“Brant Bites Back”
by Ken Bruen
Hardcore Hardboiled (2008)
* * (Okay) Crime
Roberts reluctantly teams up with the irascible Sergeant Brant to track down the mysterious bloke beating - and biting - local women.
This story was trucking along fine until the last quarter of a page. After a perfectly succinct, snarky, and memorable ending, a tacked on postscript changed the character dynamics that worked so well throughout the story, and tossed in an unnecessary – and out of the blue – final revelation. Aside from the ending, I did rather enjoy Bruen’s realistic foreign dialogue and use of expression. I’m aware Bruen has written other popular mysteries, and would not be surprised if Brant appears in those; he’s the type of damaged character you enjoy spending time with.
Yup. I was correct. I found at least 7 novels that feature the characters of Brant and Roberts from this short story. I have to be honest, I'll be tracking them down in the future.
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