JACK TAYLOR NOVELS BRANT NOVELS CRIME NOVELS Tower Once Were Cops American Skin Dispatching Baudelaire London Boulevard Her Last Call to Louis Macneice The Hackman Blues Rilke on Black MAX & ANGELA NOVELS Once Were Cops US Michael O'Shea is a member of Ireland's police force, known as The Guards. He's also a sociopath who walks a knife edge between sanity and all-out mayhem. When an exchange program is initiated and twenty Guards come to America and twenty cops from the States go to Ireland, Shay, as he's known, has his lifelong dream come true—he becomes a member of the NYPD. But Shay's dream is about to become New York's nightmare. Paired with an unstable cop nicknamed Kebar for his liberal use of a short, lethal metal stick called a K-bar, the two unlikely partners become a devastatingly effective force in the war against crime. But Kebar harbors a dangerous secret: he's sold out to the mob to help his sister. Her rape and beating leaves her in a coma and pushes an already unstable Kebar over the edge just as Shea's dark secrets threaten boil over and into the streets of New York. Once Were Cops melds the street poetry of Brooklyn and Dublin into a fast-paced, incomparable hard-boiled novel. This is Ken Bruen at his best. Buy the book from Amazon, Amazon.co.uk or an independent bookstore. PRAISE "[A] stripped-down dark thrill ride...No one is safe as this shocker spins wildly toward a violent finish."    —Publishers Weekly "Shea is an otherworldly malevolence who makes ONCE WERE COPS a chilling and deeply creepy read. That Bruen renders such a remarkable character in what be called clipped free verse is further proof of his writing talent."    —Booklist "Bruen tells the story brilliantly...the pacing is intense...one of the darkest portrayals of policing since James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential."    —The San Francisco Chronicle "Michael O'Shea is a calculating sociopathic Irishman, member of The Guards. He blackmails a powerful politician to be one of a group headed to the United States in exchange of American policemen in a trade agreement. He joins the NYPD and is paired with another sociopath, known as "K," and together they embark on a mad tear against all sorts of crime. However, the partner has become a dirty cop to get enough cash to keep his incapacitated sister in an upscale facility. When his sister is found severely beaten, raped and comatose, K goes berserk. Meanwhile, Shea has been pursuing his own dark needs, while becoming a golden boy in the department. The combination is full of mayhem. Written in a spare style, this noir tale is a must read not only for Bruen fans but all those who love a mystery. Recommended."    —Gloria Feit, Crimespree Magazine