Ammunition -- Ken Bruen

Some people prefer Ken Bruen's novels about Jack Taylor, nothing wrong with that, but for me it's Brant and his mates of the Southeast London Police Squad. Maybe that's because I read the Brant books before anything else of Bruen's, but who knows? I find them fast, furious, and hilarious.

This one opens with Brant being shot while sitting in a pub. This is great news for cops and crooks alike, and all are disappointed when Brant makes a quick recovery to again muck about in people's lives, go after the shooter, and generally behave worse than the lowest villain. In fact, in Bruen's books it's hard to tell who's worse, the cops or the crooks. Some of them wear badges, and that's about it. No noble cops here.

If this series is Bruen's homage to McBain's 87th Precinct books, it's the 87th Precinct as it would have been had Cotton Hawes (or maybe Fat Ollie) had take center stage and if all the other people had been a lot like him.

If you've never read the Brant books, this isn't the place to begin. Go back and read The White Trilogy first. If you like those three, you'll get to this one as quickly as you can.