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Taming the Alien |
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| Taming the Alien by Ken Bruen The Do-Not Press/Dufour editions 158 pages, April 2000 ISBN 1899344497 Reviewed by Lisa Eagleson-Roever Taming the Alien is second in a trilogy. I wish I'd read the first. Reading ALIEN, I feel like I've opened up a British soap opera. Who are these people? Keep reading, you'll get it. What did The Alien (Roy, Ron, or Reg,depending on what part of the book you're in) do to get on Police Constable Tom Brant's bad side? Keep reading, you'll get it. Why is everybody either desperate or crooked? It's like a British version of NYPD Blue, only more so - keep reading, you'll get it. Who ARE all these people who are named once and don't seem to exist ever again? Keep reading... And you do keep reading, because you can't help yourself. WPC Falls is black and female and there isn't a person she doesn't meet who isn't either ready to kick her in the face (figuratively or literally) or acting as if she's got the IQ of a turnip. [Characters spend a lot of time congratulating themselves on being able to talk to people of color "as if they were regular people."] She's had a string of bad luck with her love life, but is overjoyed to discover she's pregnant. PC Brant is her mentor and he's introducing her to all his contacts, ready to pass the torch. Then PC Brant resigns from the Constabulary so he can go after The Band-Aiders - two wastes-of-breath who murdered his friend PC Tone because they wanted the pair of pants he was wearing. The Band-Aiders remind me of the worst of Sid and Nancy. The Alien (a mob enforcer who isn't really the main character) gets out of jail and sets off after his former girlfriend Stella, to kill her. She's now living in California with the most bland husband she could find. Stella's trying to bury her past by hiding out in suburbia. Too bad for her The Alien knows how to find her. There is justice in this dark comedy, but I won't give it away. Chief Inspector Roberts is in debt up to tops of his braces and is in cahoots with the somewhat nebulous mobster Bill Preston. Roberts has skin cancer and a terrible relationship with his family. Preston, who doesn't mind setting enforcers off to "remind folks of their duty," is completely and touchingly devoted to his daughter with Down's Syndrome. Get ready also for a time warp. It's a noir of the modern era, only I never did figure out which decade. There's an odd mix of 1990s, 1980s, and 1970s references. Everybody's playing 1970's and early 1980's music on the radio, and in the United States the airport vagrants do Mr. T impressions. I really should find the first book and see what I missed. Some characters are so close to stereotypes you recognize them immediately, but almost all have surprisingly human touches that keep you interested in them. |
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