Ken Bruen, who died in March 2025, was known this side of the Atlantic for his Jack Taylor series, which was dramatised for TV with Iain Glen and not adequately promoted. Bruen later moved in New York literary circles and as such collaborated with Jason Starr on the Max and Angela trilogy (actually a tetralogy - there is a fourth) for the magnificent Hard Case Crime brand. The first three are now collected in one volume as Supermax. Bust is the series opener.
Max Fisher is a selfmade tech millionaire with failing health and a wife he has come to dislike. He begrudges Dierdre the half of his fortune he would lose in a divorce. Meanwhile he is very much enjoying the affair he is having with his PA, an Irish-Greek redhead called Angela who makes the most of what nature gave her, plus a little enhancement up front. If only Dierdre was out of the way, Max would marry Angela in a heartbeat. Luckily, Angela knows someone who can help with that.
Enter Dillon an expat Irish psycho-killer with a ruined mouth and a yen to become a poet. Dierdre is duly disposed of. Then a former US sniper and smash-and-grab merchant called Bobby Rosa, now confined to a wheelchair, looks up his old friend Victor Gianetti, now working as a glorified bellhop in a New York hotel. Bobby's big idea is to use Victor's pass key to grab photos of couples booking a room for the afternoon and blackmail them. His first attempt catches Max and Angela hard at it. Bobby recognises Max from the news. Bobby's boat has come in big time.
Unfortunately both Bobby and Dillon share Max's entusiasm for Angela (not that either of them would ever contemplate marrying her). That's inevitably going to lead to complications.
I very much enjoyed Bust. The collaboration between Bruen and Starr is seamless. The dialogue is snappy, the characters well-drawn. A morant humour runs throughout. I particularly enjoyed the chapter epigraphs, which are quotes from other contemporary crime noir writers (including one from Bruen himself).
No comments:
Post a Comment