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If you read a lot of genre fiction I reckon you get blasé after a while – particularly in these days of blood and guts and gore serial killers, with writers seemingly trying to outdo each other in the grossness stakes. It's rare, though, that you put down a book feeling that you truly were in the presence of cold, chilling evil. I can count on the fingers of one hand books that have made me feel like that. I've never been able to re-read Jonathan Kellerman's THE BUTCHER'S THEATRE because I was so spooked by the ending. To that small and exclusive collection, I can now add Ken Bruen's THE DEVIL. If you've been keeping up with this bleak and utterly compelling series, you'll know that it features Galway PI Jack Taylor, a man seriously damaged both physically and emotionally. The books have always been far more than simple genre fiction, even if Jack does right wrongs in the manner of a very battered knight on a limping charger. They turn a searing eye on 21st century Ireland, including religion in a once devout Catholic nation. As THE DEVIL opens, Jack is off the booze and bound for America. But he's turned back before he can board a flight and it's downhill all the way as Jack returns to his old addictions of drink and drugs. THE DEVIL is crime fiction in that Jack investigates how and why a charismatic young man, who leaves a trail of bodies in his wake every time he appears, has inveigled his way into the life of Jack's friend Ridge and her husband. Of course we know who's dunnit, but not who he is or why he is so determined to target people close to Jack. I read the book in one take on a train journey in broad daylight. There were times when I wanted to put it down, but I just couldn't. It oozes evil from every page, seemingly made even more chilling by the relative ordinariness of the setting. In the wrong hands, the premise of this book would be ludicrous; in Bruen's it's deeply disturbing. What is perhaps most frightening, though, is how this series continues to chart a man's mental decline. I admit I wondered whether THE DEVIL was the last throw of the dice for Jack. I strongly suspect that Bruen has more horrors in store for him. § Sharon Wheeler is a UK-based journalist, writer and lecturer.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, September 2010
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