"The Dramatist"

Ken Bruen's "The Dramatist" is his fourth novel in the Jack Taylor series.  Jack, a former Garda, is off the booze, the pills, illegal drugs, and working on giving up cigarettes. One reason: his former drug dealer is in prison so he no longer has a source.

His life begins to get complicated again, though,when his former drug dealer asks him to visit him in prison and offers to pay him to discover who killed his younger sister, a university student.  Reluctantly, Jack agrees and his investigation leads him to the similar death of another young woman.

In the meantime, he had coffee with a woman he still cares deeply for and discovered her husband had beat her.  She didn't want him to take any action but, when she told her husband she'd met with Jack, her husband sought him out and beat him senseless.  Five days in the hospital and a permanent limp later and Jack is back at work on his investigation but not before he has a run in with the Pikemen (a vigilante group that includes Garda) and they want him to join him.

Life is never easy for Jack and one investigation always seems to get sidetracked by other events.  When he finally discovers who is behind the murders of the young women and why, he confronts his suspect who he has learned has a third victim in mind -- a murder Jack intends to prevent at any cost.

I don't find Bruen's books "riveting" and I sometimes have difficulty wading through his poetry and references to other books and music because that distracts me from the story but I always finish them and I always enjoy the mysteries and story plot twists.  This one ends with a shocking twist that I'm glad I didn't miss.  pazt