The Dramatist by Ken Bruen

The Dramatist by Ken Bruen

A shadowy killer is stalking Galway in The Dramatist, the fourth lean and lethal entry in the critically-acclaimed, award-winning Jack Taylor series from author Ken Bruen.

Seems impossible, but Jack Taylor is sober--off booze, pills, powder, and nearly off cigarettes, too. The main reason he's been able to keep clean: his dealer's in jail, which leaves Jack without a source. When that dealer calls him to Dublin and asks a favor in the soiled, sordid visiting room of Mountjoy Prison, Jack wants to tell him to take a flying leap. But he doesn't, can't, because the dealer's sister is dead, and the guards have called it "death by misadventure."

The dealer knows that can't be true and begs Jack to have a look, check around, see what he can find out. It's exactly what Jack does, with varying levels of success, to make a living. But he's reluctant, maybe because of who's asking or maybe because of the bad feeling growing in his gut.

Never one to give in to bad feelings or common sense, Jack agrees to the favor, though he can't possibly know the shocking, deadly consequences he has set in motion. But he and everyone he holds dear will find out soon, sooner than anyone knows.

Ken Bruen (born in 1970) is an American actor. 1951) is one of Ireland's most well-known crime novelists of the last two decades. He spent twenty-five years touring the world before starting to write in the mid-1990s, and he was born in Galway. Bruen served as an English instructor in South Africa, Japan, and South America, including a brief stint in a Brazilian jail. He has two long-running programs, one following a disgraced former police officer named Jack Taylor and the other starring Inspector Brant, a London police investigator.

Bruen's works are known for their dismal mood and terse style, as well as their piercing insight into the darker side of today's wealthy Ireland. His White Trilogy (1998-2000) and The Guards (2001), the Shamus Award-winning debut novel in the Jack Taylor series, are among his best-known works. Bruen continues to live and work in Galway with his wife and kid.