Page Updated: 16/11/98
Ken Bruen
awhitearrestp.jpg
About the Author
Bibliography
A White ArrestA White Arrest Newpbk 01 Nov 98
Her Last Call to Louis MacNeiceHer Last Call to Louis MacNeice
The Hackman BluesThe Hackman Blues
Rilke on BlackRilke on Black


New British Pbk Original - Do Not Press (1998)
A White Arrest
First in the White Trilogy
A serial-killer is picking of the England cricket team; and in Brixton, a vigilante group is hanging dope dealers from lamp-posts.
Just two of the cases facing the R&B of London's Metropolitan police force:
Chief Inspector Roberts and Detective Sergeant Brant
Roberts feels he should write poetry or enjoy opera, just like the detectives on TV. But when it comes down to it, he's as corrupt as the south London villains he's meant to be chasing.
Brant is an animal and that's how he likes it. His idea of cleaning up the streets is to exterminate the vermin that lives on them.
Both policemen are in deep shit. They desperately need a white arrest - a major catch to whitewash all past sins and deliver them, if not to paradise, at least to a better beat.
Paced with black humour and a soundtrack of violence and intolerance, A White Arrest is Police Procedural novel like no other…
"If Martin Amis was writing crime novels, this is what he would hope to write." Books in Ireland
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British Pbk Original - Serpents Tail (1998)
Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice
Her name was Cassie.
She liked poetry. And guns. And money.
She liked Cooper
That was his bad luck.
Cooper had it easy back then. For a bank robber. Took it easy. But took it.
He had a legit business too. A repo man. Even had an accountant.
Cassie blew it all to hell.
Her Last Call To Louis MacNeice is the purest London noir, dark and dirty as the Thames by night. Ken Bruen, author of the acclaimed debut novel, Rilke on Black, takes the reader on a one-way ride - straight to the bitter end.
'Very nasty, very funny' The Big Issue
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British Pbk Original - Do Not Press (1997)
The Hackman Blues
"...I haven't taken my medication for the past week. If I couldn't go a few days without the lithium, I was in deep shit. I'd gotten the job ten days earlier and it entailed a whack of pub-crawling. Booze and medication is the worst of songs.
Sing that!
A job of pure simplicity. Find a white girl in Brixton. Piece of cake. What I should have done is doubled my medication and lit a candle to St Jude - maybe a lot of candles."
Add to the mixture a lethal ex-con, an Irish builder obsessed with Gene Hackman, the biggest funeral Brixton has ever seen, and what you get is the Blues like they've never been sung before.
Ken Bruen's powerful second novel is a gritty and grainy mix of crime noir and Urban Blues that greets you like a mugger, stays with you like a razor-scar.
GQ described his debut novel as: "The most startling and original crime novel of the decade." "If Martin Amis was writing crime novels, this is what he would hope to write." - Books in Ireland
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British Pbk Original - Serpents Tail (1996)
Rilke on Black
One red-necked white man - Brixton born and bred with a taste for country music. One Black woman, with a nose for cocaine and a plan to make them rich. And one flexible psychopath - a man who selects a personality to match his wardrobe....and has a wide range of clothes. The plan is simple. They kidnap the top black businessman - a motormouth with a stunning wife and a passion for the poet Rilke - and collect.
This debut thriller depicts a South London far worse than any North Londoner’s nightmares.
'Boiled harder than salad eggs and much more likely to leave a nasty taste in your mouth.' The Big Issue
The most startlingly original crime novel to emerge this decade' GQ Magazine
'The reading equivalent of a boxer's sharp jab to the solar plexus. It's fast-paced, tough, and pretty sexy.' Pulp
'Sheer, oddly poetic intensity.' Mail on Sunday
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About The Author
Ken Bruen hails from the west of Ireland and lives in south London. His past includes drunken brawls in Vietnam, a stretch of four months in a South American gaol, a PhD in metaphysics and three of the most acclaimed crime novels of the '90s: Rilke on Black, The Hackman Blues and Her Last Call To Louis McNeice. He was a finalist for the First Blood award for Best First Crime Novel of '95 (for Rilke on Black) and was a front runner in the Big Issue's 'alternative' Booker shortlist. He insists that The Hackman Blues is better.

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Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

  • A White Arrest (Do Not Press Pbk, 1998) New Pbk Nov 98 ( Roberts & Brant)
  • Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice (Serpents Tail Pbk, 1998)
  • The Hackman Blues (Do Not Press Pbk, 1997)
  • Rilke on Black (Serpents Tail Pbk, 1996)
  • Funereal Tales of Irish Morbidity
  • Martyrs
  • Shades of Grace
  • Time of Serena-May

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