The Hackman Blues

by Ken Bruen

Fans of Bruen...will enjoy seeing the Keystone Crooks get picked off one by one."" - Kirkus Reviews. Brady, our narrator, is fifty, gay, and a manic-depressive professional criminal of Irish descent, strung out on lithium and excessive drinking. Today he has neglected to take his medication, which makes him even more manic, violent, and unpredictable. Brady is hired to find a powerful Irish construction chief's daughter. Known as the ""Hackman,"" the chief believes his daughter is in Brixton, a multi-racial part of London that is predominantly black. Brady recruits his former cell-mate, a black thug, and another ""associate"" to get the girl back. This doesn't please the construction chief, who's an out-and-out racist. The whole thing goes horribly wrong when Brady tries to play her black gangster boyfriend against the ""Hackman"" and his Irish heavies in a complicated ransom ploy. The Hackman Blues is ""a masterpiece of London noir"" (BBC Greater London Radio).

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Ireland, Noir

152 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 1997

About the author

Ken Bruen was an Irish writer of hardboiled and noir crime fiction.

Reviews

[LJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

THE HACKMAN BLUES – Okay
Ken Bruen – 2nd book
Brady is a gay, bipolar, tough guy, criminal-detective ex-con. He is asked to find a white girl in Brixton, which sounds simple, but causes all kinds of complications.

I am a huge fan of Bruen’s more recent works (The Guards, The Killing of the Tinkers, The Magdalen Murders), but you can really tell this is his 2nd book and he hasn’t found his voice as yet.

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, violent, darkly funny, and written in the author's trademark staccato like style this was a good early work by Bruen though he definitely got better with later books.

[Bill McFadyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short novel with characters straight out of a Guy Richie movie. A light read for an afternoon on a subbed. I loved the nods to music and film scripts - I am sure there is more to Ken Bruen than this light fluff.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only Bruen can do this...

[Pam]

rec via bookmooch

[Vaughan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not great. Is this his first book? If it's not, what is his first book?

[Asher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ken Bruen at his most hard boiled.

[John Sheehan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was OK. It read more like a first draft than a fully formed novel. It was very short.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Bruen, fast paced, enjoyable, violent.