The Dramatist The Dramatist

The Dramatist

Ken Bruen

St. Martin's, Mar 2006, $22.95, 288 pp.

ISBN: 0312344716

In Galway, six months have passed since Jack Taylor became clean and sober; no booze or coke. Even more shocking the local priest recognizes Jack who has been attending mass; albeit not to connect with Jesus but to hear Sonny Malloy sing. However, the fiftyish former cop is a realist as his dealer Stewart is doing six years in Dublin's Mountjoy so finding a source for coke would be difficult.

"Friend" Cathy, asks Jack to do Stewart a favor. Though he owes Stewart nothing, Jack is in debt to Cathy so he agrees to learn who killed his dealer's sister twenty year old Sarah Bradley. Under her body was a copy of the Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge. Initially believing no murder occurred, Jack changes his mind when he soon learns a second student accidentally died with Synge's book beneath the body. The finder soon finds links between his case to his own past and someone dubbed "The Dramatist", but who could this brilliant killer be, why Synge and how come everything ties back to Jack?

Ken Bruen refreshes his Jack Taylor novels by sobering up the protagonist though he glibly explains that sobriety is not sanity. The investigation into who is the Dramatist is cleverly devised so that the audience sees more of who Jack is as his persona does not hide behind the raging out of control drunk of his previous appearances. Those who appreciate the crazed maniac will not find him in his search for the Dramatist as Jack is more deliberate and cerebral this time. However, you don't know Jack if you think that Mr. Bruen fails to entertain as this is a strong fascinating entry that still will "Synge" readers as the antihero turns heroic searching more for personal salvation than a killer.