A voice of dissent

Now, I do admit that the childish part of me screaming “Fight! fight!” in the back of my head is contributing to why I’ve decided to post this, but truly, there’s a point to be made by reading Lee Goldberg’s reasons why he won’t be joining up with the Ken Bruen bandwagon anytime soon:

For the last few months, I’ve read all over the web how amazing Ken

Bruen’s books are. I was lucky enough to meet him at Bouchercon and

thought he was a hell of a nice guy. So I bought a few of his books and

set them aside to read on a rainy day.

That day came yesterday. And at the risk of sounding like a

curmudgeon, I don’t get what all the excitement is about. I read THE

GUARDS, about an alcoholic ex-cop investigating the suicide of a young

girl. While the book was definitely well-written, with a sharp,

economical style, I can’t tell you how tired I am of alcoholic cops,

alcoholic ex-cops, and alcoholic private eye heroes whose lives are

spiraling out of control because they can’t stop drinking.

While he didn’t write with cliches, the lead character himself was

certainly one. Jack Taylor is a self-destructive cop thrown off the

force for being a drunk. And he’s caught in an endless spiral of

drinking and self-destruction he seems powerless to stop. Yadda Yadda

Yadda. Enough. I’m not reading any more books about alcoholic cops,

ex-cops and PIs. I’ve had my fill.

What is this point, you may ask? It’s severalfold; first, that even a book that’s pretty much received unanimous raves across the board will not appeal to anyone. Second, that it’s actually a good thing in its own way, because it falls in line with my belief that the great books are the ones that polarize, not the ones that get constant adulation. And finally, you can’t please everyone all the time.

But I’ll be honest: until Lee enumerated the similarities between Jack Taylor and most alcoholic ex-cop PIs present in genre fiction, I hadn’t noticed. Why? Because I was so caught up with Bruen’s storytelling and voice that it obliterated everything else. There’s no story? No biggie. The character’s an archetype? Hell, most of them are, at their core.  But the voice–the sheer, barely concealed rage of it–is what grabbed me. And it’s why I’ve loved every single book of Bruen’s I’ve read.