Galway's Edge by Ken Bruen

Published by Mysterious Press on March 4, 2025

Jack Taylor’s life is not quite as miserable in Galway’s Edge as it often seems to be. He takes a few beatings but his dog is left alone. He interacts with nuns but none of them are murdered. Two women break up with Taylor but he doesn’t have to kill either of them. Series fans will understand that any day without the death of a dog or nun or girlfriend counts as a good day for Taylor.

Taylor takes on his usual causes in Galway’s Edge. A vigilante group called Edge that has assisted Taylor in the past is now headed by five people, including a priest. Father Richard, special envoy to the Archdiocese of Galway, Tuam, and Athenry, asks Taylor to find the vigilante priest “and dissuade him of his activities.”

Father Richard thinks “Edge has mostly been a force for good, but lately, its members seem to have drifted off into matters personal, neglecting their purpose. The Vatican feels they are now more of a threat than a help.” Edge got on the wrong side of an Englishman named Benson when it rejected him for membership. He retaliates by doing away with Edge’s members. The church can’t have a British protestant going after Edge, so Father Richard hires Taylor to solve the problem.

Benson gets on Taylor’s wrong side by stealing a jeweled cross from a convent. Taylor enlists a thief to recover the cross and a hacker to make trouble for Benson. Taylor’s actions will doom at least one of those men. They will also doom a promising relationship with a new lover while making him unpopular with a neighbor who is shagging Benson.

Taylor visits two brothers who stole a client’s dog and introduces them to his hurly. He takes on a cop who is beating his wife. He takes on another kiddie fiddling priest. A cancer victim wants Taylor to kill him. In other words, the plot is typical of a Jack Taylor novel: seemingly random events all connect in the end.

Bruen’s unconventional writing style is all about the rhythm he creates with paragraph breaks. Bruen writes wonderful and surprising sentences. My favorite in Galway’s Edge: “I had to dial it back not to smack him in the mouth, but in my experience no good comes of beating the clergy, they keep coming back.”

Bruen grounds his stories in current events and references to pop culture. He quotes song lyrics, sentences from novels, and lines from movies that relate (more or less) to Taylor’s life. Taylor sometimes comments on the news. More often he lets the news sit — thousands of deaths caused by an earthquake in Turkey, a shortage of housing for refugees from Ukraine — to illustrate the larger tragedies that overshadow his smaller ones. There may be no character in crime fiction more tragic than Taylor, but he never loses his understanding that he is living a small life in a big world — and a good life, despite the beatings he takes, compared to earthquake victims or Ukrainian refugees.

I particularly enjoy Taylor’s discussion of the books he’s reading. “I have always found calm, solace, and comfort in books. When my mind is on fire and I’m not quelling it with booze, I rely on books,” he says. I don’t drink much these days, but I can relate to finding solace and comfort in books. I always find entertainment, if not comfort, in Bruen’s novels. Galway’s Edge isn’t as edgy as some, but it’s still a good read.

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Galway Confidential by Ken Bruen

Published by Mysterious Press on March 5, 2024

Jack Taylor wakes up from a coma after 18 months and, within minutes, has his first taste of Jameson. It makes him feel much better.

Jack entered the coma after being stabbed multiple times at the end of A Galway Epiphany. Upon awakening, Jack learns that his life was saved by a man named Rafferty. Rafferty has been visiting Jack after convincing the hospital nurses that he is Jack’s brother. Rafferty has taken an interest in Jack’s life — he explains that he produces a true crime podcast that often features Jack’s cases — and, after Jack's discharge, Rafferty tries to partner with him on a couple of investigations. This will prove to be bad both for Jack and Rafferty, although series fans know that having any sort of friendship with Jack is likely to invite danger.

The plot of Galway Confidential is fairly typical for a Jack Taylor novel, although it might be less shockingly violent than most. A former nun, Shiela Winston, wants to hire Jack to find the rogue who has been killing nuns in Galway. The Guards are doing little to solve the crime spree, as they are overwhelmed with protestors against lockdowns and vaccination policies.

In addition to investigating attacks on nuns, Jack searches out a couple of affluent youngsters who are setting fire to the homeless. Jack also meets up with Quinlan, an associate of Rafferty whose violent approach to problem solving is not as compatible with Jack’s as Quinlan believes.

During his investigations, Jack is contacted by an alcoholic priest. Jack forces the priest to dry out — perhaps an act of hypocrisy for someone who drinks as much as Jack — but again, any association with Jack isn’t likely to end well. The plot threads weave together in ways that readers have come to expect from Ken Bruen.

Bruen has a history of referencing books, television shows, and movies in the Jack Taylor novels. A character in Green Hell explains that the references ground the novels in “stuff” that the reader knows. Bruen makes fewer cultural references than usual in Galway Confidential (perhaps because Taylor has been in a coma and thus unable to consume culture), but he grounds the novel in current events, as well as events Jack missed while he was sleeping: the Brexit disaster, Boris Johnson’s resignation, the Queen’s death, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the influx of refugees into Ireland, inflation and other consequences of the pandemic. The implication is that Jack has good reason to drink.

Jack Taylor novels are quick reads. Bruen’s minimalist writing style tells the story in short paragraphs that surround dramatic moments with quirkiness. Bruen’s notion of a long sentence is: “He had the kind of face that you know has never really been walloped properly but I could amend that.” Dialog is crisp, in part because Taylor rarely speaks unless he can’t prevent himself from responding to idiocy with sarcasm. Galway Confidential is an unremarkable entry in a remarkable series but since every Jack Taylor novel is darkly entertaining, my recommendation is nearly automatic.

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The Galway Epiphany by Ken Bruen

Published by Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press on November 3, 2020

A priest has an incurable disease that will ravish him before it leaves him dead. He wants to speed the process but it’s bad form for a priest to commit suicide. The priest asks Jack Taylor to kill him. When Taylor argues that murder is a mortal sin, the priest responds, “You have so many sins, will God notice?”

Taylor weighs the decision to kill the priest after a different priest confesses that he intends to kill a satanic child who, for a time, befriended Taylor. Such is Jack Taylor’s life. Those are only two of the plot threads that weave together in A Galway Epiphany.

Children are at the heart of the novel, both as abuse victims and as abusers. One of the villains in the story is burning down buildings, including one that might be occupied by kids. Another villain is a man who beats his six-year-old daughter. Another is a child whose bullying caused another child’s suicide. The remaining villain — the murderous child — is creating fake miracles that the gullible are only too happy to believe.

Taylor makes clear his disgust with a religion that fails to protect children from its priests. Still, he decides to go on something like a religious retreat where he will try to recharge while avoiding contact with nuns and priests. To the nun in charge, avoiding contact seems like a fine idea.

Taylor’s relationship with Catholicism is both strained and ambiguous. He is inclined to believe that all miracles are fake until he experiences one of his own. He’s hit by a car, wakes up from a coma with no serious injuries, and actually feels better than he has in years — until the novel’s end. Rarely does a Jack Taylor novel end well for Taylor. This one is no exception. Taylor might actually be on the verge of an epiphany until the last page. Like many of Ken Bruen’s last pages, it changes the narrative entirely.

Along the way, Taylor makes jaded and pithy comments about politics and praises a variety of crime writers, some of whom I’ve read and some I haven’t. Reading a Jack Taylor novel always makes my reading list grow.

I could complain that Taylor novels are formulaic but I like the formula. The books always move in sprints, occasionally pausing for Taylor to drink and exchange cross words with, well, everyone who speaks to him. Taylor’s dark struggles with whiskey and evil make him philosophical without being pedantic. He is one of the most troubled characters in crime fiction and, for that reason, among the most interesting. The Galway Epiphany is about average for a Jack Taylor novel, making my recommendation virtually automatic.

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Galway Girl by Ken Bruen

Published by Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press on November 5, 2019

Ken Bruen always packs a lot of story into his novels, while using a bare minimum of well-chosen and artfully arranged words surrounded by quite a bit of white space. Some of those words nod at current political realities or popular culture, including music and crime novels, while others illuminate the complexity of Galway, where snooty fern bars compete with grimy pubs that leave hardcore drinkers like Jack Taylor largely undisturbed. (Speaking of pop culture, two songs called “Galway Girl,” one by Ed Sheeran and one by Steve Earle, have been hits in Ireland. Bruen tips his hat to both songs during the course of the novel.)

Jack is mourning his latest tragedy (no spoiler here, but read In the Galway Silence to find the most recent explanation for Taylor’s heavy drinking) while a fellow named Scott, son of a recently deceased Guard (an Irish cop), is commencing a killing spree that targets Guards. Jack, a former Guard turned private investigator, witnesses one of the killings.

The same killing is filmed by a person who calls herself Jericho. Recent novels featured a woman named Emerald who tormented Jack; Jericho is her replacement. Jack, as he laments, seems to be a magnet for “crazies, lunatics, dispossessed, neurotics.” Most of them are homicidal.

A subplot involves a woman who wants to hire Jack because the mayor’s eleven-year-old son drowned her ten-year-old daughter. The woman thinks Jack might make Jimmy confess. What she means is, Jack might get revenge on her behalf, but even Jack won’t murder a child. The woman turns out to be more Machiavellian than Jack suspects.

Another subplot involves the sudden appearance of the son of Jack’s former best friend — a bestie until Jack killed him. With good reason, Jack is running low on friends. His dead friend’s son wants to even the score, but he’ll need to stand in line. That storyline is likely to stretch into future novels, as will Jack’s relationship with a falconer — a relationship that will only last until Bruen decides to kill him off.

One of Jack’s friends (but only when he wants something from Jack) is a priest. The priest wants Jack to get rid of his sister’s lesbian lover because a relative’s lesbian relationship isn’t good for the priest’s image. That storyline ties into another. In fact, the storylines generally weave together, suggesting that each bit of evil in Galway is part of a larger whole. Another of his friends is a nun, perhaps the only character in the series who sees something besides darkness in Jack’s heart. She features prominently in the plot before the novel ends.

I always enjoy and recommend Bruen’s novels, and this one is no exception. The story has less power, however, than some other Taylor novels, if only because of its familiarity. Crazy female killers is a theme that should have been put to rest with Emerald. Reprising it with Jericho has a “same old” feeling while making me wonder just how many crazy female killers Galway can support. Still, for Ken Bruen fans, even a lesser Jack Taylor novel is better than living through another year with no new Jack Taylor novel at all.

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In the Galway Silence by Ken Bruen

Published by Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press on November 13, 2018

Here’s how one of the characters in Ken Bruen’s In the Galway Silence describes Jack Taylor: “Not fully nuts but circling.” The description is apt, but the misfortunes that befall Taylor would make anyone nuts.

Two young and obnoxious men are killed by a man who superglues their mouths shut and pins a sign on their bodies that says “Silence.” Their father wants to hire Jack to bring him the killer. Jack, who seems to have entered into a steady relationship and is happy for the first time in a long time, wants no ugliness to disturb his new state of mind. Being Jack, he nevertheless commences an investigation. More “Silence” killings ensue, the apparent work of a vigilante.

As Jack investigates, he saves a man who jumped into the sea, an act of kindness that he might come to regret. A child molester, a dog killer, an annoying documentary maker, and a black swan all contribute to the plot.

In his personal life, Jack finds himself stuck with childcare duties, the downside of dating a woman who has a child. As series fans will understand, Jack is probably the least qualified person in the universe to provide childcare, with the exception of the various pedophiles the story touches upon. In Jack’s words, concerning the boy he is watching: “I’d have sold his miserable hide for one shot of Jameson.” Series readers might also remember an unfortunate mishap some books ago involving a baby and a window. There’s a reason Jack has little success in relationships.

But he misses his dog, so it is clear that a good heart beats in Jack’s chest. This novel proves Jack’s fundamental decency in multiple ways, not the least in a scene that leaves him briefly thankful for a respite from the bitterness that engulfs him.

As usual, Jack glides through the novel, taking frequent drinks, suppressing or (more often) making snarky comments to people who haven’t learned to leave him alone, and reviewing his growing list of mistakes. He also learns from an ex-wife that his past holds a surprise. But series readers know that anything good in Jack’s life will soon be destroyed and the descending darkness will again seem unbearable. There is no protagonist in fiction more tragic than Jack Taylor.

Jack provides the running commentary on current events, television shows, pop music, and crime novels for which Bruen is famed. I always find something new to read or watch in a Bruen novel, because Bruen understands that good writing isn’t the exclusive province of Booker prize winners. Bruen also incorporates a chess theme into the plot, strategies of the game informing Jack’s investigation in the same blurry way that Jack approaches life. But what Bruen does best is the punch-in-the-gut moment that makes Jack Taylor novels special. In the Galway Silence delivers a stronger punch than most, making it one of the best in the series.

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