Galway Confidential

 I ran across the most recent book by Ken Bruen in the Jack Taylor series, the 17^{th and it was just} published this year (2024). Bruen has been a prolific writer, producing nearly a book a year since the first, The Guards, in 2001. The last book of his that I read was six years ago, In The Galway Silence, published in 2018. I wrote a brief by positive review. He did write Galway Girl in 2019 which we did not review, and it was East Coast Don who did the beautiful review of A Galway Epiphany in 2020. Then, he did not publish again until this year with the current book, Galway Confidential.

 

Jack Taylor is a dark character indeed, and Bruen seems to have unusually intimate knowledge of what it’s like to be a polysubstance abuser, the disease with which Jack struggles. Could that problem be the reason for the 4 year hiatus in Bruen's publishing? I continue to love Bruen’s unique writing style and I need to learn why Jack has just recovered from being in a coma for two years. The reader knows that Jack was attacked, but this book never explained what happened. I’m going to have to go back and read the last couple of books so I can understand that. In this novel, nuns are being murdered and homeless people are being set on fire. Jack has a successful involvement in those cases while continuing to fight his own demons.

 

Once again, I must admit that I’m hooked on Ken Bruen.