A Galway Epiphany

 Ken Bruen, an Irish novelist, has been one of my favorite authors, and it’s my assumption that his protagonist, Jack Taylor, is in large part the author himself. I read and reviewed the most recent novel, Galway Confidential, the 17^th in this series just last month (4/24), the first of his novels that I had read in 6 years, but there had also been a long gap between the dates that the 16^th and 17^th books were published. Although East Coast Don (ECD) reviewed the 16^th book, A Galway Epiphany in 2022, I felt a need to read it to find out why book 17 started out with Jack awakening from a two-year coma. But now I’m confused about all the major injuries Jack has suffered over the course of these novels. The 16^th book ends with him being stabbed many times by a father had mistaken Jack’s interest in his daughter and/or was trying to protect himself from charges of child abuse. But, upon awaken from his long coma at the beginning of the 17^th book, Jack had been run over by a Mac truck. Maybe it’s just me that has lost track of Jack’s horrific injuries.

 

Always an Irish noir writer, this may have been Bruen’s darkest novel, which is indeed saying something remarkable. There was a teenage girl who was a psychopath and murderer. There was a woman who was trying to pass herself off as a nun in order to get donations for a fake cause, a psychopathic man who loved to set people on fire, priests who thought of their own needs first, and the usual cast of substance abusers. But, despite the noir, I am drawn to Bruen’s erudite writing and the authenticity of his descriptions of Taylor’s substance abuse. Given the excellent review of the book by ECD, I need not write more. Please read his review.