Once Were Cops-Ken Bruen

Once Were Cops
Ken Bruen
St. Martin's, Oct 2008, $22.95
ISBN 9780312384401

Clever sociopathic Galway, Ireland cop Matthew Patrick “Shea” O'Shea arranges through extortion and blakcmail for a one-year assignment with NYPD as part of a police exchange program. The Irish cop is teamed with abusive New York cop Kurt “Kebar” Browski.

Matthew knows he must hide his vice as his host city will not tolerate him choking to death beautiful women with lovely long swan necks. Shea realizes quickly his partner is as crazy as he is; perhaps even sicker as Matthew gains more pleasure than he does with roughing up someone. The two nasty police officers seem to work well together as poster-boys of police brutality until Kebar introduces Shea to his retarded sister, who has a beautiful long swan neck.

These two brutal cops who believe in taking no prisoners star in Ken Bruen’s deep character study of two sadistic police officers abusing their authorities not so much to catch felons even but more for personal pleasure of sorts. The plot is somewhat limited though readers anticipate a violent showdown between the lead police officers once the long swan neck sibling is involved. Fans of Mr. Bruen will appreciate his New York Noir style Irish stew.

Harriet Klausner