Jack Taylor has just awakened from a coma, after almost 2 years in hospital. He has missed the worst of the Covid epidemic. A former nun asks him to investigate attacks on nuns. Another good PI thriller from 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.

RECOMMENDED

A good book especially if you kept up with the series. I did not, so I missed some things. I would try author again in future.

GALWAY CONFIDENTIAL by Ken Bruen
Published: 3/5/2024 by Mysterious Press
Page Count: 264

And yet again … another riveting Bruen gem featuring ex Gard officer and present day private eye, Jack Taylor. This is the seventeenth glorious installment in this amazing and enduring series. Although this can be enjoyed as a stand alone … readers will want to explore the entire Jack Taylor series. I was late to the party in discovering the enjoyable pathos of Jack Taylor. I not only went back to read the previous tales but also binge watched the Netflix television series. No on can read these stories without visualizing the amazing Scottish actor, Iain Glen as Jack Taylor ( this was before his stint as Sir Jorah Mormant on the Game of Thrones.)
Jack awakens from an prolonged coma to be engulfed in the raging COVID pandemic. He scours the internet in an attempt to catch-up with life. He is visited daily by “Rafferty”. … the pod-caster of “Galway Confidential” , who probably saved his life, the day he was knifed on the bridge. Soon after released from the hospital he is approached by a former nun, Sheila Winston. She pleads for his involvement. Two nuns have been viciously bludgeoned by a mysterious man wielding a hammer. The Garda investigation has gone nowhere. Meanwhile sadistic juvenile delinquents are setting fire to homeless drunks. Jack is beseeched to investigate for the benefit of the homeless community. To investigate both cases, Jack is forced to go undercover as an alky …. not too difficult, already being addicted to Jamieson Irish Whiskey. Jack is an extremely flawed protagonist … a violent lush, who cannot control his sarcastic ballsy behavior. One of Jack’s many mottos: the law was for courts, justice was in the alley.
Ken Bruen with his magical skill as a storyteller unleashes a complex and twisted narrative that escalates into an unexpected and explosive denouement as he weaves the two cases together. Along the way he astounds with his gritty dark Irish humor and almost poetic prose. Violence abounds but is not gratuitous … and sets the stage for what is imminent.
Thanks for NetGalley and Mysterious Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review. Hopefully the saga of Jack Taylor will continue.

3.5 stars

Jack Taylor was an officer in the Garda Síochána (Irish Police) until he was dismissed from the force. Jack is now a private detective in Galway, known for his addiction to Jameson Irish Whiskey and for his skills as a private investigator. Still, when a client approaches Jack he always insists, "Cases got solved around me, very rarely did I actually find the solution."

As the story opens Jack is awakening from an 18-month-long coma, the result of being knifed on a bridge during his last case. When Jack opens his eyes, a stranger named Raftery is there, and Raftery explains that he witnessed the attack on Jack, threw the perpetrator off the bridge, and saved Jack's life. Raftery, who hosts a crime podcast called 'Galway Confidential,' seems to believe that old saying about how if you save someone's life, you're responsible for them, and he becomes a fixture in Jack's life.

In between bouts of physical therapy and counseling, Jack studies the Internet, to learn what's happened over the last couple of years. In addition to reading about sports, politics, people, and television, Jack learns there's an ongoing Covid pandemic, which is a shock. After Jack is released from the hospital he's approached by a former nun named Sheila Winston. Sheila explains that someone is attacking local nuns with a hammer, the Garda isn't making progress with the case, and she wants Jack to investigate. Jack is skeptical about his chances, but he pursues the culprit with Raftery's help.

Meanwhile, two sadistic juvenile delinquents called Scott and Tony are setting fire to homeless drunks. A derelict boozer named Geary asks Jack to help the vagrant community, and Jack - who can't go five minutes without a shot of Jameson - goes undercover as an alkie to catch the hooligans. This ends up causing all kinds of trouble.

As Jack works his two cases he tries to help a priest get sober; consults with an Irish Guard called Owen Daglish; and is persuaded to adopt an orphaned Shih Tzu pup called Trip.

Author Ken Bruen sprinkles recent cultural references through the story, such as Serbian tennis ace Novak Djokovic not being allowed to play in the 2022 Australian Tennis Open because he wasn't vaccinated; the guilty verdict on sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell; Russia's invasion of Ukraine; the attack on novelist Salman Rushdie; people selling T-shirts that say: Guns don't kill people; Alec Baldwin does; and more.

Also included are fun aphorisms about confidentiality like: the Irish feel that confidentiality is really little more than a notion not to share; and keeping something confidential in Galway means you only tell two people instead of three.

It's good to see Jack Taylor going strong and interesting to get a peek at the ambiance of Galway, with it's Roman Catholicism; Irish slang; bars and pubs; and street justice.

Thanks to Netgalley, Ken Bruen, and Mysterious Press for a copy of the book.

In Galway Confidential, author Ken Bruen’s writes another installment to his Jack Taylor series. Jake wakes up from a coma to discover the world has changed. The pandemic hit while he was asleep. A woman asks for his help to solve the murder of two local nuns that have been bludgeoned by a mysterious man wielding a hammer. And who is the man visiting him in the hospital that tells people he’s Jake’s brother? This was the first book I have read in the series. It was ok with a twist at the end. Not sure I would read the rest of the series. I would somewhat recommend this book. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jack Taylor returns!

Ok, I never tire of Jack Taylor. Hard bitten, alcoholic ex Guardia turned detective, who lives around the edges, alternating between kindness, generosity, driven intent, all whilst shrugging his shoulders at the world that passes him by. He’s totally outrageous. A mostly cynical, Jameson drinking, hard living, all softened by his easily accepting Irish charm.
Jack’s been in a coma for the last eighteen months. The world has passed him by. He’s essentially missed Covid, the English Parliament destroying itself, Liz Truss and her shortest reign as Prime Minister in history, the craziness of Brexit, the war in Ukraine—all whilst he was non compus mentis.
Now he’s being asked to find out who’s killing nuns.
Oh, and who’s setting homeless people alight?
Welcome back, Jack! The world has been a poorer place with you out of action.
Bruen’s conversation style, hard hitting language, softened by the occasional poetic voice is a treat.
So love Jack Taylor novels!
Oh, and my reading images always default to actor Iain Glen. He’s seared into my mind as Jack.

A W.W. Norton ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Don't worry if you haven't read all or even any of the preceding books in this long running series- this will be just as good as a standalone because Bruen manages to capture both Jack Taylor and the city of Galway in a way that will engage and entertain you. He also weaves in current events smoothly. In this case, it's COVID and Ukraine. Jack, who has awakened from a coma, finds himself hunting for the fiend who has been bashing nuns on the head. It's a procedural with a cop who doesn't have a badge. It's also humorous. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Jack Taylor lay in a coma for almost two years and I missed him. He wakes to a troubled world filled with fear of germs and finds the man who saved him sitting by his bed. Horrific crime still exists and, as he recovers from his near-death experience, he becomes embroiled in the serial murders of nuns and homeless people. Ken Bruen’s style is stark and spare, delivering the occasional hard punch. Trust no one but Jack and you’ll understand what an unforgettable character he is. He despises hypocrisy and injustice and lives his life eliminating them wherever and whenever he can; this time he meets others like him. I shall wait patiently for the sequel.

Galway Confidential is Ken Bruen's seventeenth Jack Taylor novel, but it is the first since A Galway Ephiphany was published during the catastrophic covid year of 2020. Appropriately enough, as this new glimpse into Jack's darkly chaotic world begins, Jack himself is just waking up from a coma of almost two year's duration. Jack wakes up into a world in which so much has changed that he can hardly believe his eyes. Some things, though, never seem to change no matter how much we wish they would. Those he can believe.

Jack is struggling to recall the near-fatal knife attack that preceded him being tossed into the river to drown, and he cannot recall at all the man who saved his life by pulling him from the river just in the nick of time. That man is now a fixture in Jack's life despite how utterly annoying Jack often finds him to be. But Jack owes him - and Jack always pays his debts.

Despite his brush with death, Jack's reputation on the street is still that of a man able and willing to go where the local police refuse, for reasons of their own, to go. When bad people need fixing, Jack Taylor is the man good people go to for the job. One thing that didn't change while Jack was enduring his long sleep is that there are plenty of bad people out there who need fixing. And two of them have just intruded on Jack's world. Their bad.

One of them is taking a hammer to the heads of Galway's nuns, and the other is burning alive homeless people. Jack is not having any of that.

Ken Bruen's Galway is a dark place in which no one can ever truly be trusted, least of all the police, the Church, and the government. It is a world in which despair, fear, and desperation are often the drivers, a world in which surprisingly effective alliances are sometimes formed between people who refuse to accept things as they are - people who fight back.

Jack Taylor, a man who has been trying to drink himself to death for decades, is one of those people. His badge as a police officer of the Garda Síochána has been taken from him, he has watched his mother be manipulated by an unscrupulous priest for years, and he knows that successful politicians are never the best of us. Jack has done things he's not proud of, some of those things responsible for his seeming determination to kill himself with the booze. He has killed people to stop them from killing again. It is no wonder that the weak and the helpless come to Jack Taylor for help.

Jack Taylor is a good man.

Galway Confidential is filled with Ken Bruen's usual wit and stylistic quirks, and reading a Ken Bruen novel, dark and brutal as the world it is set in may be, is always fun. Galway Confidential is no exception.

Reading Ken Bruen is an experience in culture and the human condition packaged as a noir mystery, and a good one at that. I read that Bruen is an acquired taste, but I don’t see that. True, it took a chapter or two to acclimate to his rhythm and style, but I think my reading preferences came into play, as I approach books ready to explore character and theme.

On the surface, Bruen’s work is light and skippy, but it is actually thematic with well developed characters. Protagonist Jack Taylor is a representative of society’s ills and the heart that beats within its many traps. The grip of alcohol addiction has damaged Taylor’s health and career, but he is reconciled to its never loosening, especially given the role that drinking plays in his culture. That doesn’t mean he has no hope for others, and his generosity in reaching out adds depth to his character. A theme that drives the plot in this novel is disenchantment with the Catholic Church, and Bruen balances this with Taylor’s nostalgia for the past when the Church served as community glue.

The author weaves quotes and current events into the narrative that lends immediacy to it, and he plays with the title by providing definitions of the word confidential to explain Irish thinking. He also employs internal dialogue to record Taylor’s reactions, which is far more impactful and humorous than describing them. The plot is less focused on pacing and tension than it is on theme, and the ending is either a resolution or cliffhanger, however you wish to view it.

As late as I might be to the party, I’m glad I found this author.

Many thanks to Penzler Publishers, Mysterious Press and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

The newest in the Jack Taylor series, poor Jack, recovering from a long time coma, struggling with his addictions and once again dealing with nuns, priests and murderers. I love Jack, I find him a sympathetic character, must be the Irish in me, and love his deadpan humor and bleak outlook. The literary and pop culture tidbits sprinkled throughout the book are fun. A quick read with snappy dialogue. Pour yourself a Jameson and enjoy the read.

The 17th novel in the Jack Taylor series begins with the protagonist emerging from a two-year-long coma. That’s author Ken Bruen’s device for setting up a recitation of real-life events of the Covid era, which form the heartbeat of this compelling noir tale. Taylor’s Galway is challenged by improbable circumstances that include an influx of refugees following the invasion of Ukraine, runaway economic inflation, and the shuttering of pubs during the emergence of the omicron variant. That is the backdrop. Taylor’s more pressing concerns include the serial murders of a local order of nuns, a parallel series of attacks on the city’s homeless population, and the spiralling alcoholism of a well-meaning young priest — not to mention Taylor’s own proclivity for Jameson’s.

Bruen’s distinctive style has not significantly evolved in the 24 years he has been chronicling Taylor. That’s reassuring, since from 2001’s “The Guards,” his cadences and eccentric use of punctuation have propelled the plots and dialogue. “Galway Confidential” is a worthy continuation of the Jack Taylor collection, which I recommend with enthusiasm. I’m grateful to NetGalley.com for making a reviewer’s copy available pre-publication.

Thank you to Mysterious Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Ken Bruen has been one of my favorite authors since I was introduced to Jack Taylor years ago with the Killing of the Tinkers. Since then, I've anxiously awaited each new release and was grateful to be given an ARC for the latest, Galway Confidential.

Bruen is a master of noir, keeping his characters involved in plots just dark enough to remind you of that but still keep the reader engaged and wanting to read through quickly to see where things will go next. These are always quick reads for me and Galway Confidential is one that reminded me of earlier works of Bruen. 5 stars

A gripping page turner. A fast moving Jack Taylor episode. Very enjoyable. After starting the book, found I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting.

I do love Ken Bruen, and one must understand what they're getting into when they begin a Jack Taylor novel. Much like Lethem's Brooklyn Crime Novel, the Jack Taylor novels are about the atmosphere. Being there, seeing the city, the people, living as this near undesirable. And finding some kindness within it all.
The mystery barely matters.
Jack does not solve anything. In fact, he more often than not makes things worse.
It's a bending of the logic and function of a standard mystery novel.
So if you go into this wanting to experience life from the perspective of a broken man, then you'll enjoy it. If you go in wanting to follow a crime (or in this case, two crimes) being solved, you'd best look elsewhere.

Having read all of the Jack Taylor novels, I was thrilled to get the ARC of Galway Confidential.I loved it. Taylor makes a great lead character. A couple of the Ken Bruen noels have been a little too dark for me, but Galway Confidential is interesting throughout.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

Look, either you love Ken Bruen or you don't, and I do.

Like every new Jack Taylor book, this one is not really a mystery, not really a thriller. Taylor even acknowledges that he doesn't solve cases; they tend to sort of happen and resolve themselves around him, and this one is no different.

What you get instead is hypnotic yet staccato prose, dark but legitimately funny humor, memorable characters floating in and out of scenes, and punches of violence...hung on the very loose skeleton of a private eye novel. I love that Bruen proves, yet again, that a novel doesn't need to artificially bloat to 300 pages to be compelling and satisfying. I also just generally love the event of a Bruen novel. This one might not be his best, but it is exactly the read I expected and hoped for.

I probably wouldn't recommend this to anyone who hasn't read the series before -- not because you need narrative background, but because you can't know what you're in for unless you've journeyed with Jack Taylor before. But for the fan, casual or rabid, it's a slam dunk.

This is the 17th novel in the Jack Taylor series, and I've read them all over the years. It's been a few years since the last book, and it's great to have Jack back.

To me, the individual plots of these books matter less than the general tone, so here's what you usually get--violence and death, alcoholism, religion, mention of authors and musicians, Ireland's economy, and current events. Yes, they're dark, but with a lot of dark humor. Speak with an Irish accent, and carry a big hurley.

I love them. Unfortunately for me, they're very quick reads, mostly driven by dialogue, and I'm always left wanting more. Characters and plots sometimes carry over between books (except when the characters are getting killed off), so you may not always get as much resolution of events in each individual book as you might like. Just more reason to read the next.

Big thanks to Mysterious Press and NetGalley for the chance to read this one early.