Book: Blitz by Ken Bruen

First published in 2002 this hard-hitting cop killer story has been re-vamped to coincide with the release of the film adaptation.

The main character is Brant, a tough cop who thinks nothing of beating up suspects and leaning on witnesses or anyone else he can make use of.

When cops begin to get bludgeoned to death across the city Brant and the team must use all their expertise to nail the clever killer.

While Brant is top of the bill this is really an ensemble piece with cool sub-plots. Brant himself becomes a bit part player and it’s rookie cop McDonald (out to impress his superiors) and female officer Falls (a recovering addict) who steal the show.

There are a couple of Brant novels prior to this one but it has the feel of a tv pilot episode, albeit for a superior series. The action moves along swiftly, helped by short snappy chapters. The one irk is that Bruen often uses phrases like……Brant was confused. “I’m confused” said Brant……this spoils the flow but thankfully it seems to disappear about half way through the book. Otherwise this is a tremendous piece of crime fiction and I now consider myself a Ken Bruen fan. I fully intend to check out more of his work.

Following the disappointing London Boulevard (the last film adaptation of a Bruen novel) it will be interesting to see how the on-screen version turns out. Especially with action star Jason Statham in the lead role. Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised but it will have to be a pretty good film to live up to this brilliant book.

Highly recommended for fans of violent, fast-paced, crime stories.

Ric’s Rating: 91%

DVD: London Boulevard

Colin Farrell plays Mitchell, a man who is determined to go straight after a spell in prison in this adaptation of the novel by Ken Bruen.

Mitchell agrees to help his friend Billy (Ben Chaplin) collect money for a local gangster but quickly realises that it's something he doesn't want involved in. Unfortunately the boss (Ray Winstone) has plans for Mitchell, leading to an inevitable confrontation between the two.

With the exception of Farrell due to his wandering accent (it goes from Irish to posh boy to cockney geezer, sometimes within the same sentence) the performances are good. Winstone is as reliable as ever and both Kiera Knightley and Anna Friel are fine as Mitchell's love interest and sister respectively. David Thewlis is also surprisingly good.

The trouble here is that director William Monahan unsuccessfully attempts to copy the style of Quinten Tarantino. The loud soundtrack quickly irritates and even the credits have a Tarantino feel about them. Farrell's character also seems to dither about too much, often choosing to be violent or passive at the wrong times.

The kinda poetic justice ending also falls flat.

It kept me watching but I was disappointed.

Ric's Rating: 42%