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newson66's review against another edition
3.0
Unlike his earlier novels this ones's a bit of a mad dog's dinner. May have been the intention of Bruen and if it was then the joke's on me.
yorugua1891's review against another edition
4.0
Early Bruen work that delivers with raw passion.
I am one of the many readers that discovered Bruen through his Jack Taylor series and was hooked forever. Since I have devoured all his books in that series, it was time to expand my horizons while I waited for the next installment. That is how I ended up getting the first book in the Brant and Roberts series. What I found was a noir that is as raw as noir can be, delivering a myriad of characters, with none of them being the good guy or gal. I am used to Bruen using the anti-hero as his protagonist in the Jack Taylor series, and here we get a couple of cops that epitomize the dirty cop. Especially Brant, who abuses his power like there is no tomorrow.
The author uses a series of short passages to deliver the story. We are constantly jumping from one scene to the next, and it gets a little while to get used to figuring out who is participating in the scene and how it connects to everything else that is going on. At first it can be confusing and frustrating, but I recommend you keep at it because the final result is rewarding enough. Also, don't expect this to be a novel in which the plot revolves around investigating the crime, since that is not what this work is about. It is almost as if the cases the duo is working on are an excuse to show us everything else that is going on in the lives of these characters. We get to see details of their personal lives and relationships and these end up being the focal point of the story.
As always, Ken Bruen delivers a work that truly diverges from the well-known paths. He does not conform to what others have done in the genre. There are some similarities; in particular Brant is obsessed with the novel of McBain, but Bruen always delivers a breath of fresh air. Well maybe sometimes the air is fetid, but you still appreciate it. Those that love all types of books, like I do, will certainly enjoy the constant references to other authors and specific works throughout this story. I have found some hidden gems by looking up authors Bruen mentions in his Taylor series, and I hope I end up finding more in this one.
I am one of the many readers that discovered Bruen through his Jack Taylor series and was hooked forever. Since I have devoured all his books in that series, it was time to expand my horizons while I waited for the next installment. That is how I ended up getting the first book in the Brant and Roberts series. What I found was a noir that is as raw as noir can be, delivering a myriad of characters, with none of them being the good guy or gal. I am used to Bruen using the anti-hero as his protagonist in the Jack Taylor series, and here we get a couple of cops that epitomize the dirty cop. Especially Brant, who abuses his power like there is no tomorrow.
The author uses a series of short passages to deliver the story. We are constantly jumping from one scene to the next, and it gets a little while to get used to figuring out who is participating in the scene and how it connects to everything else that is going on. At first it can be confusing and frustrating, but I recommend you keep at it because the final result is rewarding enough. Also, don't expect this to be a novel in which the plot revolves around investigating the crime, since that is not what this work is about. It is almost as if the cases the duo is working on are an excuse to show us everything else that is going on in the lives of these characters. We get to see details of their personal lives and relationships and these end up being the focal point of the story.
As always, Ken Bruen delivers a work that truly diverges from the well-known paths. He does not conform to what others have done in the genre. There are some similarities; in particular Brant is obsessed with the novel of McBain, but Bruen always delivers a breath of fresh air. Well maybe sometimes the air is fetid, but you still appreciate it. Those that love all types of books, like I do, will certainly enjoy the constant references to other authors and specific works throughout this story. I have found some hidden gems by looking up authors Bruen mentions in his Taylor series, and I hope I end up finding more in this one.
dinatrojan's review
1.0
First and foremost: I love Ken Bruen. After reading his Jack Taylor series, it moved to my #2 all-time behind Harry Potter.....that being said, I did not enjoy A White Arrest at all, though it sounds blasphemous of me to say.
I think it's because unlike Jack, who is an asshole but still a sweetie at heart, Brant and Roberts don't really have any redeeming qualities. They are rude, brash, abrasive, not my cup of tea. Their humor isn't clever at all. I fell in love with JT because of his bedraggled yet still golden heart. Brant and Roberts just annoyed the BEJAYSUS out of me.
Unlike Bruen's smooth and relaxed writing style in JT, it seemed rushed in this. I felt like my mind had to go 100 mph just to keep up with the dialogue and what was happening. The dialogue also was a problem for me. I didn't understand half of what was being said. The crimes were boring and offered no real mystery.
Love Bruen and will continue to make my way through his works but this one just didn't do it for me.
I think it's because unlike Jack, who is an asshole but still a sweetie at heart, Brant and Roberts don't really have any redeeming qualities. They are rude, brash, abrasive, not my cup of tea. Their humor isn't clever at all. I fell in love with JT because of his bedraggled yet still golden heart. Brant and Roberts just annoyed the BEJAYSUS out of me.
Unlike Bruen's smooth and relaxed writing style in JT, it seemed rushed in this. I felt like my mind had to go 100 mph just to keep up with the dialogue and what was happening. The dialogue also was a problem for me. I didn't understand half of what was being said. The crimes were boring and offered no real mystery.
Love Bruen and will continue to make my way through his works but this one just didn't do it for me.
rosseroo's review
3.0
I picked this up when it came out 15 years ago and just couldn't get past the first ten pages or so -- it felt like I'd turned the TV on in the middle of an unfamiliar show, with long-established characters bantering their way through quick scenes, and I just couldn't keep up. This time around, I was able to find the book's rhythm right away and ride it to the end -- which doesn't take long, it's very short.
The title is London cop slang for the kind of career-making bust that renders one nearly untouchable -- something two of the three protagonists are in dire need of. DS Brant is the worst kind of bully cop, smacking people around in interrogation rooms, sexually harassing pretty much any woman in his line of sight, and leaning on local merchants for all manner of freebies. His boss, Chief Inspector Roberts is on the tail end of his career and close to being forceably retired. The third protagonist is WPC Falls, whose gender and race place her on the opposite end of the spectrum from Brant, but still manages to get along with him.
Their Southeast London precinct is locus for not one serial killer, but two -- the first a total nutcase called "The Umpire" intent on killing off the English national cricket squad, the latter a foursome led by a testosterone and shame fueled vigilante thug inspired by the Death Wish movies to start lynching local drug dealers. I generally can't stand crime novels that involve serial killers -- I think they're a very lazy plot device. However, everything in this book, from the cops, to the action, to the vivid language is so bursting with outsized color that it fits in.
Make no mistake, for all the wisecracking and pop culture references, this is a violent and grim book. Definitely for fans of hard-boiled London, rather than more cerebral crime stories. It doesn't always work -- there are some subplots (one about a Roberts's wife going to a sex club, another about a sad sack police officer) that seem somewhat extraneous to the story. But it's worth checking out if you're interested in crime stories that have an unusual style to them.
Note: There are continuous references to Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books, and Bill James Harpur and Iles series get a namecheck as well.
The title is London cop slang for the kind of career-making bust that renders one nearly untouchable -- something two of the three protagonists are in dire need of. DS Brant is the worst kind of bully cop, smacking people around in interrogation rooms, sexually harassing pretty much any woman in his line of sight, and leaning on local merchants for all manner of freebies. His boss, Chief Inspector Roberts is on the tail end of his career and close to being forceably retired. The third protagonist is WPC Falls, whose gender and race place her on the opposite end of the spectrum from Brant, but still manages to get along with him.
Their Southeast London precinct is locus for not one serial killer, but two -- the first a total nutcase called "The Umpire" intent on killing off the English national cricket squad, the latter a foursome led by a testosterone and shame fueled vigilante thug inspired by the Death Wish movies to start lynching local drug dealers. I generally can't stand crime novels that involve serial killers -- I think they're a very lazy plot device. However, everything in this book, from the cops, to the action, to the vivid language is so bursting with outsized color that it fits in.
Make no mistake, for all the wisecracking and pop culture references, this is a violent and grim book. Definitely for fans of hard-boiled London, rather than more cerebral crime stories. It doesn't always work -- there are some subplots (one about a Roberts's wife going to a sex club, another about a sad sack police officer) that seem somewhat extraneous to the story. But it's worth checking out if you're interested in crime stories that have an unusual style to them.
Note: There are continuous references to Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books, and Bill James Harpur and Iles series get a namecheck as well.
samhouston's review
3.0
Ken Bruen novels are inhabited by a few (very few) good cops, a whole bunch of “bent” ones, and a few brutal criminals who happen to wear police badges while committing their crimes. His is a violent world in which criminals and cops compete on an even playing field – rules and rights, be damned. A White Arrest, the first book in Bruen’s White Trilogy, is a prime example of that world.
London’s Chief Inspector Roberts and Detective Sergeant Brant do not do things by the book. On the good cop/brutal cop spectrum, they are much closer to being characterized as criminal cops than as good cops. But, despite their wild-man tactics, they are not particularly effective at solving crimes. Consequently, their jobs are often on the line. They badly need a “white arrest,” - the high profile arrest of a criminal whose crimes have caught the imaginations of the public – if they are ever to have any real job security.
Brant, the book’s main character, abuses his police power so badly that he has long forgotten how to make a legal arrest. He physically abuses suspects, takes bribes when he can get them (and steals cash laying around crime scenes when he hopes no one is looking), runs a liquor store tab he has no intention of ever paying, and is not above stiffing the pizza delivery guy on occasion. But all that makes him the perfect cop to stop the murderers terrorizing two very different segments of the London population.
A White Arrest is Ken Bruen at his wildest – and that is really saying something. Reading this one is like reading under a bright strobe light as Bruen presents one short scene after another in such rapid succession that it is often difficult to determine which character is speaking – or, for that matter, even involved in the segment. But, frustrating as this approach often is, it works well to set the tone of the dual investigations that take on lives all their own.
Roberts and Brant, like them or not, are a forced to be reckoned with in their patch of southeast London. Criminals beware.
London’s Chief Inspector Roberts and Detective Sergeant Brant do not do things by the book. On the good cop/brutal cop spectrum, they are much closer to being characterized as criminal cops than as good cops. But, despite their wild-man tactics, they are not particularly effective at solving crimes. Consequently, their jobs are often on the line. They badly need a “white arrest,” - the high profile arrest of a criminal whose crimes have caught the imaginations of the public – if they are ever to have any real job security.
Brant, the book’s main character, abuses his police power so badly that he has long forgotten how to make a legal arrest. He physically abuses suspects, takes bribes when he can get them (and steals cash laying around crime scenes when he hopes no one is looking), runs a liquor store tab he has no intention of ever paying, and is not above stiffing the pizza delivery guy on occasion. But all that makes him the perfect cop to stop the murderers terrorizing two very different segments of the London population.
A White Arrest is Ken Bruen at his wildest – and that is really saying something. Reading this one is like reading under a bright strobe light as Bruen presents one short scene after another in such rapid succession that it is often difficult to determine which character is speaking – or, for that matter, even involved in the segment. But, frustrating as this approach often is, it works well to set the tone of the dual investigations that take on lives all their own.
Roberts and Brant, like them or not, are a forced to be reckoned with in their patch of southeast London. Criminals beware.
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