In The Galway Silence starts with Jack Taylor in a very unlikely place. He’s happy and seems ready to settle down, and with some financial gains has a lot less to worry about than he has in the past.

Hell, he’s even drinking less.

Of course, Jack Taylor is a man destined to undermine his own success, and soon finds his world turned upside down with personal drama and professional problems. He’s hired to find out who killed the sons of a wealthy man. His girlfriend has a work trip to America, and instead of going with her he stays back and is tasked with entertaining her son. He botches the bonding attempt. He saves someone’s life, finds out things about his case that nobody really wants to know, learns his family is bigger than he thought, and his girlfriend’s son is abducted by a pedophile.

Oh, and he’s also hired to find out who’s poisoning some dogs.

All of these random things converge in unexpected ways. What won’t be a surprise to anyone who knows Jack Taylor is that the happiness he’d found was fleeing and he’s soon drinking more than he should be, booze still failing to fill the empty space in his heart.

This book felt very familiar, as though I’d read it or parts of it before. Perhaps that’s because Jack Taylor follows a similar arc in each book of the series. Readers are somehow lured back to see if this time, Jack will find some happiness, or at least peace. I suppose we all have to take his good moments when we can get them, because they are overshadowed by so much darkness.

As with all Bruen books, In The Galway Silence moves at a blistering pace, and has the usual acerbic wit and lyrical style of a Bruen novel and Bruen fans will find this novel delivers on what Bruen is best known for.

I am consistently stunned by Mr. Bruen's novels and this one certainly stuns. It also shakes the soul and breaks the heart. The prose is terse. Diamond like in its clarity and hardness. The characters are drawn in short sharp shocks-- creating unexpected sympathies until their near consistent demises. I wish I could write about this book without sounding like a gushing sycophantic fanboy. But that might be near impossible.

3.5 stars rounded down to 3.
Thanks to Grove Atlantic for sending me this eARC through NetGalley. This is my first book in this series, but I have watched several of the tv adaptations. I would have understood it better if I had read the previous books in the series, but it worked ok as a stand alone. Jack Taylor is an ex Garda(police) now working as a PI. He is approached by a man who wants him to find out who murdered his 2 sons. Jack is an alcoholic and bitter about his lot in life--a failed marriage and now a failed relationship.
Pros: Jack Taylor does solve a mystery, and the ending ties up all the threads. It is a bittersweet ending, with the deaths of various innocent people. Jack is driven even further into alcoholism by all the deaths.
Cons: I did not like the stream of conscious writing--switching back and forth between Jack's thoughts in the first person and dialogue. I realize that fans of this series are legion and that this is my reaction. I read it in 2 days, as it is a short book.

Two quotes:
"There is a man, served three tours in Iraq and had the distinction of surviving three bomb attacks. He understandably developed a phobia about noise. He now specializes in what the Americans call wet work. More prosaically, he kills people. They call him the Silence."

"In Irish folklore three kinds of silence are identified: Silence through fear, Silence through choice, Silence of compassion."

Gritty novel sprinkled with humour

Jack Taylor, ex Garda, is contacted by Pierre Renaud and tasked with finding out who murdered his twin sons Jean and Claude.

Thus begins a good thriller which had pace and plot aplenty from start to finish. It is not a book for the squeamish but Ken Bruen has spattered a liberal dose of Gaelic humour throughout which does help to lighten it somewhat.

Jack Taylor is very much a down-to-earth ex-Garda and with a conscience. Although out of the service, he is very much at the centre of the action in Galway. His lifestyle brings him a relative amount of joy but more than his fair share of grief.

This was an enjoyable read and not too long at 288 pages, proving that it is not how much you put into a book but how much quality there is.

Sméagol

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book

My review is 3.7 stars.

This is my first book by Ken. And I can't say I loved the book but yeah I did liked it. And this generally gave me a sense that I should try other books by Ken because I found after this one that this writer is good and I can see influence of Ireland in the writing, which is kind of catchy. Although there are many places in the book where I found myself a bit confused and I think that this book either belongs to some series, I really don't know so I need to search about it.

About this book, I would say that definitely the author is talented because this book is not just a bunch of English words made into a sentences. they are chosen and written well. I like the flow of the story except few places, to be exact in the middle of the book. The story is intriguing and I liked the evolution of the plot. I liked the plot and I'm definitely recommend other readers to read this author and the rest of his books.

Jack is back. He’s bought an apartment. He has a new lady in his life and seems to be happy. The only little fly in the ointment is her obnoxious nine year old son Joffrey who gives Jack no end of trouble. But happiness and Jack don’t go together and he is still his old pill popping, drinking, ill humoured self. The book is full of dark humour and twists and turns with many characters out to get Jack. I like that Bruen puts in references to today’s news and has no trouble telling us how he feels about Trump. I am a Ken Bruen fan from way back and this book does not disappoint. He still has the gift of the old Irish gab.

Jack Taylor has to be one of the most fascinating characters ever written. I NEVER get tired of following Jack through the chaos that is his life. Ken Bruen has never failed to deliver anything less than stellar when it comes to the Jack Taylor series. THE GALWAY SILENCE is no exception.

I’m so excited for the new Ken Brian book. As always, this is a dark, fast paced story and Bruen’s writing is a highlight.

Brutal. That's the one word I would use to describe this book. I had not read any of the Jack Taylor series, and this might not have been the one to start with! But it's a tour de force- Galway is as much a character as Jack. The city and its roots frame both Jack's life and the events around him. Add in a game he doesn't know he is in the middle of, and you have a deep mystery wound so tight, you don't think it will ever be solved. But solved it is-in a totally UNEXPECTED, take your breath away way. After the moments of light humor and brilliant sarcasm, there is a gut wrenching "nooooooooo" and the reader has to STOP reading and breathe, before diving back in to see what will happen next. Ultimately it's a fulfilling story, and Bruen is an excellent storyteller.

Ken Bruen is one of my favorite authors because he uses such lyrical language. I was not disappointed in this adventure of Jack Taylor. Entertaining and surprising, highly recommend.

It took a little practice to read the flow/flight of ideas dialog. I had seen the series on Amazon Prime and had to relate it back to the character as portrayed in the series. Once I had him pegged in my "minds eye" it was easy. This book will play easily with the series. Quick read once you get the flow. If you like that type of dialog, it's a great read. Thank you!

You have to go with the flow of Bruen's storytelling, and if you engage with his romantic/tough, self destructive obsessed detective Jack Taylor, he will help you .. it's almost a grab bag too of cultural reference, orienting us .. this is kind of deeper Kathy Acker pastiche .. but I think she copied Bruen. Story of potential patricide by extraordinary means requires Taylor's inexorable sleuthing with gruesome violence. I'm a big fan .. I look forward to more

Jack Taylor is a former policeman with an attitude and an alcohol problem. That doesn’t mean he’s not a likable guy but I guess that depends on how you are dealing with him. He was hired to investigate a very weird crime, a murder, where adult twins were tossed in the river to drown. That sounds heinous, doesn’t it? Frankly, I think the twins got what they deserved. They decided to pick on a guy in a wheelchair as he was an easy target. While they started harassing him they had their guard down because he couldn’t defend himself. Except that he could actually defend himself and wasn’t wheelchair bound.

They man clacks their heads together and duct tapes them to the chair, pushes it into the river to meet their fate. (that was cliched but couldn’t help it!) Their father now recruits Jack to find out who killed them. It’s hard to care who killed them as they weren’t nice people.

There is suspense and if you are offended by bad language then avoid this one. Lots of F bombs throughout.

This isn’t the first Jack Taylor book so I ought to have started out with Guards, I may still go back and try it as I like a series. This didn’t grab me straight away but I wasn’t tempted to call it a DNF.

Much thanks to NetGalley for allowing me access to this book prior to publication this November. Opinions are all mine, nice and not so nice, and I was not compensated for the review.

This is the first Jack Taylor book I’ve read and it’s 14 in a series. I feel I should go back to the beginning for more background on the character and his life. Although he’s obviously a life weary ex cop who has seen everything. He’s gritty, humorous, interesting. I like that he quotes literature.. Quick read.

Jack Tayor is a former Irish cop who is far from perfect. He drinks too much, pops stimulants, his relationships have been rocky and he talks too much. Things have been looking up lately but that is all about to change. He gets drawn into a strange murder, his ex-wife shows up with a daughter he didn’t know he had, his girlfriend’s son is kidnapped and then there is the serial killer…

I am pretty good at sticking to the plot of a story and this one was difficult but worth it. This is Bruen’s 14th Jack Taylor mystery but my first. Dark, circuitous, complex and witty. Yes, Taylor is a deeply flawed and tormented character but he’s also someone who grows on you. I shall definitely catch up on the 13 other books!

the latest chapter in the Taylor saga is as good as all the recent entries. pretty much the same formula, but if it ain't broke...however now Jack has fewer and fewer "friends" to interact with as they keep dying off. Jack starts of relatively settled in this one, has a new girlfriend and things seem to be going well. ok, her kid doesn't like him much and when Jack gets stuck looking after him, things take a typically Jack turn. however he also gets dragged into solving the murder of a pair of degenerate twins that may have been committed by the mysterious Silence. all this is told in the same great Bruen style and that is what makes these books a constant and compelling read. fans will not be disappointed. thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance review copy.

Ken Bruen deserves his own category. Rather, Jack Taylor, his angst ridden, retired P.I. who has seemingly found stasis in his beloved Galway, defies cliched norms. While let's hope the events of Bruen's life don't coincide with those of Jack, I can't help but surmise that he shares with his alter ego the disgust with which he perceives the world of 2017. Beginning with revulsion at the current occupant of the White House, he notes with horror the unfolding of news from, among others, mass shootings at the concert in Manchester and the massacre in Las Vegas. But this being Ken Bruen, there is plenty at home to occupy Taylor mostly at the hands of a psycho-vigilante who seems teflon coated in his ability to escape retribution. Also, being a work by Ken Bruen, there is much black humor as well as pop cultural reference throughout. Very short, very quick, satisfying addition to this series.

A really good gritty book, kept me interested with the short sharp sentences, the account of factual current affairs as the story progressed and the real Irish humour from a "broken" man who doesn't give a shit about anything except those he wants to be close to except he messes it up before he's rejected. I'm not too sure I liked the ending though in that it finished up too quickly for me.
#InTheGalwaySilence #NetGalley

Ken Bruen writes in such a fashion that just flows. Uses very little words but has such impact. This is another awesome installment in the Taylor series. Again we find Jack not really wanting to get involved but cant help himself. Loved it. Only issue is the file itself, formatting of the book was a little wonky at times. but they will get that cleaned up before the final version comes out.

Lou Jacobs's Reviews > In the Galway Silence
In the Galway Silence by Ken Bruen
In the Galway Silence
by Ken Bruen

M 50x66
Lou Jacobs's review
Aug 06, 2018 · edit

really liked it

I just had my Jack Taylor fix! I became acquainted with the artform of Ken Bruen when I stumbled upon the television version of "Jack Taylor" ... sadly it only lasted for 3 seasons. It was so satisfying to see the return of the ex-Garda officer turned reluctant private investigator. The actor Iain Glen was casted pitch perfect to Bruen's literary Taylor. Once again, he's requested to investigate a case that the police are reluctant to pursue. Wealthy Pierre Renaud's sons were brutally murdered.... their illustrious legacy even suggested they deserved their fate. Bruen artfully succeeds in his non-linear herky-jerky plotting .... dragging us back and forth between seemingly unrelated events. .... as in life many things are happening simultaneously. Jack is faced with the uncomfortable position of having to deal with his new female companion and her son Joffrey at the same time his ex-wife Kitty shows up at his doorstep with his previously unknown daughter, Gretchen. Naturally in the course of dealing with this dilemma he faces challenges with alcohol, child molesters and saving the life of a "jumper" The tension ratchets up as the denouement unfolds with his confrontation with a psycho vigilante assassin. Bruen's prose and plotting are always a source of joy .. along with his fleshing out multiple characters. Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic books for providing as ARC of this great noir novel in exchange for an honest review.