Once Were Cops

August 18, 2008
In this stripped-down dark thrill ride from Edgar-finalist Bruen (The Guards
), a psychotic Irish cop, Matthew Patrick O'Shea (“everybody called me Shea”), blackmails his way into a green card and a police exchange program that takes him from Galway to New York City for a one-year stint with the NYPD. Partnered with the brutal Kurt “Kebar” Browski (“he looked like a pit bull in uniform”), the clever sociopath, who has a hidden predilection for serial rape and strangulation, brazenly advances his ambitions despite intense attention from Internal Affairs and a mobster named Morronni. An acknowledged master of contemporary noir, Bruen touches all his usual themes in his trademark clipped postmodern style, a deft shorthand that enables him to romp at will through genre clichés to quickly reach deeper and more dangerous depths. No one is safe as this shocker spins wildly toward a violent finish.

August 15, 2008
He's so tough and cold you'd expect to see him on a platter at a greasy spoon. He prays he won't meet up with any beautiful women with swanlike necks because he's sure to strangle them with his green rosary. He's an Irish cop no less, on temporary assignment in New York. He's Matthew Patrick O'Shea, and in a typically Irish variation on the good cop-bad cop routine, he and his partner play bad cop-worse cop in the desperate city. When O'Shea meets his partner's beautiful but profoundly retarded sister, it's easy to guess the outcome, although, when it comes, it's even darker than you imagined. Even if it were offered, O'Shea would reject coaching in victim selection from Dexter Morgan (of Jeff Lindsay's "Dexter" series), since he's all about in-your-face provocation. So is Bruen in this stand-alone thriller. The fare on offer at Chez Bruen features shards of spare sentences served up on lots of white space and presented with tons of attitude. Those who agree it's all in the presentation will be pleased, but those seeking meat and potatoes might be left wanting more. Suggested for public libraries as an example of first-rate nouvelle cuisine à la noir. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 7/08.]Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2008
Michael OShea is a handsome young member of the Guard, Irelands police force. He is also a sociopath with a deep need to strangle beautiful women with his rosary beads and inflict biblical damage on other people. By blackmailing a politician, he gets an exchange assignment with the NYPD, and he is partnered with Kebar, whose nonstop rage and capacity for violence make him a pariah even to his fellow cops. Shea, as he likes to be called, and Kebar police New York like Viking berserkersuntil Shea turns his ire on his partner. The prolific Bruen has created Irish psychos before, as in Slide (2007), coauthored with Jason Starr, but Slide was played for laughs. Shea is an otherworldly malevolence who makes Once Were Cops a chilling and deeply creepy read. That Bruen renders such a remarkable character in what might be called clipped free verse is further proof of his writing talent. Still, this is anything but easy reading and just might prove more than some crime fans can handle.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)