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Her Last Call To Louis MacNeice
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 20, 2014
Bruen’s early voice in HER LAST CALL TO LOUISE MACNEICE reads like Duane Swierczynski by way of Ray Banks, yet the addictive and unique style that forms to create renowned PI Jack Taylor is still prevalent as Bruen so effortlessly engulfs the reader in his world of noir through his lead character Cooper and femme fatale Cassie.
Cassie is crazy and Cooper a criminal. One night of lust turns Cooper’s already troubled life upside down. Fatal attraction to say the least. There’s also the matter of a robbery gone horribly wrong which results in the murder of a bank teller and the subsequent hunt for Copper by the law and lawless alike. Being wanted is a distant second to living in isolation for Cooper.
HER LAST CALL TO LOUISE MACNEICE gives the reader everything you’d want from a pulp-noir story. It’s train wreck following train wreck following train wreck as Cooper wades through the proverbial in an attempt to rid the stench of failure as much as find higher ground to ward off all those pitchforks.
I had a lot of fun reading this.
Review first appeared on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
Cassie is crazy and Cooper a criminal. One night of lust turns Cooper’s already troubled life upside down. Fatal attraction to say the least. There’s also the matter of a robbery gone horribly wrong which results in the murder of a bank teller and the subsequent hunt for Copper by the law and lawless alike. Being wanted is a distant second to living in isolation for Cooper.
HER LAST CALL TO LOUISE MACNEICE gives the reader everything you’d want from a pulp-noir story. It’s train wreck following train wreck following train wreck as Cooper wades through the proverbial in an attempt to rid the stench of failure as much as find higher ground to ward off all those pitchforks.
I had a lot of fun reading this.
Review first appeared on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
October 11, 2016
Cooper & his mate, Doc are bank robbers with a side line in the repo business to keep the IRS happy. All goes well till Cooper meets crazy lady, Cassie (“Not short for Cassandra, not Cass, it's Cassie”) & from then on, everything in Cooper's life takes a nose-dive.
“No, I'm serious Davey. She didn't like most people, but she fuckin' loathed you.”
I tried to interpret this as grief but, if he kept it up, he'd really be in bloody shock.
“She said you were a cold fish, that beneath your frosty exterior was more ice.”
I thought she'd had a rough deal. Doc's years in prison, his uncertain future, her horrendous death… and then I thought… fuck her.”
“Back he came with a kitchen knife, saying, 'This fucker's not even sharp, but what the hell.'
Cassie said, 'Let's not do this.'
'Get real babe, he's a liability.'
And bent down whisperin', 'Thing about a blade is… it's so personal, goddamn intimate. And I’m getting hot already…. Cassie… i'm gonna need my ashes hauled.'
The shot was loud in the room & a coin-sized hole appeared above his left eye. Then he fell beside me. Cassie said, 'We're pulling the plug on your show, the ratings just aren't there.'
Ken Bruen's second published work, 'Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice' is a fast paced noir tale with a touch of black humor. Highly recommended.
4 stars from me.
“No, I'm serious Davey. She didn't like most people, but she fuckin' loathed you.”
I tried to interpret this as grief but, if he kept it up, he'd really be in bloody shock.
“She said you were a cold fish, that beneath your frosty exterior was more ice.”
I thought she'd had a rough deal. Doc's years in prison, his uncertain future, her horrendous death… and then I thought… fuck her.”
“Back he came with a kitchen knife, saying, 'This fucker's not even sharp, but what the hell.'
Cassie said, 'Let's not do this.'
'Get real babe, he's a liability.'
And bent down whisperin', 'Thing about a blade is… it's so personal, goddamn intimate. And I’m getting hot already…. Cassie… i'm gonna need my ashes hauled.'
The shot was loud in the room & a coin-sized hole appeared above his left eye. Then he fell beside me. Cassie said, 'We're pulling the plug on your show, the ratings just aren't there.'
Ken Bruen's second published work, 'Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice' is a fast paced noir tale with a touch of black humor. Highly recommended.
4 stars from me.
February 1, 2011
Bruen's second published novel is a dark, fast-moving shotgun blast of South London noir with a splash of Irish Whiskey to top it off. Cooper's happy little life of crime goes very bad, very fast, once Cassie enters his life. This is a great one-sitting read, something like an Anglo-Irish Elmore Leonard doing a novella-length riff on KISS ME, JUDAS with Guy Ritchie directing. Perfect as a literary palate-cleanser. (Now I need to find Bruen's RILKE ON BLACK, which apparently comes before this one and features some of the same characters.)
July 30, 2012
I love the title of this book. It's a lesson in how to suck a punter in. The link to poetry was a strong pull for me and also the fact that it doesn't give anything away, the latter possibly explaining why it took me 3 or 4 pages to find the rhythm.
It opens with a fast flow, like the floodgates have been opened on a river-of-consciousness.
Once I'd worked out how to surf the waves, a simple case of going with the tide, I was completely taken by the style and the first-person narrative.
Page 1, there's a bank robbery going a bit wobbly. Our man Cooper shoots a cashier in the face with his shotgun.
Next comes the story of how things came to this. Why, after a successful run of raids this is the one that's not gone to plan.
It turns out it's all to do with a woman named Cassie.
Cooper meets Cassie when he saves her from a security guard while she's on a shoplifting spree. She's young and attractive and has an impulsive nature, all of which lead to the pair ending up having amazing sex.
As it happens, Cassie is rather unbalanced. She makes Cooper's headcase of a partner seem sedate. Not only is the woman obsessed with MacNeice, she also walks off with a stash of Cooper's cash and one of his guns before he wakens from a Mickey Finn she slipped to him.
From that point on, Cooper's life becomes rather complicated. Cassie keeps turning up at the most inopportune moments and it's all highly entertaining and unpredictable.
I have the feeling that Bruen had a lot of fun writing this. He's pushed all the angles to breaking point, throwing in poetry snippets (whether they be transparent, translucent or opaque to this reader), lively humour, a marvellous police detective and lots of poking at the British class structure.
This was a real pleasure of a book and I'd heartily recommend it.
It opens with a fast flow, like the floodgates have been opened on a river-of-consciousness.
Once I'd worked out how to surf the waves, a simple case of going with the tide, I was completely taken by the style and the first-person narrative.
Page 1, there's a bank robbery going a bit wobbly. Our man Cooper shoots a cashier in the face with his shotgun.
Next comes the story of how things came to this. Why, after a successful run of raids this is the one that's not gone to plan.
It turns out it's all to do with a woman named Cassie.
Cooper meets Cassie when he saves her from a security guard while she's on a shoplifting spree. She's young and attractive and has an impulsive nature, all of which lead to the pair ending up having amazing sex.
As it happens, Cassie is rather unbalanced. She makes Cooper's headcase of a partner seem sedate. Not only is the woman obsessed with MacNeice, she also walks off with a stash of Cooper's cash and one of his guns before he wakens from a Mickey Finn she slipped to him.
From that point on, Cooper's life becomes rather complicated. Cassie keeps turning up at the most inopportune moments and it's all highly entertaining and unpredictable.
I have the feeling that Bruen had a lot of fun writing this. He's pushed all the angles to breaking point, throwing in poetry snippets (whether they be transparent, translucent or opaque to this reader), lively humour, a marvellous police detective and lots of poking at the British class structure.
This was a real pleasure of a book and I'd heartily recommend it.
March 4, 2023
Crime novel (maybe novella - short). Of the noir flavor.
Dave Cooper (Our Hero) and his partner Doc run a successful repo business & bank robbing program on the side. The repo business was an accidentally successful outcome of the side business.
The story begins where it ends & proceeds to tell you how Cooper got there.
Cooper meets an apparently-loonie yank woman named Cassie who seems to be stalking him. He's eventually goaded into a situation where he makes a series of mistakes. Not saying more.
Cassie is the femme fatale.
Author is unknown to me but will look into some of his later more Irish books.
Keep your device close to you while reading so you can look up the false friends slang and cultural references. The author, or the Hero, is fascinated with synthetic fabrics. And greyhounds. Like the greyhound skirt. Cultural refs - there is some kind of history of Anglo-Irish literature / poetry here, but didn't understand what it's doing here (MacNeice I know about but never moved by). Sarah Miles. What's she up to here?
Dave Cooper (Our Hero) and his partner Doc run a successful repo business & bank robbing program on the side. The repo business was an accidentally successful outcome of the side business.
The story begins where it ends & proceeds to tell you how Cooper got there.
Cooper meets an apparently-loonie yank woman named Cassie who seems to be stalking him. He's eventually goaded into a situation where he makes a series of mistakes. Not saying more.
Cassie is the femme fatale.
Author is unknown to me but will look into some of his later more Irish books.
Keep your device close to you while reading so you can look up the false friends slang and cultural references. The author, or the Hero, is fascinated with synthetic fabrics. And greyhounds. Like the greyhound skirt. Cultural refs - there is some kind of history of Anglo-Irish literature / poetry here, but didn't understand what it's doing here (MacNeice I know about but never moved by). Sarah Miles. What's she up to here?
September 26, 2023
"Without heroics, without belief
I send you, as I am not rich
Nothing but odds and ends a thief
bundled up in the last ditch
for few are able to keep moving
they drag and flag in the traffic
while you are alive beyond question
like the dazzle on the sea my darling".
This poem was the only thing that prevented me from giving this book only one star.
I send you, as I am not rich
Nothing but odds and ends a thief
bundled up in the last ditch
for few are able to keep moving
they drag and flag in the traffic
while you are alive beyond question
like the dazzle on the sea my darling".
This poem was the only thing that prevented me from giving this book only one star.
March 15, 2019
More of a crime novella really, purchased for £2 in a charity shop. I would have felt short changed had I paid the publisher's asking price of £6.99 for 124 pages, albeit 124 pages of very well written and generally excellent early Ken Bruen.
June 9, 2024
Classic Ken Brush - Which is Very Good Indeed
Nobody can out noir Ken Brush Throw in the Irish slant somewhere, add a body or two (or three) and twists on twists with lots of practical and atmospheric details: The Ken Brush non-Formula! And it works.
Nobody can out noir Ken Brush Throw in the Irish slant somewhere, add a body or two (or three) and twists on twists with lots of practical and atmospheric details: The Ken Brush non-Formula! And it works.
January 27, 2020
Ripping himself off...
If you've read The Emerald Lie, by Bryan himself, you've pretty much already read this.
Almost no likeable characters, including the prime protagonist.
If you've read The Emerald Lie, by Bryan himself, you've pretty much already read this.
Almost no likeable characters, including the prime protagonist.
February 8, 2020
Early Bruen but just as nasty-how does he conger up these
venal women who’d shoot own their mothers without a blink.
venal women who’d shoot own their mothers without a blink.
April 9, 2021
Gritty British writing. Ken Bruen keeps the action moving in this gripping crime story.
August 21, 2008
Martial arts film star Bruce Lee used to demonstrate what he called the "Three Inch Punch." He'd hold his fist a mere three inches away from his target, yet when he struck from that absurdly short range, he put so much power behind the strike that he could propel a man across the room and shatter his ribs in the process.
Ken Bruen's books are like that: short, yet powerful and brutally effective.
Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice is a short work, but there's a lot of story packed into those 120-odd pages. Cooper, an English ex-con, successful repo man, and sometime bank robber, hooks up with Cassie, an American shoplifter who is obsessed with the poetry of Irish writer Louis MacNeice. Cassie is beautiful, captivating, and barking mad. She's a big ball of chaos rolling through the landscape of urban London, and she keeps popping up in Cooper's carefully ordered criminal life at random intervals...or are they so random after all?
Her Last Call to Louis MacNeiceis dark and gritty, a classic examples of the best of crime fiction from across the Atlantic. One warning, though: as Brad Pitt told Harrison Ford in the movie The Devil's Own: "It's not an American story. It's an Irish one. Don't look for a happy ending."
Ken Bruen's books are like that: short, yet powerful and brutally effective.
Her Last Call to Louis MacNeice is a short work, but there's a lot of story packed into those 120-odd pages. Cooper, an English ex-con, successful repo man, and sometime bank robber, hooks up with Cassie, an American shoplifter who is obsessed with the poetry of Irish writer Louis MacNeice. Cassie is beautiful, captivating, and barking mad. She's a big ball of chaos rolling through the landscape of urban London, and she keeps popping up in Cooper's carefully ordered criminal life at random intervals...or are they so random after all?
Her Last Call to Louis MacNeiceis dark and gritty, a classic examples of the best of crime fiction from across the Atlantic. One warning, though: as Brad Pitt told Harrison Ford in the movie The Devil's Own: "It's not an American story. It's an Irish one. Don't look for a happy ending."
December 21, 2012
I'd call this one a work for Bruen purists only. It has a lot of classic gritty noir elements, but they don't add up to anything, not even a character piece. The author's penchant for pop culture references is in overdrive, and adds the additional complication of unmooring the story's place in time: in one sentence it's mentioned that the movie Repo Man recently came out, then a little while later there's a reference to the sitcom Friends, without the passage of several years in between.
December 19, 2014
Frühwerk des sonst fantastischen Ken Bruen, das allerdings leider noch gar nicht wirklich fantastisch ist. Ziemlich flache Charaktere gepaart mit einem unspannendem Plot dürften selbst Hardboiled-Puristen wenig begeistern. Auch wenn die Sprache von Bruen damals schon über beinahe jeden Zweifel erhaben war und viele Elemente seiner späteren Werke hier auch zu finden sind, wie z.B. witzige Dialoge, wirkt das alles leider noch sehr unausgegoren und gezwungen. Beruhigend, dass auch ein Ken Bruen nicht vom Himmel gefallen ist.
November 13, 2014
Everything that Mr Bruen writes is wonderful. This short story revolves around Cooper - out of prison after a sentence for GBH - who also happens to be an armed bank robber.
He encounters a mysterious woman who becomes obsessed with him and seems intent on getting him at any cost.
Although a short story, the characters are fully rounder and the plot is both complex and absorbing.
Highly recommended
He encounters a mysterious woman who becomes obsessed with him and seems intent on getting him at any cost.
Although a short story, the characters are fully rounder and the plot is both complex and absorbing.
Highly recommended
May 13, 2008
"A celtic Dashiell Hammett" (book cover quote)
Ken Bruen's a big favorite author - gritty, spare, hard boiled Irish author, writes crime stories.
In this short book, Cooper a legit repo man by day, bank robber by night, meets Cassie -- bold, brash and very mentally disturbed.
Ken Bruen's a big favorite author - gritty, spare, hard boiled Irish author, writes crime stories.
In this short book, Cooper a legit repo man by day, bank robber by night, meets Cassie -- bold, brash and very mentally disturbed.
November 22, 2011
I've finally bought into Bruen. Totally. The sparse hard-action prose. The consistently snap-happy dialog. The amazingly deep crime fiction fanboy-ness (-ish? -ism?). This be a small story with a big screen tone (realized soon). Raymond. Higgins. Pelecanos. Thank you.
March 4, 2013
It's all about the pace and the poetry. The characters are replaced with uncertainty. Sometimes a writer has more confidence in where he is going than the reader. This is one of those times. Sticking with Bruen ends up being fun.
September 17, 2017
Cooper gets out of jail and continues in his villainous ways. Very dark, kind of a jazz riff on noir.
January 29, 2011
One of Bruen's lesser novels but still worth reading. If you're looking for modern noir, Bruen should be on your bookshelf (or ebook reader". I recommend starting with The Guards.
Read
August 3, 2011Pretty standard for the Bruen book I have read - Nastyish crook, psychotic woman, fast story.
January 2, 2013
An early Bruen that shows how he has refined his skills and voice over his career, but one thing that remains a constant delight to me is Bruen's willingness to completely suckerpunch his characters.
January 2, 2016
Nobody does dark better and with more style than Bruen and this early work is another great example of his skill.
February 18, 2016
Fast paced and brutal, I wish it were longer.
Want to read
September 1, 2013epub tubel
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews