Just remember don’t read Jack Taylor if you are depressed because you will love the writing but your world will take on whole new shades of darkness. ( )

it's been a bit of time since I read a Jack Taylor book, and when the last one ended we see Jack on a major downhill slide after a terrible accident happened when he was minding his friends' three-year-old daughter. Serena May was only three and she had Down syndrome. When this book opens we see Jack in a mental hospital after being admitted to dry out and for some much-needed therapy sessions. This surprisingly literate private dick, hasn't even been reading as he's still blaming himself for what happened to Serena May. Jack's friend Ridge, who is a guard in Galway brings him home after the hospital releases him. Jack is still a long way from well, but he is not drinking, and he decides to give up smoking too. When his late mother's priest, Father Malachy, stops him in the street to ask for help in discovering who killed and beheaded a priest right in church, Jack wants to say no. He hates Father Malachy and he knows that he is not really up for joining the land of the living yet. But he decides to look into it because he wants to know why someone would do that to a priest. What he discovers is totally appalling and his search leads him to some survivors from the priest's actions in his younger years. Jack's recovery is a bit rocky, but he does stick to his guns on the drinking and fags. He's also dealing with some old ghosts and unresolved issues from before he was admitted. But Jack, being Jack, he does uncover the truth, albeit it wasn't a very satisfactory "solve". As with all Jack Taylor books, the ending is a real cliff-hanger, and I do wish Ken Bruen wouldn't do this every time, but I love this series and I love Jack Taylor so much that I try not let it get to me. It's something to look forward to with the next book, I guess. If you like hard-boiled, noir crime novels, and powerful, but flawed characters, then this series is just for you. The spare language and pace of the books helps to bring up the tension several notches. ( )

Although I enjoy the long elegant sentences from the likes of P.D. James, Ken Bruen's spare prose fizzes with spirit and fully conveys his ideas with a minimum of words. Jack Taylor is even more tortured than most fictional detectives, but he is one of my top picks, affirmed by Iain Glenn who played Jack on the tv series. Cody, his self-appointed sidekick, is a fitting partner. Bruen descibes Ireland, particularly Galway, in such a way that shows the old country alongside the prosperity and changes that have come about in recent years, all of which provides a clearer picture of the current state. He never shies away from controversial issues and here Jack's case involves a priest who abused altar boys and has been found beheaded in the confessional.

Bruen's frequent references to language, literature, and music add to Taylor's personality as well as the atmosphere of Galway.

"She raised her eyes to heaven, said, 'Once the races are over, we're in quare street.' The Irish pronounce queer as quare and it's not anything to do with Gay issues, it's purely for the sound of the word, to give it a full and resounding flavour. We love to taste the vocabulary, swill it around the mouth, let it blossom out into full bloom." ( )

Another solid story from Ken Bruen. As always an efficient well constructed story featuring one of the most accurate descriptions of an alcoholic you'll probably read about in Jack Taylor. ( )

After the events in the previous book, the protagonist is released from the place where he's been held and starts to look into the death of a priest. Probably 2.5 to 3 stars because the ending was broadcast from a long way back and was predictable, with too much plucking of the heartstrings. ( )