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Jack Taylor #5
Priest
Ireland, awash with cash and greed, no longer turns to the Church for solace or comfort. But the decapitation of Father Joyce in a Galway confessional horrifies even the most jaded citizen.Jack Taylor, devastated by the recent trauma of personal loss, has always believed himself to be beyond salvation. But a new job offers a fresh start, and an unexpected partnership provides hope that his one desperate vision, of family, might yet be fulfilled.An eerie mix of exorcism, a predatory stalker, and unlikely attraction conspires to lure him into a murderous web of dark conspiracies. The specter of a child haunts every waking moment.Explosive, unsettling and totally original, Ken Bruen's writing captures the brooding landscape of Irish society at a time of social and economic upheaval. Here is evidence of an unmistakable literary talent.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
73 people are currently reading
991 people want to read
About the author
Ken Bruen
132 books850 followersKen Bruen was an Irish writer of hardboiled and noir crime fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews
August 29, 2020
EXCERPT: The nun was gathering up the song sheets. She loved this time of the morning, the sun streaming through the stained glass. Her habit felt heavy but she offered it for the souls in Purgatory. She found a ten euro note in the end pew, was tempted to pocket it, buy a feast of ice cream. But blessing herself, she shoved it in the poor box. It slid in easily as the box was empty - who gave alms any more?
She noticed the door to the confessional ajar. Tut-tutting, she felt a tremor of annoyance. Father Joyce would have a fit if he saw that. He was a holy terror for order, ran the church like an army, God's army. Moving quickly, she gently pulled the door, but it wouldn't budge. Getting seriously irritated, she scuttled round to the other door and peered through the grille. Her scream could be heard all the way to Eyre Square.
Father Joyce's severed head was placed on the floor of the confessional.
ABOUT THIS BOOK: Ireland, awash with cash and greed, no longer turns to the Church for solace or comfort. But the decapitation of Father Joyce in a Galway confessional horrifies even the most jaded citizen.
Jack Taylor, devastated by the recent trauma of personal loss, has always believed himself to be beyond salvation. But a new job offers a fresh start, and an unexpected partnership provides hope that his one desperate vision, of family, might yet be fulfilled.
An eerie mix of exorcism, a predatory stalker, and unlikely attraction conspires to lure him into a murderous web of dark conspiracies. The specter of a child haunts every waking moment.
MY THOUGHTS: Bruen's writing is raw. Brutal. Irish. Black humour. He doesn't waste words.
Jack is a tortured soul. Haunted by his own past and the death of a child that he was responsible for. A lapsed Catholic, his life is still inextricably entwined with the Church. He makes bargains with a God he no longer believes in.
In this, the 5th book of the series, Jack is sober. Not something that either we, the readers, or Jack himself, is familiar with.
He is tasked by a Priest, Father Malachy with whom he has history, to discover who killed Father Joyce.
Bruen weaves tidbits of Irish history and folklore effortlessly into his work. We learn about Galway landmarks - the Salmon Weir bridge and Eyre Square. There are frequent literary and musical references. I have a Ken Bruen-Jack Taylor playlist. It's getting very long. It is magnificent and varied - Steve Earle, REM, Springsteen, Black Eyed Peas, Emmylou Harris, and Adrian McKinty's great favourite - Tom Waits.
I read this series with an Irish lilt. It is a series, and one best read in order. Preferably with a dram of Jamesons. Jack won't mind.
❤❤❤❤❤
THE AUTHOR: Ken Bruen is one of the most renown Irish writers, who writes noir crime fiction novels. He was born in Galway, Ireland, in 1951. He studied at Gormanston College, County Meath, and Trinity College Dublin, where he got a Ph.D in Metaphysics. Unlike most novelists, Ken Bruen has travelled around the world. During his twenty-five years as an English teacher, he worked in Africa, Japan, South America and South East Asia. Just as anyone would conclude, Ken’s travels were precarious at some point, including time spent in a Brazilian jail, where he was wrongfully imprisoned for alleged involvement in a bar fight. He currently resides in Galway, Ireland, with his wife and his daughter, Grace.
Ken started writing after his gruesome experience in prison in Brazil. The torture he went through left bad memories and mental anguish. A traumatized Bruen started writing crime fiction in an effort to get the nightmares off his head and heal the scars left from the horrendous ordeal. His very first novel, Funerals, was about a boy who attended funerals like they were soccer games. He has written over thirty five novels, six of which have been featured in television series. His novels feature typical comedy incorporated into noir crime fiction, and he does not fail to poke the Irish Church and the State at some particular point in his novels. He exposes a number of ills and provides an intuition of the dark side of Ireland. The main themes in his works are Ireland’s economic prosperity since the 1990s, immigration, the decline of the social and political power of the Catholic Church and the social change in Ireland. (BookSeriesInOrder.com)
DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of Priest by Ken Bruen, published by Bantam Press, Transworld Publishers. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review and others are also published on Twitter, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
She noticed the door to the confessional ajar. Tut-tutting, she felt a tremor of annoyance. Father Joyce would have a fit if he saw that. He was a holy terror for order, ran the church like an army, God's army. Moving quickly, she gently pulled the door, but it wouldn't budge. Getting seriously irritated, she scuttled round to the other door and peered through the grille. Her scream could be heard all the way to Eyre Square.
Father Joyce's severed head was placed on the floor of the confessional.
ABOUT THIS BOOK: Ireland, awash with cash and greed, no longer turns to the Church for solace or comfort. But the decapitation of Father Joyce in a Galway confessional horrifies even the most jaded citizen.
Jack Taylor, devastated by the recent trauma of personal loss, has always believed himself to be beyond salvation. But a new job offers a fresh start, and an unexpected partnership provides hope that his one desperate vision, of family, might yet be fulfilled.
An eerie mix of exorcism, a predatory stalker, and unlikely attraction conspires to lure him into a murderous web of dark conspiracies. The specter of a child haunts every waking moment.
MY THOUGHTS: Bruen's writing is raw. Brutal. Irish. Black humour. He doesn't waste words.
Jack is a tortured soul. Haunted by his own past and the death of a child that he was responsible for. A lapsed Catholic, his life is still inextricably entwined with the Church. He makes bargains with a God he no longer believes in.
In this, the 5th book of the series, Jack is sober. Not something that either we, the readers, or Jack himself, is familiar with.
He is tasked by a Priest, Father Malachy with whom he has history, to discover who killed Father Joyce.
Bruen weaves tidbits of Irish history and folklore effortlessly into his work. We learn about Galway landmarks - the Salmon Weir bridge and Eyre Square. There are frequent literary and musical references. I have a Ken Bruen-Jack Taylor playlist. It's getting very long. It is magnificent and varied - Steve Earle, REM, Springsteen, Black Eyed Peas, Emmylou Harris, and Adrian McKinty's great favourite - Tom Waits.
I read this series with an Irish lilt. It is a series, and one best read in order. Preferably with a dram of Jamesons. Jack won't mind.
❤❤❤❤❤
THE AUTHOR: Ken Bruen is one of the most renown Irish writers, who writes noir crime fiction novels. He was born in Galway, Ireland, in 1951. He studied at Gormanston College, County Meath, and Trinity College Dublin, where he got a Ph.D in Metaphysics. Unlike most novelists, Ken Bruen has travelled around the world. During his twenty-five years as an English teacher, he worked in Africa, Japan, South America and South East Asia. Just as anyone would conclude, Ken’s travels were precarious at some point, including time spent in a Brazilian jail, where he was wrongfully imprisoned for alleged involvement in a bar fight. He currently resides in Galway, Ireland, with his wife and his daughter, Grace.
Ken started writing after his gruesome experience in prison in Brazil. The torture he went through left bad memories and mental anguish. A traumatized Bruen started writing crime fiction in an effort to get the nightmares off his head and heal the scars left from the horrendous ordeal. His very first novel, Funerals, was about a boy who attended funerals like they were soccer games. He has written over thirty five novels, six of which have been featured in television series. His novels feature typical comedy incorporated into noir crime fiction, and he does not fail to poke the Irish Church and the State at some particular point in his novels. He exposes a number of ills and provides an intuition of the dark side of Ireland. The main themes in his works are Ireland’s economic prosperity since the 1990s, immigration, the decline of the social and political power of the Catholic Church and the social change in Ireland. (BookSeriesInOrder.com)
DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of Priest by Ken Bruen, published by Bantam Press, Transworld Publishers. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review and others are also published on Twitter, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
September 8, 2019
Another solid addition to the Jack Taylor series
Priest
Dark secrets
The abuse
Revenge is a dish served cold
Investigation
Sobriety
And a new chapter
Priest
Dark secrets
The abuse
Revenge is a dish served cold
Investigation
Sobriety
And a new chapter
August 18, 2021
Série na Netflix
April 13, 2017
Read back to back with Jack Taylor #4. I had to. Events at the end of The Dramatist left me reeling. Could anything worse have befallen Jack? Is Galway the kind of place to seek redemption? God, Jack - I really felt your despair. Your tortured soul. And the dark fiction continues in Priest.
Jack leaves hospital - the madhouse, the loony bin - where he has been for several months. Refuses further medication - "I felt my eyes retreat from the nine-yard stare, move away from the dead place." How did he finish up in an asylum? He doesn't remember. Collected by female Guard Ni Iomaire for his return to life in Galway even though the disfunction of their alliance continues, unabated. Does Jack have any friends left? Will he stay on the wagon? And as a new life beckons, Father Joyce is decapitated in a Galway confessional, shocking even the most hardened cynics and Jack is asked to find his killer, in the church rocked by scandal of the most disturbing nature.
Murder, conspiracy and a real danger for Jack - close and personal. Jack is a broken human-being. Past events continue to haunt his every waking hour as he continues to fight his alcoholism. But he does and he survives. Like it or not Jack you are a sensitive individual and I am concerned about what happens to you because Ken Bruen has written another gut-wrenching end to a fine book.
So, I am going to catch my breath before moving onto #6....
Jack leaves hospital - the madhouse, the loony bin - where he has been for several months. Refuses further medication - "I felt my eyes retreat from the nine-yard stare, move away from the dead place." How did he finish up in an asylum? He doesn't remember. Collected by female Guard Ni Iomaire for his return to life in Galway even though the disfunction of their alliance continues, unabated. Does Jack have any friends left? Will he stay on the wagon? And as a new life beckons, Father Joyce is decapitated in a Galway confessional, shocking even the most hardened cynics and Jack is asked to find his killer, in the church rocked by scandal of the most disturbing nature.
Murder, conspiracy and a real danger for Jack - close and personal. Jack is a broken human-being. Past events continue to haunt his every waking hour as he continues to fight his alcoholism. But he does and he survives. Like it or not Jack you are a sensitive individual and I am concerned about what happens to you because Ken Bruen has written another gut-wrenching end to a fine book.
So, I am going to catch my breath before moving onto #6....
March 11, 2017
Description: Jack is hired by Father Malachy to investigate the death of a priest, Father Royce, who has been beheaded. He discovers the cleric abused two boys, Michael Clare and Tom Reed, several years earlier. Shortly after interviewing Tom Reed, he is found dead in the bath of a suspected heroin overdose. Jack initially suspects that Reed may have been targeted by a relative of a young boy whom he raped ten years ago, but when he finds a note identical to the one left at the scene of Father Royce's murder, he suspects that Reed met his fate at the hands of the same killer. Upon checking Reed's bank statements, Jack discovers he was receiving regular payments of £2,000 from an unknown account. As Clare's behaviour continues to become more and more erratic, Jack discovers that he was responsible for the rape that Reed was convicted of. As Jack begins to drift back into his old ways, and discovers more of his own demons, Cody decides to do a little covert digging of his own – but it leads him right into the path of the killer.
July 24, 2010
A very strong medicine this book,its a rare book that is darkly funny,deeply depressing. I laughed and i was emotionally close to tears. Not because of sensational writing but because of stark,realistic human drama.
The title doesnt say well how this great story has many themes,focuses even more on Jack Taylor. Less pop culture references that was the only flaw of the early books.
The powerful prose,the great black,ironic humour,the characters that walk around in this series never seem to amaze me.
This book is only for people that want more than an entertaining read, you want smart,meaningful story about very human themes you will like this.
The title doesnt say well how this great story has many themes,focuses even more on Jack Taylor. Less pop culture references that was the only flaw of the early books.
The powerful prose,the great black,ironic humour,the characters that walk around in this series never seem to amaze me.
This book is only for people that want more than an entertaining read, you want smart,meaningful story about very human themes you will like this.
August 4, 2013
For all the praise levelled at Ken Bruen for his "hard-boiled" detective novels featuring Jack Taylor this fifth instalment is much more character study than mystery. Somebody beheaded a priest, Taylor is released from a mental institute and is almost immediately thrust back to work to solve the case, privately. The actual detective narrative could fit in to two or three pages for all Bruen cares about it. What is much more of interest to him, and I would hope us readers too, is the human condition, the nature of contemporary Eire, the state of the Catholic church and the torture of Jack Taylor by his creator. And that's not a reference to God.
I haven't read the four previous books in this series, and I may not venture in to Taylor's past after this one, but it sure seems like he's been put through the ringer many a time by Ken Bruen with so many references to previous traumas including the Clapton-esque ending to instalment four which left our man Taylor in a catatonic state in a nuthouse. It is this stretching of credibility that really put me off the series come the final page of Priest, I don't enjoy my literary noir when the protagonists are consistently treated as an emotional and physical dartboard, with everyone they ever meet eventually dying in a horrible way. Sure they like to say nothing good can last, but it seems like Bruen really lives to hammer that point home when it comes to Jack Taylor and easy narrative devices.
I do like the way Bruen writes the inner turmoil however, and this was an easy read, he deserves another chance, just not with this series, after all I've already read what violence Taylor comes through. Perhaps the Parker-esque London Boulevard, the source of that awful Colin Farrell movie can save him/me?
I haven't read the four previous books in this series, and I may not venture in to Taylor's past after this one, but it sure seems like he's been put through the ringer many a time by Ken Bruen with so many references to previous traumas including the Clapton-esque ending to instalment four which left our man Taylor in a catatonic state in a nuthouse. It is this stretching of credibility that really put me off the series come the final page of Priest, I don't enjoy my literary noir when the protagonists are consistently treated as an emotional and physical dartboard, with everyone they ever meet eventually dying in a horrible way. Sure they like to say nothing good can last, but it seems like Bruen really lives to hammer that point home when it comes to Jack Taylor and easy narrative devices.
I do like the way Bruen writes the inner turmoil however, and this was an easy read, he deserves another chance, just not with this series, after all I've already read what violence Taylor comes through. Perhaps the Parker-esque London Boulevard, the source of that awful Colin Farrell movie can save him/me?
June 24, 2015
My unrequited bromance with Jack Taylor continues. After the devastating end of The Dramatist, Jack ends up in "the madhouse"
Oh, there was screaming, but it was silent. The wonders of medication. And for me, they provided what I most wanted-numbness
and this book spends plenty of time looking at how he deals with his release as he tries to put his life back together and stay sober following the consequences of the previous book.
As with most of my favorite detective/PI series this book isn't really about the detectin'.
He does track down a stalker threatening his "friend" in the guards and a young man named Cody does try to strike up a partnership with Jack(Cody, Cody, Cody...what were you thinking?). His nemesis Father Malachy hires Jack to unofficially find out who decapitated Father Joyce, a local priest accused of abuse. This does give Bruen an opportunity to look at the relationship of the church in Irish society and the depths reached to cover up said abuses.
The next day I was hurting. You can't be Irish and curse a nun and not hurt.
But again, it's about Jack and just how much pain Bruen can inflict upon his character. This book doesn't have quite as many gut punches as the previous one but the ending was once again heart breakingly brutal. How many emotional haymakers can he take before he just throws up his hands and says enough? Damn I love this series.
Poets and demons, fathers and sons. The story of my existence, and I don't know if I believed in either
Oh, there was screaming, but it was silent. The wonders of medication. And for me, they provided what I most wanted-numbness
and this book spends plenty of time looking at how he deals with his release as he tries to put his life back together and stay sober following the consequences of the previous book.
As with most of my favorite detective/PI series this book isn't really about the detectin'.
He does track down a stalker threatening his "friend" in the guards and a young man named Cody does try to strike up a partnership with Jack(Cody, Cody, Cody...what were you thinking?). His nemesis Father Malachy hires Jack to unofficially find out who decapitated Father Joyce, a local priest accused of abuse. This does give Bruen an opportunity to look at the relationship of the church in Irish society and the depths reached to cover up said abuses.
The next day I was hurting. You can't be Irish and curse a nun and not hurt.
But again, it's about Jack and just how much pain Bruen can inflict upon his character. This book doesn't have quite as many gut punches as the previous one but the ending was once again heart breakingly brutal. How many emotional haymakers can he take before he just throws up his hands and says enough? Damn I love this series.
Poets and demons, fathers and sons. The story of my existence, and I don't know if I believed in either
February 26, 2018
I was not familiar with the character or adventures or misadventures of Jack Taylor so this was for me an one of book I read.
It starts with a man in psychiatric hospital who has stopped living after under his supervision a little gril died and he takes it personal. When he "recovers" and is released in the world too much has changed and nothing it all. When Jack returns to his native Galway he sees the changes and yet nobody sees him being changed. He is challenged in the way people recognize him and yet while he helps or responds he is another person than before.
The books opens with a beheaded priest in an Ireland that is being set upon scandal by priests abusing boys. While the church is full into damage control they forget what the principal deeds could have meant for all those involved. Both Politics, church and police want to know nothing and preferable do nothing. Jack is asked by another priest to look into the matter and a friend of his is being stalked so he has to look into that as well. So he roams the streets of Galway describing an Ireland and a people who live there in all their splendor and wicked shine.
Taylor is not so much a hero but a persons full of observation and insights that are sad or hilarious. With this second Bruen novel I have read I like the banter and the insights. As a thriller it is not- existent but as a character study about Ireland/Galway and the scandal of the abuse by the church it is a fascinating and light book that is well worth your time.
It starts with a man in psychiatric hospital who has stopped living after under his supervision a little gril died and he takes it personal. When he "recovers" and is released in the world too much has changed and nothing it all. When Jack returns to his native Galway he sees the changes and yet nobody sees him being changed. He is challenged in the way people recognize him and yet while he helps or responds he is another person than before.
The books opens with a beheaded priest in an Ireland that is being set upon scandal by priests abusing boys. While the church is full into damage control they forget what the principal deeds could have meant for all those involved. Both Politics, church and police want to know nothing and preferable do nothing. Jack is asked by another priest to look into the matter and a friend of his is being stalked so he has to look into that as well. So he roams the streets of Galway describing an Ireland and a people who live there in all their splendor and wicked shine.
Taylor is not so much a hero but a persons full of observation and insights that are sad or hilarious. With this second Bruen novel I have read I like the banter and the insights. As a thriller it is not- existent but as a character study about Ireland/Galway and the scandal of the abuse by the church it is a fascinating and light book that is well worth your time.
March 29, 2015
PRIEST follows on from the shocking events at the end of THE DRAMATIST and is every bit as good as it predecessor. The only gripe I have, is Bruen tends to lean towards the formulaic, albeit, a formula he devised himself with THE PRIEST mirroring THE DRAMATIST in many ways; the cases are in the peripheral and there is a death that once again threatens to turn the reformed Jack Taylor into the drug addled drunk he once was.
Without spoiling the story, lets say Jack Taylor is back to his…err, best while at the same time being a little different and more well rounded.
PRIEST is littered with easter eggs for Bruen fans including references to THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS and provides further insight into some of the more memorable characters Bruen has created throughout the series. Reading PRIEST you get a real sense that this is but one piece of the larger Jack Taylor story.
I'm enjoying my reread of this series with each book being equal to or better than the first read.
Review also appears on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
Without spoiling the story, lets say Jack Taylor is back to his…err, best while at the same time being a little different and more well rounded.
PRIEST is littered with easter eggs for Bruen fans including references to THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS and provides further insight into some of the more memorable characters Bruen has created throughout the series. Reading PRIEST you get a real sense that this is but one piece of the larger Jack Taylor story.
I'm enjoying my reread of this series with each book being equal to or better than the first read.
Review also appears on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
August 3, 2017
3.5 stars for this Jack Taylor installment. This time Jack is just released from the mental hospital after his guilt over the death of his friends' young daughter. Coming home, though, can be difficult. Trying to remain sober takes its toll as Jack tries to find his footing. He investigates the beheading of a priest in this "mystery" but really it's a character study and how the actions one takes in life can haunt forever.
I've been reading these out of order as I started, I believe with 7, then 9 and forward. Going back to learn the full history is so fun but draining. Jack could use a break but, even when he gets one, you're always waiting for the inevitable fall. Love these books.
I've been reading these out of order as I started, I believe with 7, then 9 and forward. Going back to learn the full history is so fun but draining. Jack could use a break but, even when he gets one, you're always waiting for the inevitable fall. Love these books.
May 15, 2025
3.5 stars. As always when reviewing this series, I’ll start by saying it’s most definitely not for everyone. It’s incredibly dark, delving into themes such as the decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland, as well as Jack’s ongoing battles with his past and substance abuse.
That said, I adore the dark humour, razor-sharp dialogue, and the clever use of pop culture and literary references. Don’t just take my word for it—the series has won multiple awards, including the Shamus, Edgar, Macavity, and Barry Awards.
I highly recommend the audiobook, narrated by Gerry O’Brien, which elevates the experience from good to exceptional.
The story: Ex-police officer Jack Taylor, recovering from a mental health episode and reeling from personal loss, is pulled into the investigation of a brutally murdered priest in Galway.
That said, I adore the dark humour, razor-sharp dialogue, and the clever use of pop culture and literary references. Don’t just take my word for it—the series has won multiple awards, including the Shamus, Edgar, Macavity, and Barry Awards.
I highly recommend the audiobook, narrated by Gerry O’Brien, which elevates the experience from good to exceptional.
The story: Ex-police officer Jack Taylor, recovering from a mental health episode and reeling from personal loss, is pulled into the investigation of a brutally murdered priest in Galway.
August 10, 2016
Jack is in all sorts of self-inflicted trouble again. He's in hospital, severely affected by a nervous breakdown, after his negligence caused the death of someone very very important to him and his last close friends, when he's bought back from the brink by the kindness of another patient.
On his release Jack returns to his previous life with a new-found determination to avoid drinking and drugs. When his least favourite priest, Father Malachy asks Jack for help in discovering why a local priest was decapitated in his church confessional, Jack falls into that and other investigations but clings to his promise to stay sober.
PRIEST is the fifth novel in the Jack Taylor series and it is the first novel in which Jack is actively reassessing his life and what he really is. He's still an angry and depressed man, but as he has been all the way through this series, he's acutely self-aware and for the first time some of this anger is actually directed squarely at himself. He's angry with the way that Irish society is changing, he's still angry with the Catholic Church and in particular it's attitude to paedophilia and sexual abuse. Whilst PRIEST is part of a series and the reader definitely benefits from reading the early books, firstly because they are universally excellent, but also to see how Jack and the author have moved through a series of phases, PRIEST can be read as a standalone.
If nothing else, you have to admire Ken Bruen for his brutal honesty and his willingness to tackle the confrontational. In PRIEST he is scratching at a lot of scabs, societal and possibly personal.
On his release Jack returns to his previous life with a new-found determination to avoid drinking and drugs. When his least favourite priest, Father Malachy asks Jack for help in discovering why a local priest was decapitated in his church confessional, Jack falls into that and other investigations but clings to his promise to stay sober.
PRIEST is the fifth novel in the Jack Taylor series and it is the first novel in which Jack is actively reassessing his life and what he really is. He's still an angry and depressed man, but as he has been all the way through this series, he's acutely self-aware and for the first time some of this anger is actually directed squarely at himself. He's angry with the way that Irish society is changing, he's still angry with the Catholic Church and in particular it's attitude to paedophilia and sexual abuse. Whilst PRIEST is part of a series and the reader definitely benefits from reading the early books, firstly because they are universally excellent, but also to see how Jack and the author have moved through a series of phases, PRIEST can be read as a standalone.
If nothing else, you have to admire Ken Bruen for his brutal honesty and his willingness to tackle the confrontational. In PRIEST he is scratching at a lot of scabs, societal and possibly personal.
December 10, 2008
If you haven't read ken Bruen yet you must. He's all at once funny, dark, thoughtful, topical and suspenseful.
Priest looks at sex abuse in Ireland and its not a barrel of laughs as far as the topic is concerned but it is riveting.
Pick it up--it's one of the my favorites for this year.
Tom Schreck
Author of TKO
ps If you're a mystery lover my books "On The Ropes" and "TKO" make great Holiday gifts for Evanovich, Parker, Travis McGee, Crais and DeMille fans ( sorry for the blatant self promotion!)
Priest looks at sex abuse in Ireland and its not a barrel of laughs as far as the topic is concerned but it is riveting.
Pick it up--it's one of the my favorites for this year.
Tom Schreck
Author of TKO
ps If you're a mystery lover my books "On The Ropes" and "TKO" make great Holiday gifts for Evanovich, Parker, Travis McGee, Crais and DeMille fans ( sorry for the blatant self promotion!)
January 29, 2019
Jack Taylor’ın bir başka macerası. Önden uyarayım. Ken Bruen’in tarzı sizi rahatsız edebilir. Çeviriden mi bilmem ama adam sanki uzun cümleler kuramıyor. Birbiri ile bağlantısız kelimeler havada uçuşuyor. Neyin nasıl olduğunu bir türlü anlayamıyorsunuz. Dizisini izlememiş olsaydım karakterleri ve olayları kafamda oturtamazdım. Diziyi izlediğim için kitabını sevdim. Ama objektif bir kafayla düşününce siz sevmezsiniz. Polisiye öge içermiyor. Sizi bayabilir ve tavsiye edersem beni yuhlayabilirsiniz. O yüzden bu kitabı size tavsiye etmiyorum 😑
August 19, 2007
PRIEST (Private Investigator-Ireland-Cont) – Ex
Bruen, Ken – 5th in series
Scorpion Press, 2006- UK Hardcover
Jack Taylor is out of the madhouse, sober and trying to give up smoking. A young man wants to be Jack’s partner as private investigators and the son Jack never had. Jack is also the guilt over the death of his friends’ daughter and its result on them. Jack’s one friend from the Guarda is being stalked, and a priest, with a history of pedophilia, has been found decapitated in his confessional.
*** Bruen is a brilliant writer. Priest is dark, profane, disturbing, haunting and yet I don’t consider it noir as it is somehow hopeful. Perhaps it’s just that somehow, through it all, Jack survives both physically and emotionally. Present day Ireland, both good and bad, comes to life with an awareness of the past, the hold of the Church and it’s striding into the future. The description of the impact of pedophilia on its victims is powerful. Bruen’s style is spare and sharp; it resonates and stays with you long after you’ve finished the book. The story is compelling and the ending, as with each of the books in the series, is like a punch in the stomach, but immediately makes me want the next book. “Priest” and Ken Bruen are not for everyone, but I found this to be excellent.
Bruen, Ken – 5th in series
Scorpion Press, 2006- UK Hardcover
Jack Taylor is out of the madhouse, sober and trying to give up smoking. A young man wants to be Jack’s partner as private investigators and the son Jack never had. Jack is also the guilt over the death of his friends’ daughter and its result on them. Jack’s one friend from the Guarda is being stalked, and a priest, with a history of pedophilia, has been found decapitated in his confessional.
*** Bruen is a brilliant writer. Priest is dark, profane, disturbing, haunting and yet I don’t consider it noir as it is somehow hopeful. Perhaps it’s just that somehow, through it all, Jack survives both physically and emotionally. Present day Ireland, both good and bad, comes to life with an awareness of the past, the hold of the Church and it’s striding into the future. The description of the impact of pedophilia on its victims is powerful. Bruen’s style is spare and sharp; it resonates and stays with you long after you’ve finished the book. The story is compelling and the ending, as with each of the books in the series, is like a punch in the stomach, but immediately makes me want the next book. “Priest” and Ken Bruen are not for everyone, but I found this to be excellent.
April 28, 2017
A priest who had just returned from 20 years of working overseas is found beheaded in his church. Father Malachy confesses to Jack that now he himself fears for his life and reveals a tragic story about the murdered priest. The latter had committed a terrible deed before being moved overseas - Father Malachy suspects an act of revenge.
4* The Guards (Jack Taylor, #1)
3* The Magdalen Martyrs (Jack Taylor, #3)
4* The Dramatist (Jack Taylor, #4)
4* Priest (Jack Taylor, #5)
3* Cross (Jack Taylor, #6)
4* The Guards (Jack Taylor, #1)
3* The Magdalen Martyrs (Jack Taylor, #3)
4* The Dramatist (Jack Taylor, #4)
4* Priest (Jack Taylor, #5)
3* Cross (Jack Taylor, #6)
January 8, 2009
The word that keeps coming to mind to describe this book is "thin." Thin plot, thin characters, lazy writing under a thin veneer of noir.
October 23, 2014
A good while back someone recommended Ken Bruen as a Noir author to me. Hadn't heard about him before so delighted to put him on my To Read pile.
I subsequently learned two things:
1) Ken Bruen is Irish and writes crime fiction set in Galway. Ireland has been my adopted home for the best part of two decades so I was curious but also reminiscent that there is a lot of things that Ireland does well, but that crime fiction (and especially Noir) isn't exactly high up on that list.
2) I accidentally stumbled upon a few minutes of an Irish based TV series with Iain Glen that had me roaring with laughter as to its attempts to make Ireland look Noirish and have a badly accented Glen taken seriously as a hardboiled investigator. Couldn't take this baloney for very long and switched it off but not before finding out that this was the Jack Taylor series based on novels by.... Ken Bruen. Ooops...
Having my initial enthusiasm for this author already somewhat dampened I still purchased one of his books when I needed to get a book voucher properly added up. (You know, when all the books you want are either quite a bit less or way more than the voucher was worth so you just need to find a book that tallies up even if you're not that hot about it?)
So.... What can I say about Priest now that I have finally read it?
Well, a masterwork it sure ain't!
In actual fact Bruen comes across as the poster child for everything that is wrong with modern crime fiction bestsellers, as if he had attended a writer's class and followed all the recommendations to the letter.
His sentences are short, very short, very often just two words, four at the most.
As if he felt that was still too long he fills the pages with one word lines of lists that are meant to give you a better description of a thing but are just
annoying
repetitive
infuriating
daft
He also has this really maddening habit to summarise Taylor's thoughts in one line just to have him speak those out verbatim in the next, e.g.
I owed him, said,
'I owe you'
or just a page later
I didn't understand, said.
'I don't understand'
Though the book has around 350 pages, it feels much shorter. The eyes just glance over the content but are missing nothing substantial.
Bruen also does what a lot of other current writers these days do: constantly quote songs, refer to music, books, current events etc. It's probably meant to set the events in a particular time period but this has become such a cliche and Bruen takes it to the extremes. Seriously, the only time the likes of Chandler, Spillane or Woolrich quoted papers it was probably in reference to a horse race..... and that was likely made up.
Bruen, however, spends pages writing about Taylor's musical tastes. And just like all the other authors who do likewise the music he refers to once was cutting edge but now is dad music. Oooh, Taylor listens to Johnny Cash's "Hurt" but also knows this is a Nine Inch Nail song. He constantly seems to think he is somehow edgy in his taste, when in actual fact he is really just mainstream.
Priest is of course a regional crime novel, meaning that it was written and is set outside the standard crime capitals (London, Paris, New York etc). Did you ever notice how those traditional crime settings if written by local writers never over emphasise the touristy locations but instead focus on the side streets and areas where real people live?
Yet, those regional crime stories *always* read as if they were sponsored by a local tourist board and this is no exception: I lost count how many times Taylor was crossing or resting on Eyre Square or visited the Cathedral, discussed the Spanish Arch or any other numbers of blatantly obvious places for a novel set in Galway.
Yet, he insists on calling the police "The Guards". We may occasionally say that but more often than not we talk about "Garda" or "Gardai". Even when we say "guards" we probably envision it more spelt in a pseudo-irish way as "gards". It took me a while to figure out that he referred to the Irish police force when he used the English term "Guards" and not to some changing of the guards.
The whole book is all so stage Oirish in a modern way but stage Oirish nonetheless.
There's not an ounce of originality in it. Actually there's very little crime in it either despite the fact that there are not just one or two but three issues Taylor is asked to investigate. Yet, there is little to investigate. Taylor mainly walks around sulking and talking music and in the end only one of the cases is somewhat solved, no thanks to Taylor though as the perpetrators of the crime more or less confessed out of the blue. The other two cases require equally little actual investigation and are more or less left hanging probably for the follow up book... that I have no intention of ever reading.
This book will go on the small pile of To Be Donated books that I can easily part with without the slightest bit of regret.
Only thing I got out of it is a recommendation for some proper Noir books by David Goodis, an author who sounds fascinating. After all Taylor spent nearly a chapter rambling about him.
Case closed...
I subsequently learned two things:
1) Ken Bruen is Irish and writes crime fiction set in Galway. Ireland has been my adopted home for the best part of two decades so I was curious but also reminiscent that there is a lot of things that Ireland does well, but that crime fiction (and especially Noir) isn't exactly high up on that list.
2) I accidentally stumbled upon a few minutes of an Irish based TV series with Iain Glen that had me roaring with laughter as to its attempts to make Ireland look Noirish and have a badly accented Glen taken seriously as a hardboiled investigator. Couldn't take this baloney for very long and switched it off but not before finding out that this was the Jack Taylor series based on novels by.... Ken Bruen. Ooops...
Having my initial enthusiasm for this author already somewhat dampened I still purchased one of his books when I needed to get a book voucher properly added up. (You know, when all the books you want are either quite a bit less or way more than the voucher was worth so you just need to find a book that tallies up even if you're not that hot about it?)
So.... What can I say about Priest now that I have finally read it?
Well, a masterwork it sure ain't!
In actual fact Bruen comes across as the poster child for everything that is wrong with modern crime fiction bestsellers, as if he had attended a writer's class and followed all the recommendations to the letter.
His sentences are short, very short, very often just two words, four at the most.
As if he felt that was still too long he fills the pages with one word lines of lists that are meant to give you a better description of a thing but are just
annoying
repetitive
infuriating
daft
He also has this really maddening habit to summarise Taylor's thoughts in one line just to have him speak those out verbatim in the next, e.g.
I owed him, said,
'I owe you'
or just a page later
I didn't understand, said.
'I don't understand'
Though the book has around 350 pages, it feels much shorter. The eyes just glance over the content but are missing nothing substantial.
Bruen also does what a lot of other current writers these days do: constantly quote songs, refer to music, books, current events etc. It's probably meant to set the events in a particular time period but this has become such a cliche and Bruen takes it to the extremes. Seriously, the only time the likes of Chandler, Spillane or Woolrich quoted papers it was probably in reference to a horse race..... and that was likely made up.
Bruen, however, spends pages writing about Taylor's musical tastes. And just like all the other authors who do likewise the music he refers to once was cutting edge but now is dad music. Oooh, Taylor listens to Johnny Cash's "Hurt" but also knows this is a Nine Inch Nail song. He constantly seems to think he is somehow edgy in his taste, when in actual fact he is really just mainstream.
Priest is of course a regional crime novel, meaning that it was written and is set outside the standard crime capitals (London, Paris, New York etc). Did you ever notice how those traditional crime settings if written by local writers never over emphasise the touristy locations but instead focus on the side streets and areas where real people live?
Yet, those regional crime stories *always* read as if they were sponsored by a local tourist board and this is no exception: I lost count how many times Taylor was crossing or resting on Eyre Square or visited the Cathedral, discussed the Spanish Arch or any other numbers of blatantly obvious places for a novel set in Galway.
Yet, he insists on calling the police "The Guards". We may occasionally say that but more often than not we talk about "Garda" or "Gardai". Even when we say "guards" we probably envision it more spelt in a pseudo-irish way as "gards". It took me a while to figure out that he referred to the Irish police force when he used the English term "Guards" and not to some changing of the guards.
The whole book is all so stage Oirish in a modern way but stage Oirish nonetheless.
There's not an ounce of originality in it. Actually there's very little crime in it either despite the fact that there are not just one or two but three issues Taylor is asked to investigate. Yet, there is little to investigate. Taylor mainly walks around sulking and talking music and in the end only one of the cases is somewhat solved, no thanks to Taylor though as the perpetrators of the crime more or less confessed out of the blue. The other two cases require equally little actual investigation and are more or less left hanging probably for the follow up book... that I have no intention of ever reading.
This book will go on the small pile of To Be Donated books that I can easily part with without the slightest bit of regret.
Only thing I got out of it is a recommendation for some proper Noir books by David Goodis, an author who sounds fascinating. After all Taylor spent nearly a chapter rambling about him.
Case closed...
December 23, 2008
Here we are, at installment number five of the Jack Taylor series. First, let me say that I've read a number of reviews of this book in which it was the first Taylor book the reviewer had read -- this is probably not the best one to start with. There's so much of Jack's character that begins with book one (The Guards) that starting at book five leaves you with big holes to be filled in only by sketchy references to events from the others.
brief look (no spoilers, I promise)
Like its predecessors in this series, Priest finds us once again watching the train wreck that you just know is going to happen, from which you are unable to avert your eyes. After the tragic events in The Dramatist (the book just prior to this one), Jack completely loses it and eventually finds his way into a mental hospital. After some time, an encounter with another patient puts him back on the road to recovery (as if one can ever recover from what put Jack there in the first place), and he is released, back to the streets of Galway. His old nemesis, Father Malachy, has a job for him: he wants him to find out who decapitated a priest who has a penchant for molesting young children. But (and faithful readers know there's always a but) he has a lot more on his plate: a young man who wants to team up with him in the role of a Watson to his Sherlock; his relationship with Ridge his Garda friend; his realization that his actions in the previous book also had tragic consequences for those closest to him, and last but not least, the fact that the Galway he's known since a child is changing right in front of him, and not for the better.
As I've said previously about these books, don't look to them for your daily dose of warm and fuzzy. I think that one reason I enjoy these books so much is because Bruen (through the voice of Taylor) just sort of tells it like it is -- no holds barred. I tend to get very involved while I read these; I find myself wincing at stuff Jack said, or I sit and despair over whether the poor guy's going to ever have a decent life again. In fact, I think at the end of each and every book I wonder what could possibly happen next.
Definitely a no-miss if you like Irish crime fiction, but you should know that the mystery here sits in second place to the characters. These novels are definitely the most character driven of any that I've read. I'd definitely recommend these to anyone who has a taste for noir, and a taste for Irish authors. But for pete's sake, don't start with this one as your introduction to Jack Taylor. Go back to the beginning, start with The Guards, and work your way through.
As for me...onward to #6, Cross.
brief look (no spoilers, I promise)
Like its predecessors in this series, Priest finds us once again watching the train wreck that you just know is going to happen, from which you are unable to avert your eyes. After the tragic events in The Dramatist (the book just prior to this one), Jack completely loses it and eventually finds his way into a mental hospital. After some time, an encounter with another patient puts him back on the road to recovery (as if one can ever recover from what put Jack there in the first place), and he is released, back to the streets of Galway. His old nemesis, Father Malachy, has a job for him: he wants him to find out who decapitated a priest who has a penchant for molesting young children. But (and faithful readers know there's always a but) he has a lot more on his plate: a young man who wants to team up with him in the role of a Watson to his Sherlock; his relationship with Ridge his Garda friend; his realization that his actions in the previous book also had tragic consequences for those closest to him, and last but not least, the fact that the Galway he's known since a child is changing right in front of him, and not for the better.
As I've said previously about these books, don't look to them for your daily dose of warm and fuzzy. I think that one reason I enjoy these books so much is because Bruen (through the voice of Taylor) just sort of tells it like it is -- no holds barred. I tend to get very involved while I read these; I find myself wincing at stuff Jack said, or I sit and despair over whether the poor guy's going to ever have a decent life again. In fact, I think at the end of each and every book I wonder what could possibly happen next.
Definitely a no-miss if you like Irish crime fiction, but you should know that the mystery here sits in second place to the characters. These novels are definitely the most character driven of any that I've read. I'd definitely recommend these to anyone who has a taste for noir, and a taste for Irish authors. But for pete's sake, don't start with this one as your introduction to Jack Taylor. Go back to the beginning, start with The Guards, and work your way through.
As for me...onward to #6, Cross.
May 20, 2019
I like reading Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor novels. But I can't stand to think about Jack Taylor afterwords. Here's why-"A loud howl of anguish had awakened me. I'd sat up, terror in my soul, wondering what on earth was happening to some poor fucker to make them emit such a sound, then felt tears on my cheeks and realized the person who'd made the cry was me. I don't think distress gets more awful than that." But don't feel sorry for Taylor; drunk or sober he births enough rage to keep the Galway lights burning for years. And it's kind of hard to tell the difference between the characters he runs with and into, and between either of them and the ones he runs against. This book is a strong endorsement of the Quaker stance against clergy, particularly priests, as not being only unnecessary but also distinctly harmful. Oddly enough, another Quaker belief surfaces-"A plain-clothes Garda had once told me that silence is the best interrogation tool. People can't stand it, they have to fill that void." Taylor is a bedeviled alcoholic, alcohol continuing it's grasp of him whether drunk or sober. "Alkies always know the amount a bottle holds-never enough." "You want to avoid hell, check out the territory with an inmate." Listening to Johnny Cash-"Then the Nine Inch Nails song, 'Hurt.'...They ought to make 'Hurt' mandatory at the door of AA meetings, ask, 'Does this song have relevance to you, does it lacerate you?'" But Bruen does give Taylor a wicked fine sense of humor. Taylor's screed on Brut and its brutality against Irish women is great. And this one I will carry around- "A woman with a young girl strolled by. The woman looked at me and I smiled. The little girl shouted at me,'Smile at your own wife.'" Just leave Taylor when you close the book.
May 21, 2011
Apparently part of a series, I picked up this gritty, Irish noir because I liked the blurbs on the back. I think I'm going to have to amend my "types of mysteries I like" list to include noir.
If you're keeping track, the list is now:
1) Agatha Christie, and other female British authors
2) Noir
We meet our detective, Jack Taylor, just as he's getting out of an asylum where he spent some time after a child he was minding fell out of a window to her death. Now staying away from alcohol, he bounces around Galway meeting old friends and old enemies while looking into the beheading of a priest known to have molested children. Aside from the local color, Taylor spends a lot of time making social commentary in his head, about the changing role of the church, the financial boom in Ireland, and how pesky American culture seems to be invading. Very readable, but be prepared for a few hundred f-bombs.
If you're keeping track, the list is now:
1) Agatha Christie, and other female British authors
2) Noir
We meet our detective, Jack Taylor, just as he's getting out of an asylum where he spent some time after a child he was minding fell out of a window to her death. Now staying away from alcohol, he bounces around Galway meeting old friends and old enemies while looking into the beheading of a priest known to have molested children. Aside from the local color, Taylor spends a lot of time making social commentary in his head, about the changing role of the church, the financial boom in Ireland, and how pesky American culture seems to be invading. Very readable, but be prepared for a few hundred f-bombs.
November 18, 2011
“My previous years I’d spent as a half-assed private investigator, finding people, solutions, mostly fueled on alcohol. Time after time, I’d been plunged into horror, disaster, and lost everyone I cared about. The list of my dead would cover a wall.”
Yes, Jack Taylor, our favorite Irish rogue is back and no one describes himself better.
This is Jack’s fifth venture and he is hired to look into the murder of a local priest: beheaded in the rectory. Allegations of child abuse are abundant. And as usual, Jack juggles this along with many other difficult issues, personal and otherwise. Not many bright spots here but Bruen’s writing remains sharp and pungent throughout. I love this series.
“Could picture placing an ad in the paper, to go
Drunkard
Early fifties
Recently released from mental asylum
Seeks gainful employment.
Yeah, that’d work”
Yes, Jack Taylor, our favorite Irish rogue is back and no one describes himself better.
This is Jack’s fifth venture and he is hired to look into the murder of a local priest: beheaded in the rectory. Allegations of child abuse are abundant. And as usual, Jack juggles this along with many other difficult issues, personal and otherwise. Not many bright spots here but Bruen’s writing remains sharp and pungent throughout. I love this series.
“Could picture placing an ad in the paper, to go
Drunkard
Early fifties
Recently released from mental asylum
Seeks gainful employment.
Yeah, that’d work”
August 8, 2014
Every book in this series renews my awe with Bruen's ability to elevate personal tragedy and internal struggles of an addict into a beautiful work of heart wrenching art. The only author I know of who can wring poetry out of such grit and sorrow and filth is Denise Mina, but Bruen's verbal economy is unparalleled. He really showcases the Irish flair for wit and poetic speech.
These books are character studies disguised as PI novels, reading the first few out of order was fine for me but 4, 5 & 6 definitely need to be read in sequence.
As always, the focus is on Jack's brokenness, but in this book the central mystery really shines as well instead of just being a backdrop to Jack's inner monologue. To me it's the best of the series so far.
These books are character studies disguised as PI novels, reading the first few out of order was fine for me but 4, 5 & 6 definitely need to be read in sequence.
As always, the focus is on Jack's brokenness, but in this book the central mystery really shines as well instead of just being a backdrop to Jack's inner monologue. To me it's the best of the series so far.
March 30, 2019
Another few hours wiled away with lovable (in a fashion) rogue Jack Taylor, perfectly narrated as ever by Gerry O'Brein. jack discusses his taste in music and literature, relates a few anecdotes and offers the usual pearls of wisdom whilst mulling over live, the universe and everything. He's off the drinks, drugs and smokes, and faces a constant battle to fend off his cravings. Poor old Jack has had a breakdown following events at the end of the previous book in the series, but eventually has some good news once he returns to his version of normality. There's something about a Priest being beheaded that Jack gets involved with that turns out to be the proverbial can of worms, but that's just a sideshow to the world according to Jack Taylor. Great stuff.
May 27, 2012
What more can Jack Taylor possibly go through? I think enough is enough and then Ken Bruen wallops off another great story and Jack Taylor is once again blindsided by the dark side of life.
"Priest" is the 5th book in Bruen's series featuring ex-guard Jack Taylor. The subject for this book is not a new one but Bruen handles it in a way that is unique yet very true to his own writing style. As I'm sure I've mentioned with each book that I've read in this series, I love the way Bruen writes. Hard-core, cut to the chase writing that leaves me raw. I will be very very very sad when I reach the end of this series. I will be in mourning.
"Priest" is the 5th book in Bruen's series featuring ex-guard Jack Taylor. The subject for this book is not a new one but Bruen handles it in a way that is unique yet very true to his own writing style. As I'm sure I've mentioned with each book that I've read in this series, I love the way Bruen writes. Hard-core, cut to the chase writing that leaves me raw. I will be very very very sad when I reach the end of this series. I will be in mourning.
March 19, 2015
Wow! Your killing me here Mr. Bruen.
This series is no holds barred and no pulling the punches.
I thought the last book was going to do me in. This one was like a kick in the teeth.
I'm almost nervous just reading about Jack Taylor, even that slight association makes me want to watch my back and peek over my shoulder for fear someone or something will get me as well. Damn no one is safe around Jack (except maybe Jack, what's the saying 'God protects babies and drunks').
Hell even babies aren't safe around Jack.
Poor bumbling drunkard.
This series is no holds barred and no pulling the punches.
I thought the last book was going to do me in. This one was like a kick in the teeth.
I'm almost nervous just reading about Jack Taylor, even that slight association makes me want to watch my back and peek over my shoulder for fear someone or something will get me as well. Damn no one is safe around Jack (except maybe Jack, what's the saying 'God protects babies and drunks').
Hell even babies aren't safe around Jack.
Poor bumbling drunkard.
March 1, 2019
Priest is the 5th installment in the Jack Taylor series. This picks up directly after the horrifying ending of the book 4th and the repercussions of that event. As Jack recovers and tries to come back to himself and make some amends, he takes on a new case from his long time nemesis. A priest with a past involving preying on altar boys is killed brutally and the church just wants it all to go away. Jack gets dragged into the case reluctantly initially and then intrigued he continues even after being warned off by interested parties. This was a great installment in the series!
August 16, 2019
Sober, two books running.....and I know that there's a formula, and rules are rules, but the tragedy almost becomes so formulaic that you don't need the foreshadow (but he uses it, anyway).
April 27, 2018
In some ways you can get a sense of what to expect from a Jack Taylor novel from our protagonist’s drug of choice. In The Guards it was alcohol. In The Killing of the Tinkers it was cocaine. In the Magdalene Martyrs it was various synthetic opioids. And in The Dramatist it was, for a time, the Catholic Mass.
In this one, then, with the series seeming to reinvent itself in the wake of the devastating death of Jeff and Cathy’s baby at the end of The Dramatist, it’s suddenly less clear what Jack is “on.” He makes it a practice of ordering booze of one sort or another and then just letting it sit on the bar. That suggests he’s into self-denial. He’s also understandably overwrought by guilt over losing sight of little Serena May allowing her to tumble out the window. So there’s self-flagellation.
In any case, much of this novel feels like a comeback in terms of quality from the more by-the-numbers work of The Dramatist. Bruen can still write – I can’t imagine he’d ever forget how to do that – but once he’d defined his character as fully as he did, it left room only for fresh plot twists. In most of Priest, he’s pulled into cases connected to old acquaintances – to Fr. Malachy who’s always hated him and to Ridge who’s usually hated him – and they make sense. It all feels of its moment, with the Irish economy of the early 2000s humming along and with the sudden visibility of priest sexual abuse cases.
I admire the overall atmosphere of most of this. Jack loathes himself but keeps on going, out of habit as much as anything. Bruen, as I imagine it, has taken his character and his series much farther than he imagined at its start, and he too seems to be pushing on into dark and uncertain territory. In the best of ways, he’s exploring the dregs of what he began almost a decade before, and we see his character getting more and more spent. He’s running out of places to hide – his old landlady has died as well – and once he’s released from the sanitarium where he’s been near catatonic for months, he has to make a new life for himself or die.
And the strongest part of this is that the preferable choice isn’t obvious. Jack lives on the brink of pure despair, and there’s power in seeing Bruen explore how that looks to him.
For the most part, the Jack Taylor novels deliver on their endings. Certainly The Killing of the Tinkers goes from very good to really memorable in its final scene, and the others have generally ended on a resounding emotional note. The Dramatist could have gone either way – it certainly felt manipulative, but I was okay with it so long as it produced some of the self-recrimination and reinvention of this one – but this one ends in a way that I think of as beneath the very talented Bruen.
[SPOILER] For the first time, I saw where Bruen was heading long before he got there. The relationship with his surrogate son “Cody” felt forced, but his murder (presumably by Cathy) in the final paragraphs is downright contrived. It hits a false emotional note, it too neatly echoes the end of The Dramatist, and it suggests a too-great consciousness that one novel in the series is supposed to lead to the next. I’m disappointed because, that ending aside, I found a lot to be impressed with here, and I was decidedly curious to see if Bruen could sustain it.
So, after all this, I may be on board for one more, but I find myself for the first time in a while more interested in Bruen’s other work than in spending time seeing how he paints himself out of the ever-shrinking corner that remains of this generally very impressive series.
In this one, then, with the series seeming to reinvent itself in the wake of the devastating death of Jeff and Cathy’s baby at the end of The Dramatist, it’s suddenly less clear what Jack is “on.” He makes it a practice of ordering booze of one sort or another and then just letting it sit on the bar. That suggests he’s into self-denial. He’s also understandably overwrought by guilt over losing sight of little Serena May allowing her to tumble out the window. So there’s self-flagellation.
In any case, much of this novel feels like a comeback in terms of quality from the more by-the-numbers work of The Dramatist. Bruen can still write – I can’t imagine he’d ever forget how to do that – but once he’d defined his character as fully as he did, it left room only for fresh plot twists. In most of Priest, he’s pulled into cases connected to old acquaintances – to Fr. Malachy who’s always hated him and to Ridge who’s usually hated him – and they make sense. It all feels of its moment, with the Irish economy of the early 2000s humming along and with the sudden visibility of priest sexual abuse cases.
I admire the overall atmosphere of most of this. Jack loathes himself but keeps on going, out of habit as much as anything. Bruen, as I imagine it, has taken his character and his series much farther than he imagined at its start, and he too seems to be pushing on into dark and uncertain territory. In the best of ways, he’s exploring the dregs of what he began almost a decade before, and we see his character getting more and more spent. He’s running out of places to hide – his old landlady has died as well – and once he’s released from the sanitarium where he’s been near catatonic for months, he has to make a new life for himself or die.
And the strongest part of this is that the preferable choice isn’t obvious. Jack lives on the brink of pure despair, and there’s power in seeing Bruen explore how that looks to him.
For the most part, the Jack Taylor novels deliver on their endings. Certainly The Killing of the Tinkers goes from very good to really memorable in its final scene, and the others have generally ended on a resounding emotional note. The Dramatist could have gone either way – it certainly felt manipulative, but I was okay with it so long as it produced some of the self-recrimination and reinvention of this one – but this one ends in a way that I think of as beneath the very talented Bruen.
[SPOILER] For the first time, I saw where Bruen was heading long before he got there. The relationship with his surrogate son “Cody” felt forced, but his murder (presumably by Cathy) in the final paragraphs is downright contrived. It hits a false emotional note, it too neatly echoes the end of The Dramatist, and it suggests a too-great consciousness that one novel in the series is supposed to lead to the next. I’m disappointed because, that ending aside, I found a lot to be impressed with here, and I was decidedly curious to see if Bruen could sustain it.
So, after all this, I may be on board for one more, but I find myself for the first time in a while more interested in Bruen’s other work than in spending time seeing how he paints himself out of the ever-shrinking corner that remains of this generally very impressive series.
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