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Blitz, Vixen, Caliber and Ammunition by Ken Bruen
This month I went full on on a Ken Bruen reading jag: Blitz, Vixen, Calibre and Ammunition, all written between 2003 and 2007. For those of you not familiar with Bruen, these are part of which Tom Brant series, focused on a southeast London police squad. The stories echo the Ed McBain 37 Precinct Stories, which Bruen mentions several times and they also have a touch of Dashiel Hammett as well. They are ensemble stories centered around Brant, an inveterate rule breaker (think McNulty in the wire) and the cops in his orbit: Liz Falls, a struggling black constable, Porter Nash, a gay detective who becomes Brant’s confidante and sometimes enabler, Inspector Roberts, the nominal boss, and more. Wonderfully dark and violent as noir should be, series ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, but it seems there were no more after Ammunition. Bruen died in 2025.
Fortunately for me, there are some earlier books in the series I can get to and Bruen has several other series which I’m looking forward to: The White Arrest, Taming the Alien, and The McDead.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
Perhaps it was a mistake to attempt Theo of Golden after reading the well-written, noirish Bruen. I found the message sappy (both overly sweet and sticky) and the writing pedestrian (all telling and preachily so), with characters and situations that were not relatable. And I thought the signaling (Theo-logy, Golden Rule, etc.) to add to the clunkiness and the repetitiveness (here’s a picture; tell me your story) slowed the book to a crawl. Add some conflict and show rather than preach. I didn’t finish it.
Maybe the book will make some billionaires repentant, but I doubt it.
