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Headstone: A Jack Taylor Novel Audiobook
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(3.06) - 317 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Acclaimed Irish crime writer Ken Bruen has won numerous awards for his hard-charging, dark thrillers, which have been translated into ten languages. In Headstone, an elderly priest is nearly beaten to death and a special-needs boy is brutally attacked. Evil has many guises and Jack Taylor has encountered most of them, and has the scars to prove it. But nothing before has ever truly terrified him until he confronts an evil coterie named Headstone, who have committed a series of random, insane, violent crimes in Galway, Ireland that leave even the national police shaken. And Jack is especially vulnerable now that he has finally found love and happiness.
Jack, slowly accepting the sheer power of Headstone, comes to realize that in order to fight back he must relinquish the remaining shreds of what has made him human. Headstone barrels along its deadly path right to the center of his life and the heart of Galway. In a moment of awful clarity, Jack realizes that not only might he be powerless to stop Headstone; he may not have the grit needed to even face it. A terrific read from a writer called “a Celtic Dashiell Hammett,” Headstone is an excellent addition to the Jack Taylor series.
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"If you're a fan of Ken Bruen's work, even knowing how erratic his books are, you still automatically read whatever he writes. Though the plots may be lightweight or strain credulity, his work is addictive, thanks to the great terse prose, the dry wit, the distinctive formating that gives the writing such immediacy, and the keen awareness of the changing face of Ireland. The Jack Taylor series itself may be undependable but the character is consistent in his self-sabotaging, brutal ways. In this book, a small group of angry rich kids plot revenge on Taylor while working on a plan to carry out Ireland's first massacre at a school. Taylor, who for a brief moment in time hoped to find happiness with an American writer of crime fiction, is devastated when they destroy his chance at love with her while threatening the lives of the two friends he has left, the policewoman Ridge and the shady Stewart. Taylor is hired to locate a priest accused of absconding with church-related funds (Bruen is always very adept at spining multiple plot threads) and also gets drawn into helping a shadowy crime figure he's had dealings with in the past, forcing him to perform yet another act of betrayal sure to torment his ravaged soul even further. The ending of the book, usually one of Bruen's greatest strengths, here is slightly anti-climatic. But it's more than made up for by the believabilty, character evolution, complexity and overall evenness of what came before. As usual, Bruen doesn't allow any editing of his work, resulting in some repetition and slight discrepancies here and there, but none of this detracts from the solidity of one of the better books in the series."
— Ann (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Headstone is an excellent addition to the Jack Taylor series.”
— Philadelphia Inquirer -
“Hard hitting…a remarkable series.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“A nonstop rampage of intrigue, mayhem, lunacy and dark-dark-dark humor.”
— Shelf Awareness -
“Ken Bruen is brilliant. While Headstone is the stuff of nightmares, it is also the stuff of redemption, even at great cost. You will feel wrung out after reading this one, but all the gladder for it.”
— Bookreporter
Headstone Listener Reviews
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" An excellent thriller, dark and totally scary. The writing is so understated and the prose so expertly done that it leaves you reeling in shock at what's happening in the story. A fantastic read if you love dark, thrillers. Not gory, bloody, but psychologically scary and riveting. The language of place and the insights into local world view are bonuses on top of the great characters and story. "
— Kat, 2/9/2014 -
" Bruen is beyond great. His books are brutal but so good. Can there be a character more pitiable than Jack Taylor? Whenever I see one of Bruen's books in the library I don't even think about it. A must read. "
— Joan, 2/1/2014 -
" Grim and gripping. "
— Lynn, 2/1/2014 -
" It's been a while since I've sought out and read an entire series back to back -- not since the Banks noels of Peter Robinson. These Jack Taylor novels, with one exception, were totally addictive. By setting them in Galway, Bruen gives us witness to its change from a remote Irish community to one fully in the 21st century, changes not aways to the good. With big city problems. Jack Taylor, approaching 50, lifelong resident, does not aways wrap up cases at the end of each book, rendering the series as more one long Dickensian serial than individual standalones. They do need to be read in sequence, since references abound to earlier installments, and Jack's observations of Galway's alteration build as they progress. These are brutal, funny, at times viscous. Not always by a felon, Taylor, Bruen's book loving, music appreciating, jaded former Garda dispenses his own justice but is quintessentially the essence of an Irish soul. "
— Kasa, 1/30/2014 -
" Jack Taylor, all attitude, all the time, with some killing and moral/theological questions intertwined. All in a days work for the fabulous Mr. Bruen. "
— Stan, 1/28/2014 -
" A nice return to form after "The Devil". "
— Doctorwu51, 1/11/2014 -
" This was my introduction to noir poet Ken Bruen, and I will be diving into his prolific writings immediately. The latest in the Jack Taylor series, Bruen peels back the veneer of Galway and shows the machinations of the idyllic seaside town through real and broken people who love it. Jack Taylor is a hard drinking man who believes "law is for the courthouse and justice is served in the alleyways," a dinosaur relic in our ethically wobbly times. With a verbal economy verging on poetry and a masterful eye for human character, Bruen is a force of nature and his latest novel with the Mysterious Press is a treasure. If you haven't read him before, like myself, you'll be kicking yourself for waiting so long. "
— Thomas, 1/11/2014 -
" terrible and vulgar....I walked away after reading 100 pages "
— Jessica, 1/10/2014 -
" I finished the book and have read others in this series. What more can the author do to Jack Taylor and still keep him alive? The plots all have a sameness about them, but Bruen tells a great story, nevertheless. "
— Marla, 1/10/2014 -
" Bruen had me at "Priest" but then it faded. But he's back with "Headstone"--raw Galway. "
— Norma, 11/24/2013 -
" probably mean to give only 4 stars. bruen out and out amongst the very very best of modern hard boiled noir. "
— Scott, 6/7/2013 -
" Wow......Bruen continues to amaze. "
— Rock, 4/19/2013 -
" My first foray into the disturbing and dark world of Jack Taylor. Since this is the 9th in the series, I am hoping that Jack gets sober before he completely self destructs. The plot is OK, but the development of the character is impossible to resist. "
— Ann, 3/22/2013 -
" As always with Ken Bruen, excellent. "
— David, 6/25/2012 -
" Best of the Jack Taylor series! "
— Margaret, 4/5/2012 -
" the #9 is the giveaway... moments of enjoyment here but all in all, this series has run its course... cant comment if one hadn't read the books in order but I assume the real charm is in the earlier books in the series. "
— charlie, 1/31/2012
About Ken Bruen
Ken Bruen received a doctorate in metaphysics, taught English in South Africa, and then became a crime novelist. The critically acclaimed author of the Jack Taylor series and The White Trilogy, he is the recipient of two Barry Awards and two Shamus Awards and has twice been a finalist for the Edgar Award. In 2016, he was awarded the Irish Books, Arts, and Music (iBAM) Literature Award. Two of his novels have also been made into feature films, and the Jack Taylor series has been adapted for a television series.
About John Lee
John Lee is the winner of numerous Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. He has twice won acclaim as AudioFile’s Best Voice in Fiction & Classics. He also narrates video games, does voice-over work, and writes plays. He is an accomplished stage actor and has written and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit. He played Alydon in the 1963–64 Doctor Who serial The Daleks.