Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor on TV screens

A few days ago “The Guards” - the pilot TV movie for a prime time series based on the Jack Taylor novels by acclaimed Irish crime writer Ken Bruen - was aired on TV3 in Ireland.

According to JackTaylorFilms.com, "Bruen is a prolific writer with many fans around the World and 28 novels behind him already" and "Galway based Magma Productions have signed a deal on the rights for the full series of Jack Taylor novels, more of which [are]to be shot in Galway in late 2010 and 2011".

So good news for Ken Bruen fans, and crime fiction fans in general, it seems.

In the pilot, "The Guards", former Irish cop turned finder Jack Taylor is played by Scottish character actor Iain Glen (pictured above on the left, with Ken Bruen), who has been in many productions over the years, eg playing Richard the Lionheart in Kingdom of Heaven, and Otto Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank.

You can watch a trailer for "The Guards" below:



According to JackTaylorFilms.com, upcoming further episodes in the series include:

THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS
Jack Taylor has slid further down the slope of despair. Someone is systematically slaughtering young travellers and dumping their bodies in the city centre. Even in the state he‘s in, Jack Taylor has an uncanny ability to know where to look, what questions to ask, and apparently solves the case.

MAGDALEN MARTYRS
Jack Taylor has sunk to all new lows with his drinking. But when he gets a tip-off about a missing woman named Rita Monroe, his ex-cop brain pulls his body into action. Rita had been one of the Magdalene girls, a group of unmarried mothers who had been consigned into slavery in a laundry run by the nuns. Jack sets out on Rita‘s trail, uncovering religious hypocrisy and abuse.

THE DRAMATIST
The impossible has happened: Jack Taylor is living clean and dating a mature woman. Rumour suggests he is even attending mass… The accidental deaths of two students appear random, tragic events, except that in each case a copy of a book by John Millington Synge is found beneath the body. Jack begins to believe that „The Dramatist,“ a calculating killer, is out there, enticing him to play.

PRIEST
The decapitation of Father Joyce in a Galway church horrifies even the most jaded citizen. Jack Taylor, devastated by the recent trauma of personal loss, has always believed himself to be beyond salvation. An eerie mix of exorcism, a predatory stalker, and an unlikely attraction conspires to lure him into a murderous web of dark conspiracies.

CROSS
Jack Taylor brings death and pain to everyone he loves. His only hope of redemption – his surrogate son, Cody – is lying in hospital in a coma. His insider Ridge tells him that a boy has been crucified in Galway city. Then the sister of the murdered boy is burned to death, and Jack decides he must hunt down the killer, if only to administer his own brand of rough justice.

SANCTUARY
A guard and then a judge die in mysterious circumstances. But it is not until a child is added to the list that Taylor determines to find the identity of the killer. What he doesn‘t know is that his relationship with the killer is far closer than he thinks – and that it‘s about to become deeply personal.

Hat Tip to J. Kingston Pierce at the always-excellent The Rap Sheet for the heads-up about the TV screening and the trailer.

So, did anyone watch "The Guards" on Monday night in Ireland? If so, what did you think? Are you a Ken Bruen/Jack Taylor fan? What do you think of the trailer? Thoughts and comments welcome.