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Rilke on Black
A poorly planned kidnapping turns bloody
Lisa is too good-looking not to be trouble. Nick falls for her as soon as he meets the lithe young black woman, and though their drug-fueled relationship quickly turns toxic, he can’t stop wanting her. In a flash, she’s burnt through his savings and cost him his job, so she proposes a kidnapping scheme to reinvigorate their bank accounts. Nick is too smart to think it’s a good idea, but too stupid to say no. The target is Ronald Baldwin, a local businessman of moderate wealth and infinite pretension, whose obsession with the poet Rilke borders on madness. For backup, Nick invites along Dex, his psychopathic across-the-street neighbor. With three amateur criminals as unhinged as those in this group, there’s no doubt that blood will be shed. The only questions are, who will fire the first shot, and who will fire the last?
Lisa is too good-looking not to be trouble. Nick falls for her as soon as he meets the lithe young black woman, and though their drug-fueled relationship quickly turns toxic, he can’t stop wanting her. In a flash, she’s burnt through his savings and cost him his job, so she proposes a kidnapping scheme to reinvigorate their bank accounts. Nick is too smart to think it’s a good idea, but too stupid to say no. The target is Ronald Baldwin, a local businessman of moderate wealth and infinite pretension, whose obsession with the poet Rilke borders on madness. For backup, Nick invites along Dex, his psychopathic across-the-street neighbor. With three amateur criminals as unhinged as those in this group, there’s no doubt that blood will be shed. The only questions are, who will fire the first shot, and who will fire the last?
150 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1997
27 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Ken Bruen
132 books850 followersKen Bruen was an Irish writer of hardboiled and noir crime fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 7, 2020
Nick is a big white guy in his forties working as a bouncer for a club and life was okay up to the point where he begins to get involved Lisa, a black young woman in her mid twenties. Nick sounds like the average guy but Lisa sounds a little bit like a whimsical whirlwind with malintent. Combined with a somewhat crazy neighbour, Dex, and we have ourselves a trifecta of crims. Alcohol, drugs, and the constant need for money can only end one way...
I'm not sure how to rate or review this one because it's just not the one for me?! I never liked protagonists who are just on the downward spiral (eg. American Psycho etc). I don't mind sad endings but I do not like hopeless ones. I didn't mind Nick so much except that he seems too naive for this story. It's a short fast read but never again.
I'm not sure how to rate or review this one because it's just not the one for me?! I never liked protagonists who are just on the downward spiral (eg. American Psycho etc). I don't mind sad endings but I do not like hopeless ones. I didn't mind Nick so much except that he seems too naive for this story. It's a short fast read but never again.
October 4, 2021
I put up with a lot of bullshit on Goodreads, but this, I cannot.
You Goodreaders act all high and mighty from the vantage point of your monitor. You crib, and you cant, and jig and amble, and give bad nicknames. You find out its an early work and say, “It’s very much an early work” as if early works aren’t usually strong. You Ken Bruen readers should know better too. This James M. Cain shit is hard to do and Bruen does it better than Cain. Taking street language and elevating it to high art is an achievement none of you are worthy of.
I will fight any of you. I’m talking to you Tien, to you Josh, you Joe, you Jess. Why don’t you come up to Seattle and we can have a discussion on literary merit. Then I’ll smash your fucking face in.
You Goodreaders act all high and mighty from the vantage point of your monitor. You crib, and you cant, and jig and amble, and give bad nicknames. You find out its an early work and say, “It’s very much an early work” as if early works aren’t usually strong. You Ken Bruen readers should know better too. This James M. Cain shit is hard to do and Bruen does it better than Cain. Taking street language and elevating it to high art is an achievement none of you are worthy of.
I will fight any of you. I’m talking to you Tien, to you Josh, you Joe, you Jess. Why don’t you come up to Seattle and we can have a discussion on literary merit. Then I’ll smash your fucking face in.
January 25, 2013
RILKE ON BLACK is one of Ken Bruen's earlier noirs and it's easy to see where the foundations for Jack Taylor were laid. Bruen's depiction of noir in a modern setting is unsettling and essential to the downtrodden and depraved mindset of his characters who inhabit this grey clad world he so effortlessly thrusts them in. In RILKE ON BLACK, the influence of vice is paramount to the plot. Alcoholisms and a slightly lighter form of prostitution (or overt promiscuous) to meet an end drive the character traits as the underworld cracks the surface towards urban crime.
A trio of misfits hatch a plot to kidnap a prominent club owner in order to buy a one way ticket from everyday living. An opportunity born through a devious kind of trust ensures that this plan is far from bullet proof. Bruen does a good job at maintaining the suspense and keeping the knife at bay, ready to strike in ones back at the slightest provocation. A quality few could master.
The crime itself plays out in relative prediction. Its the ensuing money drop and subsequent actions of the kidnappers that hold the readers attention. Nick (the bouncer), Dex (the requisite drifter type), and Lisa (the brains of the operation and shady character) play off each other constantly with violence simmering and mistrust as common as a breath of sordid polluted air.
There was a lot to like about RILKE ON A BIKE, yet the simplicity will either marvel or leave wanting. Its very much 'take-it-or-leave-it'. My initial reaction is that RILKE ON A BIKE is enjoyable without bringing the same level of satisfaction I've come to expect by Ken Bruen. This one definitely requires a re-read in order to fully appreciate Bruen's early development of the craft.
This review also appears on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
A trio of misfits hatch a plot to kidnap a prominent club owner in order to buy a one way ticket from everyday living. An opportunity born through a devious kind of trust ensures that this plan is far from bullet proof. Bruen does a good job at maintaining the suspense and keeping the knife at bay, ready to strike in ones back at the slightest provocation. A quality few could master.
The crime itself plays out in relative prediction. Its the ensuing money drop and subsequent actions of the kidnappers that hold the readers attention. Nick (the bouncer), Dex (the requisite drifter type), and Lisa (the brains of the operation and shady character) play off each other constantly with violence simmering and mistrust as common as a breath of sordid polluted air.
There was a lot to like about RILKE ON A BIKE, yet the simplicity will either marvel or leave wanting. Its very much 'take-it-or-leave-it'. My initial reaction is that RILKE ON A BIKE is enjoyable without bringing the same level of satisfaction I've come to expect by Ken Bruen. This one definitely requires a re-read in order to fully appreciate Bruen's early development of the craft.
This review also appears on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
April 1, 2011
Nick is an ex-bouncer with a father in the gutter; Dex, a class-A nutter; and Lisa, a druggie femme fatale with a bad mouth. When they decide to take hostage a club owner who has a taste for the poetry of Rilke, the ensuing chaos was like nothing I'd read before. Every page burst with style and substance, poetry and street patois, anger and adrenaline. All of it told with an ease of skill that is the mark of a true original.
November 14, 2017
London noir at it's finest, by the master of crime fiction.
As with much of Ken Bruen's writing the real joy is in the dialogue and description. This is a perfect showcase for both, coupled with a fast moving plotline
As with much of Ken Bruen's writing the real joy is in the dialogue and description. This is a perfect showcase for both, coupled with a fast moving plotline
November 13, 2019
Hard to put down. I really enjoyed it.
July 18, 2016
I’ve had a serious jones for Bruen’s work over the last few months. When he’s on, he just gets the hardboiled. He has his own voice and his own powerful sense of humor, and he has a knack for writing stories that favor the jab over the haymaker: quick narratives that take off and wrap up in skilled fashion.
This one, despite sounding great, is my least favorite of his so far. For one thing, I find the voice here more challenging that in other places. Nick talks in a strange fashion, some of it British-street vernacular (which can make it tough) and some of it just idiosyncratic in its rhythms. I expect him to go on about one thing, and he instead chooses another. It isn’t a matter of vocabulary, but of direction; I had too many instances of expecting he’d talk about one thing and finding, instead, that I was supposed to pick it up by innuendo or implication.
For another, Nick is very self-satisfied. He may have ambitions to be more than a tough bouncer, but he likes being a big plug-ugly. He likes the feeling of intimidating most people he sees. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not a perspective I can readily adopt. Unlike the extraordinary Jack Taylor in The Guards, who manages not quite to hate himself as he wrestles with his many failures, Nick risks patting himself on the back at every turn.
That tension undermines the strong premise of the book: Nick, his new young lover, and his sociopathic neighbor kidnap a local businessman. That might go in a lot of directions – and it does bring some solid payoffs, especially in the way the businessman teases the not-too-bright Nick – but it leads to Nick taking more and more responsibility for the crime as we see him less and less able. (I mean, forgetting to wear the mask that’s in his pocket?) In other words, Nick trusts (and even likes) himself despite increasing evidence that he shouldn’t.
The good news is that, like the other Bruen I’ve read, this is all over in a rush of adrenaline. This isn’t disappointing enough to put me off Bruen, but it’s certainly at the bottom of my list of his.
This one, despite sounding great, is my least favorite of his so far. For one thing, I find the voice here more challenging that in other places. Nick talks in a strange fashion, some of it British-street vernacular (which can make it tough) and some of it just idiosyncratic in its rhythms. I expect him to go on about one thing, and he instead chooses another. It isn’t a matter of vocabulary, but of direction; I had too many instances of expecting he’d talk about one thing and finding, instead, that I was supposed to pick it up by innuendo or implication.
For another, Nick is very self-satisfied. He may have ambitions to be more than a tough bouncer, but he likes being a big plug-ugly. He likes the feeling of intimidating most people he sees. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not a perspective I can readily adopt. Unlike the extraordinary Jack Taylor in The Guards, who manages not quite to hate himself as he wrestles with his many failures, Nick risks patting himself on the back at every turn.
That tension undermines the strong premise of the book: Nick, his new young lover, and his sociopathic neighbor kidnap a local businessman. That might go in a lot of directions – and it does bring some solid payoffs, especially in the way the businessman teases the not-too-bright Nick – but it leads to Nick taking more and more responsibility for the crime as we see him less and less able. (I mean, forgetting to wear the mask that’s in his pocket?) In other words, Nick trusts (and even likes) himself despite increasing evidence that he shouldn’t.
The good news is that, like the other Bruen I’ve read, this is all over in a rush of adrenaline. This isn’t disappointing enough to put me off Bruen, but it’s certainly at the bottom of my list of his.
January 14, 2016
I'm really somewhere between two and three stars on this one. I liked this book, but I also didn't like it. It's complicated. The story is both simple and complex; confusing and straight forward. It's a book of complete opposites and yet I still found myself wanting it to have a happy ending, despite all the horrible stuff that goes on. Bruen's writing is, as always, quick and fun, with a dark undertone and a lot of Brit-isms that could make Americans go "huh?" I've let this book settle into my psyche for 24 hours now and I'm still not sure if I liked it...
July 10, 2009
Took me a while to really get into this story. Once I got to the second half of the book I started to like it a lot more. I really liked the way it was written and will be reading more Ken Bruen for sure.
December 29, 2012
An early stand alone novel that had all the ingredients of Bruen's latter work but was not quite as polished. Still well worth reading and it was fun seeing a couple of names like Brant and Falls pop up in the narrative.
October 8, 2007
/01/05 #155
TITLE/AUTHOR: RILKE ON BLACK by Ken Bruen
Rating: 4.5/B+
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Crime Fiction, 1996, 151 pgs
COMMENTS: 1st crime fiction book by Bruen.
TITLE/AUTHOR: RILKE ON BLACK by Ken Bruen
Rating: 4.5/B+
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Crime Fiction, 1996, 151 pgs
COMMENTS: 1st crime fiction book by Bruen.
January 29, 2011
Another of Bruen's stand alone novels. If you haven't read any Bruen, I recommend starting with The Guards" or The White Trilogy, both of which are excellent.
December 15, 2012
Bruen's definitely still finding his voice in this early outing and it suffers a bit for that, but his approach to crime and punishment is still one of the more interesting in modern fiction.
July 23, 2015
Not my favorite Ken Bruen book, but still a solid read. Rilke on Black portrays one of the strongest gay characters in any sort of media that I have ever read or seen.
February 18, 2016
Vintage Ken Bruen. Violent, surprising. Not a very likable main character.
February 21, 2011
Quick noir read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews