Ken Bruen Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Inspector Brant Books
A White Arrest | (1998) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Taming The Alien | (1999) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The McDead | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Blitz | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Vixen | (2003) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Calibre | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ammunition | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Jack Taylor Books
The Guards | (2001) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Killing of the Tinkers | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Magdalen Martyrs | (2003) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Dramatist | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Dead Room | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Priest | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Cross | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sanctuary | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Devil | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Headstone | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Purgatory | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Green Hell | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Emerald Lie | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Ghosts of Galway | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
In the Galway Silence | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Galway Girl | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Galway Epiphany | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Galway Confidential | (2024) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Dead Room was a limited edition story of which only 150 were released. |
Publication Order of Max and Angela Books
Bust | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Slide | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Max | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Pimp | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Shades of Grace | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rilke on Black | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Hackman Blues | (1997) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
London Boulevard | (2002) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dispatching Baudelaire | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
American Skin | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Once Were Cops | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Tower | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Callous | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
Murder by the Book | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Time of the Green | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Wednesday’s Child | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
Funeral: Tales of Irish Morbidities | (1992) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sherry and Other Stories | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Time of Serena-May and Upon the Third Cross | (1995) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Fifth of Bruen: Early Fiction of Ken Bruen | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Mysterious Profiles Books
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Jack Taylor | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Jack Reacher | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Charlie Parker | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Hieronymus Bosch | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lincoln Rhyme | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Alex Delaware | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Tess Monaghan | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Charlie Resnick | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Inspector Morse | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dismas Hardy | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Bob Lee Swagger | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Aloysius X. L. Pendergast | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lou Boldt | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Spenser | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Charlotte and Thomas Pitt | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
John Rebus | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mallory | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Jane Whitefield | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ian Rutledge: A Mysterious Profile | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Amos Walker | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Precious Ramotswe | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Maisie Dobbs | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Lincoln Lawyer | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ben Kincaid | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Repairman Jack | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Akashic Drug Chronicles Books
The Cocaine Chronicles | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Marijuana Chronicles | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Nicotine Chronicles | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Bibliomysteries Books
The Book of Virtue | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Pronghorns of the Third Reich | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book Thing | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book Case | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
An Acceptable Sacrifice | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Death Leaves a Bookmark | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Final Testament | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rides a Stranger | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Long Sonata of the Dead | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book of Ghosts | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Compendium of Srem | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What's in a Name? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Remaindered | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Sequel | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Gospel of Sheba | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Book Club | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Nature of My Inheritance | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
It's in the Book | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Scroll | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book of the Lion | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Little Men | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Condor in the Stacks | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mystery, Inc. | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Every Seven Years | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
From the Queen | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
From the Queen | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Travelling Companion | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Citadel | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Reconciliation Day | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dead Dames Don't Sing | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Haze | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Hoodoo Harry | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Pretty Little Box | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Seven Years | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Hemingway Valise | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Last Honest Horse Thief | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Girl Who Did Say No | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Traitor | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Dark Door | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Honeymoon Trap | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Chronological Order of Bibliomysteries Books
The Book of Virtue | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Scroll | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Pronghorns of the Third Reich | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
An Acceptable Sacrifice | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Death Leaves a Bookmark | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Seven Years | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book Thing | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book of Ghosts | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Book Club | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Long Sonata of the Dead | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Final Testament | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rides a Stranger | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What's in a Name? | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
It's in the Book | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Nature of My Inheritance | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Remaindered | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Compendium of Srem | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Gospel of Sheba | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Sequel | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book of the Lion | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Little Men | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
From the Queen | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Every Seven Years | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Citadel | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Condor in the Stacks | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mystery, Inc. | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Travelling Companion | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Haze | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dead Dames Don't Sing | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Reconciliation Day | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Hoodoo Harry | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Pretty Little Box | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Hemingway Valise | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Last Honest Horse Thief | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book Case | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
From the Queen | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Girl Who Did Say No | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Traitor | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Dark Door | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Honeymoon Trap | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Anthologies
Brooklyn Noir | (2004) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Cocaine Chronicles | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dublin Noir | (2005) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Damn Near Dead | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
London Noir | (2006) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Killer Year: Stories to Die For... | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Hellboy: Oddest Jobs | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Once Upon a Crime: An Anthology of Murder, Mayhem and Suspense | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
First Thrills | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Requiems for the Departed | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
First Thrills: Volume 2 | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
D*CKED | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Uncommon Assassins | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Inherit the Dead | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Kwik Krimes | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Borderland Noir | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Silent Night, Deadly Night | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Invisible Blood | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ken Bruen is one of the most renown Irish writers, who writes noir crime fiction novels. He was born in Galway, Ireland, in 1951. He studied at Gormanston College, County Meath, and Trinity College Dublin, where he got a Ph.D in Metaphysics. Unlike most novelists, Ken Bruen has travelled around the world. During his twenty-five years as an English teacher, he worked in Africa, Japan, South America and South East Asia. Just as anyone would conclude, Ken’s travels were precarious at some point, including time spent in a Brazilian jail, where he was wrongfully imprisoned for alleged involvement in a bar fight. He currently resides in Galway, Ireland, with his wife and his daughter, Grace.
Ken started writing after his gruesome experience in prison in Brazil. The torture he went through left bad memories and mental anguish. A traumatized Bruen started writing crime fiction in an effort to get the nightmares off his head and heal the scars left from the horrendous ordeal. His very first novel, Funerals, was about a boy who attended funerals like they were soccer games. He has written over thirty five novels, six of which have been featured in television series. His novels feature typical comedy incorporated into noir crime fiction, and he does not fail to poke the Irish Church and the State at some particular point in his novels. He exposes a number of ills and provides an intuition of the dark side of Ireland. The main themes in his works are Ireland’s economic prosperity since the 1990s, immigration, the decline of the social and political power of the Catholic Church and the social change in Ireland.
One of his most acclaimed series is the White trilogy (1998-2000). The series has three parts; A White Arrest, Taming the Alien and The McDead. It features a London Detective, Chief Inspector Robert, who is a sixty two year old cop, with a cheating wife and a daughter who loathes him. He makes up for his old age by being relentless and having a ferocity that policemen younger than him don’t eve come close to matching. With his partner, Detective Sergeant Brant, Robert poses a threat to London’s dark side by brutally pursuing mysterious hit men, thugs, lowlifes, gangs and kingpins. They come up against a vigilante gang that hangs drug dealers in the name of justice, an enforcer known as the Alien and a serial killer intent on wiping out England’s Cricket team. Their focus is on building the reputation of the police force with a ‘white arrest’, an arrest that is so pure that it would make up for all the shortcomings of the force. The novel exposes a vicious side of London that is full of corruption and an utter lack of integrity. A third character, Woman Police Constable Falls, is a young officer who without a doubt leaves one amazed at how diligently she fights against corruption. She brings out a female perspective and a twist that leaves a reader intrigued. Bruen’s style of writing in this trilogy features black humour and evidently portrays his flair, knack and dexterity. The sketchy descriptions of each character leaves one feeling like they have known them all their life. The trilogy was described by the British GQ as “the most striking and original novels of the decade.”
The Guards (2001), is a famous novel, the first entry in the Jack Taylor Series, which won the Shamus Award for Best Novel of 2003. The series has a record eleven parts; The Guards, The Killing Of The Tinkers, The Magdalen Matyrs, The Dramatist, Priest, Cross, Sanctuary, The Devil, Headstone, Purgatory and Green Hell. The series is set in his hometown, Galway. The main character in the series is Jack Taylor, a former policeman who was dismissed from the Irish Police Force, Garda Siochana. After being fired, Jack Taylor starts drinking his misfortunes away, when a desperate mother asks him to investigate the alleged suicide of her daughter in Galway, and thus begin his adventures and misadventures as he becomes a self-proclaimed detective, a “private eye”. One can describe Jack Taylor as an Alcoholic, angry, bitter, scarred, broken, pill popper, coke addict, but underneath the drug using character, he has an astounding loyalty to his friends and a talent for finding things out. He has passion for his newly found detective work, despite being extremely proud, arrogant and well aware of his wit and brainy discoveries. He goes out of his way, sometimes using crude, obnoxious, detestable and unexpected ways to solve his cases. He uses a plethora of quotations and digressions that go ahead to prove his pomp and self righteous attitude. The series is a remarkable work of art that keeps one on their toes and fully absorbed by the book. It is extremely fascinating and has a rich use of style. The Television Drama Series, Jack Taylor, was produced, based on the book, in 2010, featuring the first six novels in the series, starring Iain Glein in the title role . It was first broadcast in UK in 2013.
Ken Bruen’s other amazing pieces include Bust, a Hard Case Crime publication that he wrote in collaboration with the popular New York Crime author, Jason Starr in 2006 and the short story, Words Are Cheap, which was featured in the first issue of Murdaland, a literary noir magazine that features crime fiction.
Bruen is also the producer of some of his own movies based on his novels; Blitz (2011) based on his 2002 novel, London Boulevard (2010),based on his 2001 non-series novel and Jack Taylor: The Guards (2010). In addition to winning the 2004 Shamus Award for Best Novel, The Guards was a finalist for a number of awards; 2004 Barry Award for Best Novel, 2004, 2004 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel,2004 Macavity Award for Best Novel and 2010 Barry Award for Best Novel of the Decade. His book, Priest, was nominated for the 2008 Edgar Allan Poe Award in the category “best novel” and won the 2007 Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel. The Killing of the Tinkers won the Macavity Awards for Best Mystery Novel and was a finalist for the 2005 Anthony Award for Best Mystery Novel. The Dramatist (2004) won the 2007 Shamus Award for Best Novel and was a finalist for the 2005 Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel.
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