Ken Bruen: Rilke on Black (USA 2011)

From the Publisher:
A South London kidnapping goes violently awry in this "startlingly original crime novel" from the award-winning author of The Guards (British GQ).

As pretty, well read, and available as she was, most men would have passed on a foul-mouthed jailbait junkie like Lisa. Not Nick. A bouncer from southeast London, he knew what he liked. He went in with both eyes open and stayed there -- even when she burned through his savings and cost him his job. Luckily, she had an idea for bringing in extra cash: kidnap a local African American bar owner, a pretentious, yoga obsessed, Rilke-spouting man of means with a white trophy wife. He deserved a good punch to the gut. However, it was Nick's bad idea to bring in his neighbor, a clean-cut, Reba McEntire - loving good old boy, and psycho to the bone. But not one of them anticipated Nick's ex-girlfriend, Bonny, who came in out of the blue with her own agenda to ignite the biggest spark in the plot. The question isn't who's going to fire the first shot. It's who's going to fire the last.

"Fast-paced, tough and pretty sexy" (Pulp), Rilke on Black is further proof that the author of the Jack Taylor series "has become the crime novelist to read" (George Pelecanos).

Ken Bruen: Rilke on Black. MysteriousPress.com / Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781453228272 (October, 2011), eBook, 2 MB (ca. 150 p.), $9.99.

Ken Bruen: Rilke on Black (2005)

From the Publisher:
In South London, an unlikely gang of kidnappers hatch a plot. Nick, an ex-bouncer, Dex, a charismatic sociopath, and Lisa, a motor-mouth junkle femme fatale. Their prey is a powerful, local businessman with an obsession for the poet Rilke. Thing is, each kidnapper has a very different agenda. Which means it's only a matter of time before the joking stops, and the ever threatening violence take over.

A standout hit on its first publication in 1996, Ken Bruen's dark contemporary thriller was the first publication of one of the most original crime writers of our time.

Ken Bruen: Rilke on Black. Serpent's Tail, ISBN: 1852427817 (March, 2005), 160 p., £7.99.

Ken Bruen: Rilke on Black (1996)

From the Publisher:
In South London, an unlikely gang of kidnappers hatch a plot. Nick, an ex-bouncer, Dex, a charismatic sociopath, and Lisa, a motor-mouth junkie femme fatale. Their prey is a powerful, local businessman with an obsession for the poet Rilke. Thing is, each kidnapper has a very different agenda. Which means it's only a matter of time before the joking stops, and the ever threatening violence begins.

Rilke on Black is an eerie, crooked tale of sex, obsession and betrayal. Ken Bruen's dark contemporary thriller matches a razor sharp vernacular with a country music soundtrack to create a truly intoxicating and original mix.

Ken Bruen: Rilke on Black. Sex, obsession and betrayal. Serpent's Tail, ISBN: 1852425113 (June, 1996), 150 p., £7.99, $12.99.