What do you think?
Rate this book
Inspector Brant #1
A White Arrest
A serial killer is picking off members of the England cricket team, and in the dark and violent world of Brixton a vigilante group is hanging dope dealers from lamp-posts. Both Roberts and Brant are in hot water with their chief and they need something big to get them out of it. They desperately need a "white arrest, " a major catch to whitewash all their past sins and deliver them, if not to paradise, at least to a better beat. Paced with black humor and a soundtrack of violence and intolerance, A White Arrest is a police procedural unlike any other.
164 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
72 people are currently reading
507 people want to read
About the author
Ken Bruen
132 books850 followersKen Bruen was an Irish writer of hardboiled and noir crime fiction.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
August 7, 2011
A postmodern version of McBain's 87th precinct novels (down to the direct meta references to the books throughout) set in England by an Irish writer.
I have mixed feelings about most Ken Bruen novels that I read. When he keeps the story grounded, his grasp of humanity and the weaknesses of human beings can be beautiful and profound. But when he spends most of his time on pop culture references and consciously avoiding the story or turning it on its ear, he loses me. It just feels so constructed, where the grounded writing feels deeply personal.
Nobody writes like Bruen and I'll end up reading everything he writes with pleasure. It's worth the stuff that bugs to find the beauty. This is early Bruen, so he's definitely finding his schtick. And to his credit, he keeps everything short and to the point. There ain't no fat on this one.
Of the maybe half dozen Bruen books that I've read, THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS is still my favorite, but each one brings into focus a very interesting and influential crime writer.
I have mixed feelings about most Ken Bruen novels that I read. When he keeps the story grounded, his grasp of humanity and the weaknesses of human beings can be beautiful and profound. But when he spends most of his time on pop culture references and consciously avoiding the story or turning it on its ear, he loses me. It just feels so constructed, where the grounded writing feels deeply personal.
Nobody writes like Bruen and I'll end up reading everything he writes with pleasure. It's worth the stuff that bugs to find the beauty. This is early Bruen, so he's definitely finding his schtick. And to his credit, he keeps everything short and to the point. There ain't no fat on this one.
Of the maybe half dozen Bruen books that I've read, THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS is still my favorite, but each one brings into focus a very interesting and influential crime writer.
January 10, 2013
I read and thoroughly enjoyed London Boulevard some time ago, so when I was offered a copy of A White Arrest, I grabbed it. After finishing London Boulevard, I picked over this author’s back list and discovered that A White Arrest, the first part of a trilogy followed by Taming the Alien and The McDead, was OOP and pricey if you could find it. Now back in a $9.99 kindle version is the entire The White Arrest trilogy. People can bitch as much as they want about the evils of the kindle, but for many crime fans, electronic readers have brought back some fantastic titles. Case in point.
First things first: A White Arrest, and a term I’ll admit I’d never heard before, is an arrest that is “the pinnacle of a policeman’s career,” and now that I’ve given that description, I’ll say that it seems extremely unlikely that Irish Detective Sgt. Brant, the antihero of this story is ever going to get white anything. That’s because Brant isn’t exactly a by-the-book copper. He’s crude, coarse, a sexist who leaves a trail of complaints in his wake. Brant’s boss is Chief Inspector Roberts, and they are known in the department as R and B:
The relationship twixt R and B always seemed a beat away from beating. You felt like they’d like nothing better than to get down and kick the living shit out of each other. Which had happened. The tension between them was the chemistry that glued. Co-dependency was another word for it.
Both men have hellish personal lives. Roberts has a fancy house and an even fancier wife, and together they have a teenage daughter who just got kicked out of private school. While Fiona Roberts pulls the disapproving Ice Queen routine on her hubbie on a nightly basis, her afternoons are spent on the sly buying sex from studley, oiled young men. Whereas Roberts’ expensive and complicated home life is poison, Brant is now single and his flat is a “one room basic unit. He kept it tidy in case he scored.”
To complicate matters, Brant fancies Fiona Roberts, and there is some debate whether this misplaced lust is genuine or whether it springs from a desire to cuckold Roberts. Every interaction between Brant and Roberts is fraught with tension–Brant, for example, insists on calling Roberts Guv–even though he’s told repeatedly to knock it off. On another level (and one I’ll admit I delighted in) there’s an ongoing literary duel between the two coppers about the best crime writer. Brant is a fan of Ed McBain, and he owns a prize collection of his favorite author’s books in his grotty council flat in Kennington with “one whole wall devoted entirely to books.” He owns the entire Ed McBain series, “two shelves were given to the Matthew Hope series” and the bottom shelf is the home of the Evan Hunter books–or as Brant likes to think “the three faces of the author.” When Brant isn’t quoting McBain, he’s trying to get Roberts to read him, and the fact that Roberts rejects McBain only underscores Brant’s view of his boss’s serious character flaws. Here’s Brant trying, unsuccessfully once again, to get his boss to read McBain:
I’ve another McBain for you.
He tossed a dog-eared book on to the desk. It looked like it had been chewed, laundered and beaten. Roberts didn’t touch it, said: “You found this in the toilet, that’s it?”
“It’s his best yet. No one does the Police Procedural like Ed.”
Roberts leaned over to see the title. A food stain had obliterated that. At least he hoped it was food. he said: “You should support the home side, read Bill James, get the humorous side of policing.”
“For humour sir, I have you–my humour cup overflowed!”
In spite of the fact that tension flows between Brant and Roberts, they work well together, and oddly enough Roberts protects Brant at crucial moments. When the novel begins Brant is in no small amount of trouble.
All his little perks, minor scams, interrogation techniques, his attitude, guaranteed he’d be shafted before the year was out. A grand sweep of the Met was coming and they were top of the list. Unless … Unless they pulled off the big one, the legendary White Arrest that every copper dreamed about. The veritable Oscar, the Nobel prize of criminology. Like nailing the Yorkshire Ripper or finding the shit-head Lucan. It would clear the books, put you on page one, get you on them chat shows. Have Littlejohn kiss yer arse, ah!
So those are our coppers, well a couple of them. There’s also WPC Falls “the wet dream of the nick. Leastways she hoped she was. A little over 5′ 6″ she was the loaded side of plump, but it suited her.” And there’s young, weak Brant wannabe PC Tone who imitates his idol and feels “dizzy with the macho-ness” of unaccustomed phrases and actions.
Now to the crimes: there are no less than two serial murders taking place. A gang of young racist thugs begin by murdering drug dealers and then move on to other targets, and then there’s a total psycho who’s bumping off members of the England cricket team in spectacularly exotic fashion. R & B are on the trail of the killers with Brant determined to get his White Arrest and wipe his dirty slate clean.
In spite of Brant’s abrasive, coarse personality, there’s the core of twisted idealism alive and well festering in his perverse heart. In between ripping off pizza delivery boys, and harassing Indian newspaper vendors, Brant, a crime film and fiction aficionado freely quotes from some of his favourites and would like to style himself on the Ed McBain novels:
For some perverse reason he finds that Ed McBain in the police procedural comes closest to the way it should have been. Long after he’d dismissed Dixon as a wanker. his heart still bore the imprint of Dock Green. In Brant’s words, television had gone the way of Peckham. Right down the shitter.
It’s through Brant that one of the novel’s sub themes is most evident, and that’s the way we tend to need heroes in our lives; there’s PC Tone whose desire to emulate Detective Sgt. Brant leads him on a deadly path, there’s Brant who really wants to be a cop in Ed McBain’s 87th precinct, there’s Roberts who relates to the heroes of film noir, and vicious thug Kevin’s emulation of Charles Bronson in Death Wish and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. On that note, here’s a free tip: want to know what someone really thinks?… ask ‘em who their heroes are before you take them home to meet mother.
I read a lot of crime, and sometimes when you read a lot of one particular genre, books blend into each other and the characters and story threads blur: missing teenage girls who walked away from a party and never came back, alcoholic policemen who turn up disheveled and red-eyed for roll-call, the detective who must beat the clock before a sicko-serial killer offs his next squirming teenage captive…. well you get my drift. A White Arrest crackles with originality and delivers sordid details of those on both sides of the fence–Brant is a flawed morally reprehensible human being whose, let’s say, unconventional approaches to crime solution leave a lot to be desired, but he is also at the same time a very unique and very real creation. Brant does awful things to people he deems weaker than himself, but even so there is some sort of moral line he won’t cross. To those who work with Brant, that moral line may seem non-existent, but it’s there nonetheless. Brant with his gleefully nasty larger-than-life-in-your-face-and fuck-you-if-you-don’t-like-it personality is someone I want to read about. Ken Bruen added just enough tiny details to Brant’s character to salvage him from a total wipe-out to someone who has a few deeply hidden human traits that are rarely shown to those within the department. Highly recommended for those who like their crime dirty, dark and hard-boiled with just the right touch of black humour.
For those interested, to date there are seven novels in the Brant series.
Review copy
First things first: A White Arrest, and a term I’ll admit I’d never heard before, is an arrest that is “the pinnacle of a policeman’s career,” and now that I’ve given that description, I’ll say that it seems extremely unlikely that Irish Detective Sgt. Brant, the antihero of this story is ever going to get white anything. That’s because Brant isn’t exactly a by-the-book copper. He’s crude, coarse, a sexist who leaves a trail of complaints in his wake. Brant’s boss is Chief Inspector Roberts, and they are known in the department as R and B:
The relationship twixt R and B always seemed a beat away from beating. You felt like they’d like nothing better than to get down and kick the living shit out of each other. Which had happened. The tension between them was the chemistry that glued. Co-dependency was another word for it.
Both men have hellish personal lives. Roberts has a fancy house and an even fancier wife, and together they have a teenage daughter who just got kicked out of private school. While Fiona Roberts pulls the disapproving Ice Queen routine on her hubbie on a nightly basis, her afternoons are spent on the sly buying sex from studley, oiled young men. Whereas Roberts’ expensive and complicated home life is poison, Brant is now single and his flat is a “one room basic unit. He kept it tidy in case he scored.”
To complicate matters, Brant fancies Fiona Roberts, and there is some debate whether this misplaced lust is genuine or whether it springs from a desire to cuckold Roberts. Every interaction between Brant and Roberts is fraught with tension–Brant, for example, insists on calling Roberts Guv–even though he’s told repeatedly to knock it off. On another level (and one I’ll admit I delighted in) there’s an ongoing literary duel between the two coppers about the best crime writer. Brant is a fan of Ed McBain, and he owns a prize collection of his favorite author’s books in his grotty council flat in Kennington with “one whole wall devoted entirely to books.” He owns the entire Ed McBain series, “two shelves were given to the Matthew Hope series” and the bottom shelf is the home of the Evan Hunter books–or as Brant likes to think “the three faces of the author.” When Brant isn’t quoting McBain, he’s trying to get Roberts to read him, and the fact that Roberts rejects McBain only underscores Brant’s view of his boss’s serious character flaws. Here’s Brant trying, unsuccessfully once again, to get his boss to read McBain:
I’ve another McBain for you.
He tossed a dog-eared book on to the desk. It looked like it had been chewed, laundered and beaten. Roberts didn’t touch it, said: “You found this in the toilet, that’s it?”
“It’s his best yet. No one does the Police Procedural like Ed.”
Roberts leaned over to see the title. A food stain had obliterated that. At least he hoped it was food. he said: “You should support the home side, read Bill James, get the humorous side of policing.”
“For humour sir, I have you–my humour cup overflowed!”
In spite of the fact that tension flows between Brant and Roberts, they work well together, and oddly enough Roberts protects Brant at crucial moments. When the novel begins Brant is in no small amount of trouble.
All his little perks, minor scams, interrogation techniques, his attitude, guaranteed he’d be shafted before the year was out. A grand sweep of the Met was coming and they were top of the list. Unless … Unless they pulled off the big one, the legendary White Arrest that every copper dreamed about. The veritable Oscar, the Nobel prize of criminology. Like nailing the Yorkshire Ripper or finding the shit-head Lucan. It would clear the books, put you on page one, get you on them chat shows. Have Littlejohn kiss yer arse, ah!
So those are our coppers, well a couple of them. There’s also WPC Falls “the wet dream of the nick. Leastways she hoped she was. A little over 5′ 6″ she was the loaded side of plump, but it suited her.” And there’s young, weak Brant wannabe PC Tone who imitates his idol and feels “dizzy with the macho-ness” of unaccustomed phrases and actions.
Now to the crimes: there are no less than two serial murders taking place. A gang of young racist thugs begin by murdering drug dealers and then move on to other targets, and then there’s a total psycho who’s bumping off members of the England cricket team in spectacularly exotic fashion. R & B are on the trail of the killers with Brant determined to get his White Arrest and wipe his dirty slate clean.
In spite of Brant’s abrasive, coarse personality, there’s the core of twisted idealism alive and well festering in his perverse heart. In between ripping off pizza delivery boys, and harassing Indian newspaper vendors, Brant, a crime film and fiction aficionado freely quotes from some of his favourites and would like to style himself on the Ed McBain novels:
For some perverse reason he finds that Ed McBain in the police procedural comes closest to the way it should have been. Long after he’d dismissed Dixon as a wanker. his heart still bore the imprint of Dock Green. In Brant’s words, television had gone the way of Peckham. Right down the shitter.
It’s through Brant that one of the novel’s sub themes is most evident, and that’s the way we tend to need heroes in our lives; there’s PC Tone whose desire to emulate Detective Sgt. Brant leads him on a deadly path, there’s Brant who really wants to be a cop in Ed McBain’s 87th precinct, there’s Roberts who relates to the heroes of film noir, and vicious thug Kevin’s emulation of Charles Bronson in Death Wish and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. On that note, here’s a free tip: want to know what someone really thinks?… ask ‘em who their heroes are before you take them home to meet mother.
I read a lot of crime, and sometimes when you read a lot of one particular genre, books blend into each other and the characters and story threads blur: missing teenage girls who walked away from a party and never came back, alcoholic policemen who turn up disheveled and red-eyed for roll-call, the detective who must beat the clock before a sicko-serial killer offs his next squirming teenage captive…. well you get my drift. A White Arrest crackles with originality and delivers sordid details of those on both sides of the fence–Brant is a flawed morally reprehensible human being whose, let’s say, unconventional approaches to crime solution leave a lot to be desired, but he is also at the same time a very unique and very real creation. Brant does awful things to people he deems weaker than himself, but even so there is some sort of moral line he won’t cross. To those who work with Brant, that moral line may seem non-existent, but it’s there nonetheless. Brant with his gleefully nasty larger-than-life-in-your-face-and fuck-you-if-you-don’t-like-it personality is someone I want to read about. Ken Bruen added just enough tiny details to Brant’s character to salvage him from a total wipe-out to someone who has a few deeply hidden human traits that are rarely shown to those within the department. Highly recommended for those who like their crime dirty, dark and hard-boiled with just the right touch of black humour.
For those interested, to date there are seven novels in the Brant series.
Review copy
August 7, 2013
First in the Inspector Brant crime series set in some part of a contemporary London.
SPOILER ALERT
My Take
Since the series is named for him, I'd say it's safe to say Brant survives the knife in his back at the end. Brant is a corrupt asshole who ends up showing us a softer sider. But it is a difficult to comprehend story due to the language Bruen uses and its syntax. It amazes me that Bruen managed to pull me into the story in spite of the language or the brutality of their speech and their actions towards others.
It's interesting that the Inspector Brant series overflows with book and music references as does Bruen's Jack Taylor series and both are settled in the dregs of humanity except that Jack is a decent man despite his addictions while Brant is a right git.
Mostly we are introduced to the characters and their interrelationships via a couple of serial killer cases and Brant's oh-so-charming personality that kicks out amongst criminals, fellow officers, and civilians.
The Story
There's the equal opportunity "E" crowd inspired by mercenary magazines and movies—including the Umpire's favorite, The Dogs of War---doing anyone they believe are criminals so that society may be preserved—while the Umpire has his way of offing cricketeers, each time with a different weapon while Inspector Brant is out and about spreading his particular brand of xenophobic cheer extorting cigarettes from the corner shop, putting his delivered pizzas on the slate, and blackmailing criminals and victims.
Until Brant reveals himself at dinner with one of his victims. When the Umpire torches the dog he rescued.
Even so, a number of Brant's victims start to fight back. Via complaints to Scotland Yard. Seems that the beggars are fighting back as well.
The Characters
Inspector Brant partners up, so to speak with CI Roberts. Brant is a corrupt, perverted asshole who has no consideration for anyone at all. He believes that Ed McBain novels are the ultimate in police procedurals. Except. Brant does exhibit some slight hints of tenderness.
Chief Inspector Roberts is even more of an asshole who treasures his daughter, Sarah, a typical teenager, and despises his wife, Fiona. A Fiona who opens herself up to all sorts of trouble when she splurges along with her friend Penelope on a boytoy. Chief Superintendent Brown is not particularly impressed with Roberts either.
WPC Falls who learns a terrible secret about her new love, Eddie Dillon. PC Tone was brilliant with his O- and A-levels and an utter idiot in his admiration of Brant with a total lack of streetsmarts. Rosie is a fellow WPC with whom Falls can joke and survive the "wit" of her fellows. CID Durham has been sent to their station to assess them; we can only pray he never achieves a higher position. Admittedly, the station does need work. Their public image sucks and CI Roberts keeps thinking without his brain.
Cora, a.k.a., Maggie Johnson, is the madame for the CA Club, a male brothel catering to the ladies.
Kevin leads the other three of the "E" team: his brother Albert, Doug, and Fenton in bashing anyone they decide are criminals. Although blacks are their primary target, they're not averse to taking out the occasional white man. The Umpire is a psychopath denied his fame as a cricketeer and determined to take his frustrations out on those who are in the game.
The Title
The title refers to the ultimate arrest. The kind that can win you promotion. Wipe out your black marks. A White Arrest.
SPOILER ALERT
My Take
Since the series is named for him, I'd say it's safe to say Brant survives the knife in his back at the end. Brant is a corrupt asshole who ends up showing us a softer sider. But it is a difficult to comprehend story due to the language Bruen uses and its syntax. It amazes me that Bruen managed to pull me into the story in spite of the language or the brutality of their speech and their actions towards others.
It's interesting that the Inspector Brant series overflows with book and music references as does Bruen's Jack Taylor series and both are settled in the dregs of humanity except that Jack is a decent man despite his addictions while Brant is a right git.
Mostly we are introduced to the characters and their interrelationships via a couple of serial killer cases and Brant's oh-so-charming personality that kicks out amongst criminals, fellow officers, and civilians.
The Story
There's the equal opportunity "E" crowd inspired by mercenary magazines and movies—including the Umpire's favorite, The Dogs of War---doing anyone they believe are criminals so that society may be preserved—while the Umpire has his way of offing cricketeers, each time with a different weapon while Inspector Brant is out and about spreading his particular brand of xenophobic cheer extorting cigarettes from the corner shop, putting his delivered pizzas on the slate, and blackmailing criminals and victims.
Until Brant reveals himself at dinner with one of his victims. When the Umpire torches the dog he rescued.
Even so, a number of Brant's victims start to fight back. Via complaints to Scotland Yard. Seems that the beggars are fighting back as well.
The Characters
Inspector Brant partners up, so to speak with CI Roberts. Brant is a corrupt, perverted asshole who has no consideration for anyone at all. He believes that Ed McBain novels are the ultimate in police procedurals. Except. Brant does exhibit some slight hints of tenderness.
Chief Inspector Roberts is even more of an asshole who treasures his daughter, Sarah, a typical teenager, and despises his wife, Fiona. A Fiona who opens herself up to all sorts of trouble when she splurges along with her friend Penelope on a boytoy. Chief Superintendent Brown is not particularly impressed with Roberts either.
WPC Falls who learns a terrible secret about her new love, Eddie Dillon. PC Tone was brilliant with his O- and A-levels and an utter idiot in his admiration of Brant with a total lack of streetsmarts. Rosie is a fellow WPC with whom Falls can joke and survive the "wit" of her fellows. CID Durham has been sent to their station to assess them; we can only pray he never achieves a higher position. Admittedly, the station does need work. Their public image sucks and CI Roberts keeps thinking without his brain.
Cora, a.k.a., Maggie Johnson, is the madame for the CA Club, a male brothel catering to the ladies.
Kevin leads the other three of the "E" team: his brother Albert, Doug, and Fenton in bashing anyone they decide are criminals. Although blacks are their primary target, they're not averse to taking out the occasional white man. The Umpire is a psychopath denied his fame as a cricketeer and determined to take his frustrations out on those who are in the game.
The Title
The title refers to the ultimate arrest. The kind that can win you promotion. Wipe out your black marks. A White Arrest.
December 13, 2015
I hated this book with a passion and stopped on page 29. Some of the sentences don't even make sense " They were comfortable, at odd times sometimes were." Got tired of making sense of it. Didn't care for the main characters and the attempts at humour did nor amuse.
December 28, 2017
Ken Bruen introduces us to Inspector Brant in A White Arrest. Here he works with his Chief Inspector Roberts (their team is called "R&B") to find out who is killing off a sports team. "A White Arrest" refers to the case that can make a cop's career. In the midst of this we find out Roberts' marriage is less than wonderful and Brant has the tendency to give favors while exacting a high re-payment price. You either love or hate these two - there's no middle of the road.
Ken Bruen is a sparse, to-the-point writer with a healthy portion of grit and intensity. I like that because the reader doesn't have to wade through imposed literary crud where it's not necessary. You get the character's outline right up front; the storyline right up front and that's why you've got a completed book in 160 pages. I've read four of his Jack Taylor series and I will say I enjoyed those more than A White Arrest and I can't really pinpoint why.
Ken Bruen is a sparse, to-the-point writer with a healthy portion of grit and intensity. I like that because the reader doesn't have to wade through imposed literary crud where it's not necessary. You get the character's outline right up front; the storyline right up front and that's why you've got a completed book in 160 pages. I've read four of his Jack Taylor series and I will say I enjoyed those more than A White Arrest and I can't really pinpoint why.
September 6, 2020
I am a Bruen reader in reverse. Read all the Jack Taylor novels to go back to his earlier stuff. This was just so much fun to read. I think Brant is the infant Jack Taylor. But, when Bruen gets you in some of his great conversational mode, it is laugh out loud funny. Not PC, but that's why we read it, right?
I am looking forward to the next two in this series. I only understand about 20% of his movie, rock music references.
I am looking forward to the next two in this series. I only understand about 20% of his movie, rock music references.
April 21, 2025
well this isn't Jack Taylor but there were just one Ken Bruen
June 1, 2020
First and foremost: I love Ken Bruen. After reading his Jack Taylor series, it moved to my #2 all-time behind Harry Potter.....that being said, I did not enjoy A White Arrest at all, though it sounds blasphemous of me to say.
I think it's because unlike Jack, who is an asshole but still a sweetie at heart, Brant and Roberts don't really have any redeeming qualities. They are rude, brash, abrasive, not my cup of tea. Their humor isn't clever at all. I fell in love with JT because of his bedraggled yet still golden heart. Brant and Roberts just annoyed the BEJAYSUS out of me.
Unlike Bruen's smooth and relaxed writing style in JT, it seemed rushed in this. I felt like my mind had to go 100 mph just to keep up with the dialogue and what was happening. The dialogue also was a problem for me. I didn't understand half of what was being said. The crimes were boring and offered no real mystery.
Love Bruen and will continue to make my way through his works but this one just didn't do it for me.
I think it's because unlike Jack, who is an asshole but still a sweetie at heart, Brant and Roberts don't really have any redeeming qualities. They are rude, brash, abrasive, not my cup of tea. Their humor isn't clever at all. I fell in love with JT because of his bedraggled yet still golden heart. Brant and Roberts just annoyed the BEJAYSUS out of me.
Unlike Bruen's smooth and relaxed writing style in JT, it seemed rushed in this. I felt like my mind had to go 100 mph just to keep up with the dialogue and what was happening. The dialogue also was a problem for me. I didn't understand half of what was being said. The crimes were boring and offered no real mystery.
Love Bruen and will continue to make my way through his works but this one just didn't do it for me.
March 14, 2013
The first novel in the "Brant" series, about a lovably nasty Irish cop working the South London beat is a little like the 87th Precinct on Ecstasy and whiskey. Almost entirely dialogue-propelled, violent, misogynistic, and at time borderline surreal, this "procedural" is sort of about a gang of recreational thugs and a nut job who wants to murder all of the English National Cricket Team. But the crime part of the story is hardly the focal point. Bruen is an Irishman determined to blow up crime fiction. I'm reading these novels in the collected WHITE TRILOGY (I knocked this first one off on a flight back from Dublin yesterday), but will likely take a break between them--all at once may be a little too much.
October 10, 2015
It flew by like telephone poles and fence posts as viewed from the box car door of a fast moving freight train.
So in the last 1/8th of the book it was kind of anti-climatic to see the "action" segue into a tale of WPC Falls ill fated love affair and ultimately the resolution of the case.
Needed more Brant & Roberts and less Falls in the final 30 odd pages.
Hoping for better days and much more violence in the next entry in this trilogy.
June 1, 2020
I can’t believe I read the whole thing. This novel needed a serious editor, and the humor ... let’s just say that I could hear the author laughing at his own jokes. At times I thought I was reading a workshop copy — an undergrad workshop copy.
May 4, 2009
#1 White Trilogy - Trilogy = first 3 books in the Inspector Brant Crime series
June 6, 2018
I'm a bruen fan - but all the sports talk was so far over my head it detracted from the story - quite too much... and then it was over. quick read - good intro to the characters of a great series
September 4, 2019
The two main characters are abusive louts. I couldn't finish it.
May 25, 2020
Not too happy with this one. Not the Bruen am used to. I’ll have to think very hard to consider reading the next one in the series.
November 3, 2017
We met on the plane. She was impressed when I turned to her and stated "The flight attendant has said '...and one in the rear' exactly three times now."
She told me about her favorite band immediately during our first date. "Have you ever heard of 'The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem' she asked?" Indeed and I had!
I never saw her again, but I feel that we would have been good for each other, so I did email her. I typed 'We would have been good for each other.'
Pretty much everyone I've ever met has told me to stop exaggerating, so I do need to tell you that I actually did end up seeing her again.
But it didn't go well.
The particulars of our meeting are but fleeting, but I do actually remember shouting "Yeah? Well I think that you are the one that lacks imagination!" toward her person as she left my life forever.
She told me about her favorite band immediately during our first date. "Have you ever heard of 'The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem' she asked?" Indeed and I had!
I never saw her again, but I feel that we would have been good for each other, so I did email her. I typed 'We would have been good for each other.'
Pretty much everyone I've ever met has told me to stop exaggerating, so I do need to tell you that I actually did end up seeing her again.
But it didn't go well.
The particulars of our meeting are but fleeting, but I do actually remember shouting "Yeah? Well I think that you are the one that lacks imagination!" toward her person as she left my life forever.
August 13, 2021
Wow - what to say about this book. It's like a draft - there's a good book in there somewhere, but the author needs to work out their style a little more. It really jumps around - which is not necessarily a bad thing, but the jumps are often kind of odd. I think the Kindle formatting of the book is really bad and probably makes it harder to comprehend what's going on. If you're going to read this try and find a paper edition.
I actually enjoyed the characterisations - they are probably the strength of the book. The plot is a little forced - like I say - it seems like a draft.
I actually enjoyed the characterisations - they are probably the strength of the book. The plot is a little forced - like I say - it seems like a draft.
January 13, 2021
Violent and politically-incorrect. I love it! Had a bit of a difficult time following the dialogue / story at the beginning since I’m not used to Irish/UK slang and terminologies, but that’s on me, not Ken Bruen. I eventually got used to it. Thoroughly enjoyed the blunt, clipped writing style. Story’s fast-paced and just the right length. At no point was I bored. Read this in one sitting. Will now read the second book in series. Can’t wait to finish the trilogy!
December 3, 2020
Very sparse text; introduced a dozen characters in the first few chapters and no way of knowing which were important/relevant; jumped back and forth to past and future events without any notice to the reader, which made some parts more confusing. Still, was able to follow the plot for the most part.
June 13, 2021
If you like the Jack Taylor books you’ll like the Inspector Brant books too. The only problem I see is that Bruen apparently cannibalized this first novel for something key when he was writing one of the Taylor books.. very short book btw.
September 23, 2022
The Taylor books are much better, but I've read them all so I started this series. Maybe it is just the work of a younger writer and he'll find his tone in later books. I'll keep reading the series but if you are thinking of reading Bruen for the first time, I'd start with Taylor.
Read
March 30, 2025I'm sure it would be a great book but I cannot read it on the kindle. There's a page where the whole page is formatted as a web link so every time I touch it it opens the kindle web browser and won't let me get to the next page. Who designed this. It's AWFUL.
August 7, 2025
Bruen can be brutal
A White Arrest was my first book by Bruen, it was different. A mix of noir, very black humor. And what I took as satire. I will read the next in the series because I am still not sure if I like this style or not.
A White Arrest was my first book by Bruen, it was different. A mix of noir, very black humor. And what I took as satire. I will read the next in the series because I am still not sure if I like this style or not.
July 10, 2017
The Master at work...
December 8, 2018
You want to like it but . . .
Not up to par with Bruen's other novels. I don't mind a bit of meandering - but too disjointed overall.
Not up to par with Bruen's other novels. I don't mind a bit of meandering - but too disjointed overall.
October 10, 2019
Unlike his earlier novels this ones's a bit of a mad dog's dinner. May have been the intention of Bruen and if it was then the joke's on me.
April 3, 2020
Just love him.
June 17, 2021
This is good...not his best, but good.
May 1, 2022
If you like your PI/mystery fiction dark and wild then look no further than Bruen 😉
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews