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Once Were Cops (2008)

by Ken Bruen(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0312384408 (ISBN13: 9780312384401)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Minotaur Books

review 1: Michael Patrick O'Shea was a member of the crack Irish police force known as, The Guards. He has recently traveled to NYC as part of a police exchange program to become one of New York City's finest. He is ambitious, perceptive, intelligent, and, soon we find out, that he is also a gruesome and psychotic serial sex killer. Ken Bruen's writing style is clipped, face-paced, and staccato. The novel is a long series of short paragraphs that are wonderfully descriptive, and are largely composed of punchy dialog. The story is propelled by these short bursts, and this is his signature narrative style. It is very different from most crime authors, and it might take a bit to get used to his approach, but, by and large, it works most effectively.
review 2: This book was ... morea "Something Else." Dark side is the understatement. Basically a sociopath tells his own story, and through his own eyes, although there are a few other first person narratives which not only tell another person's story, it gives a fuller perspective to the whole setting and characters involved. It's hard to say anything detailed about it without giving spoilers. It starts off rather slowly, although the sociopath doesn't hesitate to talk about his "zoning out." There are chances to stop him, but nobody really wants to do it, including the priest of the hurley team who doesn't want to lose his best player. Then he goes on a Guards-Policeman exchange program in New York city for a year and teams up with an embittered rather violent policeman, and they do well together. Justice is served well, so they like to say. The format of the style is double spaced short line paragraphs, like giving essence and little else. It's like a slow, very long, musical crescendo building up very surely, heavily, and gradually to a very dramatic, sharp, heavy climax about 300 pages later. And it's a hanger at the end. You feel like you know there's a copycat out there, and you're pretty sure you know who it is! But no one will get that one! less

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