‘Galway Girl’ by Ken Bruen

Published by Head of Zeus,
31 October 2019.
ISBN: 978-1-83893306-7 (HB)

Jack Taylor was a prominent member of the Irish Garda (Irish police). He is now a hard-drinking Private Detective. (I can already hear you sighing, ‘Write me something different. I’ve heard and read many of these characters already.)’

Well, Ken Bruen has written something very different. His writing, in itself, is very different.

It is a known fact, that if we do our geology, we will all of us find we have up to 98percent Irish in our blood. And it is also a known fact that the Irish are known for being different. I should know I had a full Irish mother, so I speak first-hand.

Bruen has, no doubt, the brush of artistic genius. His writing is completely unique. It took a few pages to draw me in, as I hadn’t read any of his previous novels. However once those few pages were turned, I was hooked.

When Taylor, as an ex-garda, is employed to investigate a series of brutal murders of current guards’, he finds himself playing a game of cat and mouse with a female psychopathic killer, Jericho. She kills, not only guards, but anyone who gets in her way, and she enjoys doing it. Now Taylor is next on her list.

In a way it is a game of cat and mouse, but it also involves a bird - a falcon. (There goes the Irish)!

Bruen writes in a literate and lyrical style. He is dark, deceiving brutal and page-turning. He is a master of this genre. And, for fans of hard-boiled crime, this is one not to miss.

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Reviewer: Linda Regan.
Lindareganonline.co.uk

Ken Bruen was born 3 January 1951 in Galway, Republic of Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin.  He spent twenty-five years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, S.E. Asia and South America. He is an Irish writer of hard-boiled and noir crime fiction. The Guards (2001), his highly acclaimed first Jack Taylor novel, is to be filmed in Ireland by De Facto Films. His White Trilogy has been bought by Channel 4.

 

Linda Regan is the author of six police procedural crime novels. She is also an actress. She holds a Masters degree in critical writing and journalism, and writes a regular column, including book reviews, for three magazines. She also presents the book-club spot on BBC Radio Kent. She is an avid reader, and welcomes the chance to read new writers. 

  To read a review of Linda's most recent book
The Terror Within
click on the title. 

www.lindareganonline.co.uk