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Inspector Brant #2
Taming the Alien
Under assault by the criminal underworld, two cops strike back
They call him the Alien. A petty hood with a habit of battering his enemies with a baseball bat, he earned his name for carrying out a hit while watching Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic—and sticking around to finish the film afterwards. The Alien’s latest target is Detective Sergeant Brant, an old-fashioned policeman whose easy brutality has won him no love on London’s south side. The Alien breaks into Brant’s flat, clobbers him with his Louisville slugger, and tortures him until he passes out. When Brant awakes, the Alien is gone, and the cop has a thirst for blood.
They call him the Alien. A petty hood with a habit of battering his enemies with a baseball bat, he earned his name for carrying out a hit while watching Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic—and sticking around to finish the film afterwards. The Alien’s latest target is Detective Sergeant Brant, an old-fashioned policeman whose easy brutality has won him no love on London’s south side. The Alien breaks into Brant’s flat, clobbers him with his Louisville slugger, and tortures him until he passes out. When Brant awakes, the Alien is gone, and the cop has a thirst for blood.
With the help of his partner, the cancer-stricken Chief Inspector Roberts, Brant will lay waste to London. But when his vendetta leads to something more fearsome than a bat-wielding psychopath, he’ll wonder if perhaps he should have stayed on the floor.
158 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1999
27 people are currently reading
217 people want to read
About the author
Ken Bruen
132 books852 followersKen Bruen was an Irish writer of hardboiled and noir crime fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
December 31, 2017
Second in the Inspector Brant crime series based somewhere in a contemporary London and revolving around the police.
My Take
Lord, Bruen is such a depressive writer! And, I swear their cop shop is in need of help and a sense of focus. Roberts keeps making the wrong decisions; the desk sergeant doesn't have his head on right; and, Falls is so not paying attention. Although I did like their reaction when the duty sergeant informed the squad room that a would-be rapist had been shot and the room erupted in cheers!
I do like his chapter headings — Bruen uses quotes from different books/authors.
This story was easier to follow. Not quite so much chopped up and interrupted conversations but more of a peek inside everyone's heads. I do have to wonder how Bill has stayed on top for so long as many people as he has been betraying and turning on. A nice switch from the first book too in that everything ends well. Well, for the good guys anyway. Pretty amazing considering.
The Story
WPC Falls is hell on wheels. At least where men are concerned. Revenge. Oh hell. It's not so sweet after all. About the same time, Roy Fenton — his cousin was one of the E Gang — is considering a poetry contest as he considers the woman who aborted his baby and the poetry of tracking her down. Brant is feeling the guilt over PC Tone's murder. CI Roberts is drinking his own particular miserable news away only to get hit with more and more bad news as the week wears on. A tiny, very tiny, part of me feels bad for him.
Bill's gettin' busy in this tale: tells Fenton where to find his woman in return for the Alien havin' a chat with Brant which Brant returns in spades. For which payback, Bill really screws himself over while saving the taxpayers a load of cash. God knows what Bill has set up with Roberts and he's droppin' hints about Brant and Fiona.
Meanwhile, as Brant is recovering from his going over, he decides to head over to America. Have a look around for the Band-Aiders—he's positive they murdered Tone and he's determined to bring them to book. The good news is that the Band-Aiders met their match and the government will pay his way over to the States.
The Characters
Inspector Brant is a corrupt cop with a side of asshole. As part of his crusade to avenge PC Tone, he's on his way to America via Dublin where he meets his cousin Padraig de Brun who teaches him a new approach. Chief Inspector Roberts is about to reap his own reward right along the lines of the film noir he loves. I'm a bit confused about his daughter or is it daughters?? In A White Arrest, the daughter was named Sarah. Now Fiona Roberts is talking to their daughter Sharon. And I'm not getting the impression they have more than the one daughter…
WPC Falls is down and up and down in this one. That married bastard. The bit of delightful news. Then the attack after which she feels the love. Rosie is back from an aborted trip to India with her boyfriend most of which they spent in hospital.
Bill seems to be the head crook in this part of London with a daughter he sees as blessed with Down's Syndrome. He adores her but his sentiments stop and end with her.
Roy Fenton has a bad rep throughout southeast London, a.k.a., the Alien. No one wants to piss him off and Roy is submitting his poetry to contests. Stella Davis, Roy's ex, and her new husband, Jack, are about to end their day. Permanently. His trip to Mexico to celebrate gets cut a bit short.
The Cover and Title
The partial full face on the cover has got to be Fenton. There's that manic look in his eye and, when combined with the grin, eek!
The title is apt although the timing is off but we do get to see Taming the Alien.
My Take
Lord, Bruen is such a depressive writer! And, I swear their cop shop is in need of help and a sense of focus. Roberts keeps making the wrong decisions; the desk sergeant doesn't have his head on right; and, Falls is so not paying attention. Although I did like their reaction when the duty sergeant informed the squad room that a would-be rapist had been shot and the room erupted in cheers!
I do like his chapter headings — Bruen uses quotes from different books/authors.
This story was easier to follow. Not quite so much chopped up and interrupted conversations but more of a peek inside everyone's heads. I do have to wonder how Bill has stayed on top for so long as many people as he has been betraying and turning on. A nice switch from the first book too in that everything ends well. Well, for the good guys anyway. Pretty amazing considering.
The Story
WPC Falls is hell on wheels. At least where men are concerned. Revenge. Oh hell. It's not so sweet after all. About the same time, Roy Fenton — his cousin was one of the E Gang — is considering a poetry contest as he considers the woman who aborted his baby and the poetry of tracking her down. Brant is feeling the guilt over PC Tone's murder. CI Roberts is drinking his own particular miserable news away only to get hit with more and more bad news as the week wears on. A tiny, very tiny, part of me feels bad for him.
Bill's gettin' busy in this tale: tells Fenton where to find his woman in return for the Alien havin' a chat with Brant which Brant returns in spades. For which payback, Bill really screws himself over while saving the taxpayers a load of cash. God knows what Bill has set up with Roberts and he's droppin' hints about Brant and Fiona.
Meanwhile, as Brant is recovering from his going over, he decides to head over to America. Have a look around for the Band-Aiders—he's positive they murdered Tone and he's determined to bring them to book. The good news is that the Band-Aiders met their match and the government will pay his way over to the States.
The Characters
Inspector Brant is a corrupt cop with a side of asshole. As part of his crusade to avenge PC Tone, he's on his way to America via Dublin where he meets his cousin Padraig de Brun who teaches him a new approach. Chief Inspector Roberts is about to reap his own reward right along the lines of the film noir he loves. I'm a bit confused about his daughter or is it daughters?? In A White Arrest, the daughter was named Sarah. Now Fiona Roberts is talking to their daughter Sharon. And I'm not getting the impression they have more than the one daughter…
WPC Falls is down and up and down in this one. That married bastard. The bit of delightful news. Then the attack after which she feels the love. Rosie is back from an aborted trip to India with her boyfriend most of which they spent in hospital.
Bill seems to be the head crook in this part of London with a daughter he sees as blessed with Down's Syndrome. He adores her but his sentiments stop and end with her.
Roy Fenton has a bad rep throughout southeast London, a.k.a., the Alien. No one wants to piss him off and Roy is submitting his poetry to contests. Stella Davis, Roy's ex, and her new husband, Jack, are about to end their day. Permanently. His trip to Mexico to celebrate gets cut a bit short.
The Cover and Title
The partial full face on the cover has got to be Fenton. There's that manic look in his eye and, when combined with the grin, eek!
The title is apt although the timing is off but we do get to see Taming the Alien.
June 12, 2023
unrealistic to be just handed an Aran sweater
September 16, 2013
Wonderful!
After a very nice first book in the series Bruen truly hit it out of the park with this one. Brant and Roberts are back, and with them come several of the characters from the first book, including the band aid couple that killed a cop and fled to America. Falls is jumping back from the disappointments in her love life and becomes a more central character in this installment, which I really enjoyed, since she is one interesting gal.
As is usually the case with Bruen, the characters are blunt and in most cases have zero tolerance for nonsense. There are really no "good guys", and even the main characters are wretched in their own way. If you are looking for a typical police procedural, you would do yourself a favor looking elsewhere. In Bruen's books the cases usually are resolved by someone presenting the solution to the cops, or by pure chance, or by the perpetrators getting in trouble due to their idiocy. What we do get is a superb work on character development. It's been two books and I am totally hooked and want to know more about the main characters. Also, this noir besides having the raw violence, the disregard for law and order and the self-destruction by some of the players has a nice and healthy dose of dark humor. I found myself laughing out loud often while I was reading it.
I have to acknowledge, I truly like the way in which Bruen writes, so it will be pretty hard for me to write a work by him that I dislike. That being said, in this case I absolutely loved the book, here you can see what Bruen is all about. Many of these characteristics will appear later in some of his finest works on the Jack Taylor series, but here they were already polished and ready for prime time. Finally, the decision to take part of the plot to the US was brilliant, and the clash of cultures provided opportunities for many witty dialogues.
After a very nice first book in the series Bruen truly hit it out of the park with this one. Brant and Roberts are back, and with them come several of the characters from the first book, including the band aid couple that killed a cop and fled to America. Falls is jumping back from the disappointments in her love life and becomes a more central character in this installment, which I really enjoyed, since she is one interesting gal.
As is usually the case with Bruen, the characters are blunt and in most cases have zero tolerance for nonsense. There are really no "good guys", and even the main characters are wretched in their own way. If you are looking for a typical police procedural, you would do yourself a favor looking elsewhere. In Bruen's books the cases usually are resolved by someone presenting the solution to the cops, or by pure chance, or by the perpetrators getting in trouble due to their idiocy. What we do get is a superb work on character development. It's been two books and I am totally hooked and want to know more about the main characters. Also, this noir besides having the raw violence, the disregard for law and order and the self-destruction by some of the players has a nice and healthy dose of dark humor. I found myself laughing out loud often while I was reading it.
I have to acknowledge, I truly like the way in which Bruen writes, so it will be pretty hard for me to write a work by him that I dislike. That being said, in this case I absolutely loved the book, here you can see what Bruen is all about. Many of these characteristics will appear later in some of his finest works on the Jack Taylor series, but here they were already polished and ready for prime time. Finally, the decision to take part of the plot to the US was brilliant, and the clash of cultures provided opportunities for many witty dialogues.
May 22, 2013
This slim book picks up a few months after the events of A White Arrest. Southeast London's DI Roberts has been diagnosed with skin cancer while his domestic situation is on life support, DS Brant is more or less recovered from a knifing, and WPC Falls is unexpectedly preggers. Meanwhile, the druggie homeless couple that killed a cop and knifed Brant have fled to the US, the local gangster lord is getting a little peeved with Brant's enthusiasm, a local psycho/hitman called Alien is back on the streets and looking for his ex-wife, and there's a serial arsonist at large. As before, the characters are outsized, the action quite violent, and the dialogue ratatat. Throw all these in a blender of staccato 1 to 3-page chapters, and the result is another Bruen's unique pulps.
May 7, 2015
Ken Bruen is my absolute favorite detective writer. Though I never thought he'd top his Jack Taylor series. Inspector Brant is coming up fast in the anti hero brigade. I don't know whether to love him or hate him at times but I can't wait to see what he is going to do next. Great read.
March 26, 2025
My head is spinning a bit and I think it did the entire time i picked up and read a few pages of this little ditty! I happened to spot this on the shelf of my library's Friends Bookstore and naturally turned over 50 cents for this book that someone had purchased in Galway (itself!) for 7 Euros because I just had to have it...a bit of this brilliant author to keep in my library at home. Unfortunately I've not read the first book nor any of the others in this series but it was crazy fun all the same. The coppers are nuts compared to the perps! All the crazy scenarios that happened after each delightful quotes heading up each chapter from various authors just made me wish I could pop over to Galway myself and purchase the other six books in this Inspector Brant series. For a wacky good time on Ken Bruen read this book!
July 11, 2017
A masterful work
June 5, 2018
entertaining grit that holds a running pace the whole book. loved it - bruen is awesome
April 3, 2020
none better than Bruen
October 26, 2021
Brand and his collection of cops are about as damaged as the psychos they police - which makes for GREAT noir!
November 9, 2022
The trilogy definitely improves with this novel. Classic, brilliant Bruen.
August 14, 2023
Inspector Brant is a colorful, unpredictable character! "He was born angry and got worse." Even though he is deliberately obnoxious, he is a great detective.
December 29, 2023
A mad mad ride but quite brilliant
July 9, 2024
Último libro traducido de esta serie, se queda como por no saber cómo continúa.
Como los otros libros de este autor, me gusta como escribe.
Como los otros libros de este autor, me gusta como escribe.
August 13, 2024
Wild how you have no idea what’s going to happen until the last moment
Read
April 6, 2025DNF
September 16, 2025
Is it possible that I'm starting to . . . like these assholes?
March 30, 2022
Second in series. Characters are growing on me.
June 19, 2012
Instantly forgettable but mildly entertaining and not as good as the later books.
All I remember was them charging around London, Dublin and America in chase of a gangster called the alien, who was tracking down his ex wife.
All I remember was them charging around London, Dublin and America in chase of a gangster called the alien, who was tracking down his ex wife.
May 4, 2009
#2 White Trilogy - Trilogy = first 3 books in the Inspector Brant Crime series
June 22, 2021
I really liked this book. Bruen has a good writing style.
January 29, 2014
Com sempre brutal !
November 20, 2015
Great second volume in Ken Bruen's Inspector Brant series.
April 10, 2017
With every book, my appreciation of Bruen expands. He pulls no punches, but with every brutality comes humanity and compassion. His books are the cure for what ails you.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews