind to his friends' predicaments, though usually at least partly responsible, always ready to sink into alcohol and / or narcotics induced oblivion, and cavalierly unconcerned about his own welfare. Flashes of morality twinkle at readers, signalling a decent man at heart, but I hope in future additions to these series he might actually, y'know, actively attempt to solve a crime or two. (In fairness, he does solve this one, though it's largely by accident.)The ending is a little frustrating as Bruen throws in a last minute shock, evidently designed to bait the hook for book eleven. Yawn. Presumably regular readers will now be clamouring to know the next publication date, but I have always found such last-second dramas off-putting and thought its inclusion here was a bit of a shame. Doesn't Bruen trust his readers to seek out the next instalment?== Final thoughts ==I didn't feel at any disadvantage for not having read (or watched) the series previously, and clearly Bruen didn't expect me to experience any difficulties; there are no recaps at all. Recurring characters are introduced very briefly and, aside from a few references to previous history, nothing from previous books intrides into the action of this one. I found this quite refreshing actually, as most series require the reader to develop at least a rudimentary understanding of several recurring characters and key relationships. Jack's nature ensures this isn't necessary!Chapters are very short - just a few pages long - which makes this easy to read. The overall book is clearly structured with a prologue and kind-of epilogue bookending the action. I felt all the quotations were rather unnecessary, but if you like exercising your mind by considering how they fit in with the plot etc. then you'll have plenty of opportunities to enjoy doing just that.Overall, this is a good example of the noir genre with sufficient world-weary gone-slightly-bad-and-mad-ex-upholder-of-the-law antics to keep readers interested. The £12.99 RRP (for a paperback?!) seems a tad expensive for something I'm unlikely to read more than once, but it may be worth the cost for fans who want to collect the series.Read this if:- you enjoy reading about hardboiled, world-weary (not quite) detectives in noir narratives;- you enjoy reading novels written in a very distinctive voice;- you enjoy reading books with a strong sense of time and place, especially contemporary time and place.Avoid this if:- you dislike reading a lot of swearing or about a lot of drinking and drug abuse;- you like crime stories with a strong sense of plot, clues, red herrings...typical crime stuff;- you like conventional narratives and prefer reading about heroes, not anti-heroes.
    • 4/5
      Jack Taylor is one of the most original characters in fiction. He is an ex-guard, a crusty and dark and cynical individual, a good friend to a few, bad news to those who cross him or the ones he loves, he loves to read and a friend keeps his apartment stocked with novels. Though he once had every bad habit known to man, in this novel he has quit drinking his beloved Jameson's, in fact he has quit drinking period, he has quit smoking and other bad habits that threatened to shorten his life. He has quit taking cases, but of course, someone close to him gets him involved. Fate has other plans for him. Not everyone will like Bruen's staccato style of writing, his witty observations and one-liners, his irreverence but those of us who do hope this author keeps writing these novels for a long time. In fact I liked one of his lines so much I just have to repeat it, Jack Taylor is a recovering Catholic. She laughed, Jesus wept.ARC from publisher.