Once Were Cops by Ken Bruen

Brief background . . . I read for maybe an hour in the morning over breakfast, feed the dog, etc. then over lunch ( I work from home, so this works for me), maybe a few minutes before falling asleep.

I read Once Were Cops in 4 sittings. 3 yesterday and this morning. Not that it was a long narrative. It was written much like so many online newspaper stories with one sentence paragraphs, double spaced between paragraphs; lotta while space on the page. This was mostly dialogue so the paragraphs were short, many were one line, so it went very quickly . . . and it was downright creepy.

I came across the author's name referenced in a story about another author. Bruen is Irish and I was skeptical. I've tried an Irish mystery writer twice before (Ian Rankin) and was never able to get into those stories, but I checked it out of the library anyway...and as a new release, I only had a week, no renewal, so yesterday morning, I decided to get at it.

Michael O'Shea is the Galway son of a police unit called the Guard. His dad was Guard and it was foregone that he would be Guard. But he has a secret . . . good cop/bad cop in separate personalities (and the bad cop part of his personality is reeeeeaaaallllly bad, we never really learn why, he just is evil). He keeps markers close to his chest to use later on and uses one to get added to the list of 20 Guards to be part of an exchange with US police. He wants NYC, not some backwater posting. Why NY? better hunting . . . a target rich environment.

He gets partnered with a hard case who tries to intimidate Shea in his first day on the job. But Shea remembers. He learns why his partner is on the take, and remembers. His captain has strange sexual tastes, and Shea remembers. He meets a barmaid and gets involved . . . with prey. Internal Affairs is looking into his partner and Shea sees some of the same traits in one of the IA guys, and he remembers.

Women are being strangled in NY and a task force is formed. Shea calls in markers and gets the case twisted towards the scum who have his partner on the take and when the case closes, the creeps paying his partner are either dead or on death row and Shea, the exchange cop, is the shining star of the NYC police department. In the future, he can do no wrong, all the while increasing his power base in the department.

One problem. the brother of his barmaid girlfriend is an investigative reporter . . .

Shea is one twisted character. He was on the wrong side of the jail cell, but you expect him to say the police equivalent of "hello, Clarise." Bruen paints a frightening picture of a demented sociopath. Makes you wonder what would heave happened if the Hillside Strangler was a cop. A short, psychological tale of a desperate personality. If all of Bruen's books are like this, I may not sleep well.

East Coast Don