Ken Bruen: Headstone (UK 2012)

From the Publisher:
Some people help the less fortunate. Others kill them. Evil has many guises. Jack Taylor has encountered most of them but nothing before has ever truly terrified him until a group called Headstone rears its ugly head. An elderly priest is viciously beaten until nearly dead. A special needs boy is brutally attacked. A series of seemingly random, insane, violent events even has the Guards shaken. Most would see a headstone as a marker of the dead, but this coterie of evil intends to act as a death knell to every aspect of Jack's life as an act of appalling violence alerts him to the horror enveloping Galway. Accepting the power of Headstone, Jack realizes that in order to fight back he must relinquish the remaining shreds of what has made him human - knowledge that may have come too late to prevent an act of such ferocious evil that the whole country would be changed forever - and in the worst way. With awful clarity, Jack knows that not only might he be powerless to stop it but that he may not have the grit needed to even face it.

Ken Bruen: Headstone. Some people help the less fortunate, others kill them. Transworld Ireland, ISBN: 9781848271173 (April, 2012), 304 p., £12.99.

Ken Bruen: Headstone (USA 2011)

From the Publisher:
Acclaimed Irish crime writer Ken Bruen has won numerous awards for his hard-charging, dark thrillers, which have been translated into ten languages. In Headstone, an elderly priest is nearly beaten to death and a special-needs boy is brutally attacked. Evil has many guises and Jack Taylor has encountered most of them, and has the scars to prove it. But nothing before has ever truly terrified him until he confronts an evil coterie named Headstone, who have committed a series of random, insane, violent crimes in Galway, Ireland, which has left even the national police shaken. And Jack is especially vulnerable now because he has finally found love and happiness.

Most would see a headstone as a marker of the dead, but this organization seems like it will act as a death knell to every aspect of Jack's life. Thinking that happiness is some kind of talisman, he will find that it is a dark blessing of impending ferocity.

Jack's usual allies, Ridge and Stewart, are also in the line of terror. One act of appalling violence alerts them to the sleeping horror enveloping them. But this realization is too late to save what they hold dear. The evil they encounter is disguised as the very mask of young innocence.

Jack, slowly accepting the sheer power of Headstone, comes to realize that in order to fight back he must relinquish the remaining shreds of what has made him human.

Headstone barrels along its deadly path right to the center of his life and the heart of Galway. In a moment of awful clarity, Jack knows that not only might he be powerless to stop it but that he may not have the utter grit needed to even face it. A terrific read from a writer called "a Celtic Dashiell Hammett," Headstone is an excellent addition to the Jack Taylor series.

Ken Bruen: Headstone. A Jack Taylor Novel of Terror. Mysterious Press, ISBN: 9780802126009 (October, 2011), 269 p., $24.00.