Ammunition (Inspector Brant) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

In London Police Inspector Brant grieves as only he can the death of his hero by toasting in a pub the late great author Ed McBain who he learned recently died. As he drinks another round to Mr. McBain for his wonderful police stories, someone starts shooting at Brant. Hit several times by the assassin, Brant is rushed to a nearby hospital.

Although police officers hate a cop killer, everyone at the station who works with the cantankerous cop celebrates the fact that Brant is on medical leave. However, the bullets only made Inspector sourpuss even more acrimonious; he vows to take down everyone associated with his failed hit.

Paying homage to Ed McBain and his 87th Precinct tales, Ken Bruen provides a strong look at a London police station after one of the cops has been shot. Besides Brant's prime story line that cuts across the other subplots as he is the star of the series, readers see other cops struggle with their demons as well. Falls deals with fascinating psycho Angie James who blames her for her prison time (see VIXEN); and McDonald is an out of control cocaine addict who wrecks havoc on a civilian watch. The seventh Brant police procedural is a terrific action-packed thriller, but even with the return of Vixen, it is the avenging inspector who makes the mean streets of London meaner and more fun for fans of Mr. Bruen, the heir to Mr. McBain's police station tales.

Harriet Klausner

Ireland is known for producing some of the greatest writers in Western literature. But few would consider Joyce or Yeats or Shaw to be mystery or crime writers. The prolific Galway writer, Ken Bruen, is an award-winning mystery author who has been called the "Celtic Dashiell Hammett." Bruen is changing the way Americans think about Irish writers by producing some of the best mysteries on the market today.

AMMUNITION is the seventh entry in Bruen's police procedural series set in London. It does not disappoint. Bruen continues to take the procedural format made famous by Ed McBain in his 87th Precinct series and turn it on its ear. The result is a delightful book that is impossible to put down. This is a story about cold-blooded murder, vigilante violence, illicit drug use, law breaking, backbiting and hatred in South East London. And that's just among the cops.

The novel starts with the attempted assassination of the most famous cop in the Met, the totally amoral and often brutal Sergeant Brant, who is referred to by both friends and foes alike as "an animal" or "the devil." When word spreads that he has been shot, the first reaction by all is the same: "Is he dead?" This is followed by disappointed silence when they hear the answer. Besides cops, those arriving at the hospital to stand vigil for Brant include "a whole gaggle of them (hookers)."

Brant is that type of guy. His closest thing to a friend on the force, Porter Nash, the gay diabetic, is assigned to find the shooter. Nash realizes: "Thing was, almost every single case, with Brant's unique style of policing, gave rise to a suspect. It was fast becoming...who wouldn't want to shoot him?"

To make matters worse, Brant's assailant takes to calling harried Chief Inspector Roberts, taunting him and promising to do the job right the next time. And a new sick social phenomena known as "Happy Slapping" plagues London's streets. Youngsters walk up to strangers, slap them across the face and record their stunned reaction on a cell phone. The results end up on the Internet.

Newly promoted Sergeant Falls is ordered to go down to Kennington and catch a "happy slapper." As the Metropolitan's sole black female cop, Falls is widely hated not for her gender or race but for her past screwups as a cop. And it turns out she passed the sergeant's exam on her final shot with the help of Brant, who stole the exam for her. But Fall's past is about to catch up with her, big time.

Bruen writes of Falls: "The past was not so much another country as a minefield of horror." A big part of that horror is a "nasty, psycho" serial killer named Angie, with whom Falls once had a brief lesbian fling. Needless to say, Angie could bring her world crashing down in an instant. And now Angie is somehow out of prison and stalking Falls.

Then there is disgraced Constable McDonald, bitter, drug-addled and stuck guarding a shopping center in the freezing cold. When he randomly bloodies a defiant teen, McDonald comes to the attention of a group of elderly vigilantes looking to take back their neighborhood from street hoodlums.

As if all this were not enough chaos, there appears on the scene a Yank. He is L.M. Wallace, a "terrorism expert" sent by American officials to assist the London police in looking for bombers. In Wallace, Bruen has created a character every bit as dangerous as Brant on his worst day. Wallace is a "dark side" figure who would scare the daylights out of Dick Cheney.

And, of course, there is still the somewhat shaken Brant, who makes a miraculous and quick recovery from his wounds. Bruen writes of Brant: "Yeah, fine, he was of Irish descent, he knew the painkiller that never failed. Tore open his drinks cabinet, nigh splintering the wood, grabbed the bottle of Jameson, a twenty-five year old beauty he'd been saving, twisted off the cap as if he was twisting the neck of some bugger, got a lethal measure poured into a heavy Waterford tumbler and drank deep, waiting for the magic to light his belly." And that, along with the help of one of his hooker friends, put Brant right back in the game. As Nash observes, "A focused Brant was a very dangerous animal."

Bruen moves the various plot lines along at a brisk pace. Much like the master of the procedural, McBain, Bruen can make his characters become so involved in another plot line that they forget momentarily the danger they face in their own. And like McBain, he can make you laugh at human foibles and absurdity one moment and then bring you right back into the random terror of modern life the next. Bruen writes of one character, unjustly set up by Falls: "He'd been walking along, his mind preoccupied by minor irritations. Oh, God, what he wouldn't give to have them back...Then f---, like hell opened up and Armageddon hit him."

This is a perfect description of noir. Bruen is a master of noir, taking that very American genre and putting a unique Irish twist on it. Books like AMMUNITION are quick, fun reads, excursions to the dark side of the street. If you haven't read them, then search out the entire series.

In true noir tradition these books have something to say about the modern world. They tell us that things are rarely what they seem on the surface. And at the end of the day, the world often contains more gray than black and white. Occasionally, AMMUNITION points out, the darkness wins out and the bullets find their target. But the struggle never ends.

--- Reviewed by Tom Callahan

Ken Bruen's irascible antihero Inspector Brant is brutal, boorish, and blunt, a bare knuckled brawler of a cop who offends all and regularly crosses over that line separated by jailhouse bars. In the first chapter of the prolific Ken Bruen's latest crime rant, Brant is gunned down in the local pub. Clinging to life but only marginally less abusive, Brant's colleagues of London's tough southeast precinct have a long list of potential perps - both on and off the force. But as noted on the book jacket, if your going to try and take Brant down, you'd better do it right, for there's not likely a second chance.

By ordinary crime thriller standards, "Ammunition" is pretty good stuff. But if like me you're a Bruen fan, you may find this one feeling a bit tired and listless - more of the same banter and interplay between the eclectic cast of London crime stoppers, and a Brant that, perhaps because of his rehabilitation - seems to be losing some edge. For sure, the black humor is not missing, and Bruen's dark and cynical undertones never flow too far beneath the surface. But unlike some of his recent thrillers - "American Skin", "Priest", "The Dramatist", or "Calibre" - which will haunt the reader long after the last page turns, "Ammunition" is a fast read, easily forgotten, and not much to recommend this fine author. If you're thinking about skipping one in the series, this is probably a good one to consider, while I'll nonetheless be anxiously awaiting Bruen's next installment.