The Killing of the Tinkers

Jack Taylor #2

by Ken Bruen

When Jack Taylor blew town at the end of The Guards his alcoholism was a distant memory and sober dreams of a new life in London were shining in his eyes. In the opening pages of The Killing of the Tinkers, Jack's back in Galway a year later with a new leather jacket on his back, a pack of smokes in his pocket, a few grams of coke in his waistband, and a pint of Guinness on his mind. So much for new beginnings.

Before long he's sunk into his old patterns, lifting his head from the bar only every few days, appraising his surroundings for mere minutes and then descending deep into the alcoholic, drug-induced fugue he prefers to the real world. But a big gypsy walks into the bar one day during a moment of Jack's clarity and changes all that with a simple request. Jack knows the look in this man's eyes, a look of hopelessness mixed with resolve topped off with a quietly simmering rage; he's seen it in the mirror. Recognizing a kindred soul, Jack agrees to help him, knowing but not admitting that getting involved is going to lead to more bad than good. But in Jack Taylor's world bad and good are part and parcel of the same lost cause, and besides, no one ever accused Jack of having good sense.

Ken Bruen wowed critics and readers alike when he introduced Jack Taylor in The Guards; he'll blow them away with The Killing of the Tinkers, a novel of gritty brilliance that cements Bruen's place among the greats of modern crime fiction.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Ireland, Fiction, Noir, Mystery Thriller, Thriller

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Ken Bruen was an Irish writer of hardboiled and noir crime fiction.

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it is because my Dad was born in Donegal but I just love books set in Ireland.

I read the first book in this series a while back and liked the main character despite his battle with chronic alcoholism. When sober he is smart, well informed and apparently charming since so many women seem to like him. Unfortunately, in this second book he has added a drug problem to the alcohol and, for me anyway, is not as likeable.

He is also not a reliable employee, as everyone who gives him P.I. work soon discovers, and he is also rather dangerous to be around. In The Killing of the Tinkers he does eventually solve the crime, but unfortunately only after he has accused the wrong person, with regrettable results. The ending is super smart though.

I now have to continue with the series because I really want to know what happens to him, plus it is all so very Irish. Love it!

[Valeriu Gherghel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nu prea știu ce să zic. Ken Bruen scrie excelent. Are umor, ironie, cinism, precizie în descrieri, replici mortale. Din punctul ăsta de vedere este un meseriaș. Din păcate, detectivul lui, eruditul Jack Taylor, este un alcoolic fără soluție. Singura lui bătălie este aceea cu berea și whisky-ul (iar în acest volum și cu cocaina). Intriga polițistă e minimă, aproape că nu există, este mult prea simplă.

Poți citi un thriller doar pentru umor și stil? Nu prea. Mi-aș dori un detectiv ceva mai puțin cult, dar mult mai inteligent și mai activ. Ca și în primul roman al seriei Jack Taylor, și aici se omoară mult și fără nici un motiv, aproape la întîmplare. Mă gîndesc că trei steluțe e cam mult. Ken Bruen nu este Samuel Beckett (din care citează adesea și cu plăcere). Dar nu dau de la mine din buzunar, las să fie. Măcar aici, pe Goodreads, să încurajăm lectura :)

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure what to make of this book. Jack has added cocaine and amphetamines to his diet of alcohol. I think I don’t like him as much this time around. How much further can he sink?

All the literary references don’t mean much to me and some don’t seem relevant to the story. My take is that the author doesn’t have to write them because someone else has, and they make a short book a bit longer.

I’ll read this series until I’m tired of it, if it continues with this formula. I also think I need to allow some time between books.

[Keith Bruton · Rating 4 out of 5]

90% of this book is dialogue, which makes it a fast read. Ken Bruen does a great job of describing the Galway setting. His style is dark, gritty, and messy, like the protagonist. There's plenty of old-fashioned pop references, which some readers will love and hate. The plot is kind of in the background (people of the travelling community are being murdered; Jack is asked to investigate). Overall, I enjoyed the experience. Jack Taylor is an intriguing character to read about.

[Ana Cristina Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vuelve el detective Jack Taylor, ex policía caído en desgracia, alcohólico y, en esta nueva entrega, adicto a la cocaína. Sin embargo conserva la lucidez suficiente para resolver casos difíciles, esta vez una serie de asesinatos de jóvenes itinerantes que aparecen tirados en las calles de Galway.

Como en la anterior de la serie, Maderos, la ambientación irlandesa es buena y la trama se lee con interés. A destacar las referencias literarias y musicales que este peculiar detective va intercalando en su deambular. Si no te gusta el noir muy negro, mejor buscar otra cosa

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ken Bruen wowed critics and readers alike when he introduced Jack Taylor in The Guards; he'll blow them away with The Killing of the Tinkers"

When I first read The Guards, it had been a few years after seeing the TV production - which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The dialogue, storyline, and character is both intriguing and full of despair yet the story totally engaging. When finishing this book it left me eager to continue along with the next book, and to carry on with the whole series.

They will both make you laugh out loud, and shake you head at the same time!

I also must mention that with all his flaws, he is an avid bookworm.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing on from THE GUARDS, my rereading of Ken Bruen's penultimate series continues to bare fruit with THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS being another top read.

Jack progresses from mere alcoholic with a good natured if somewhat destructive personality to a full blown drug addict - coke the poison which pumps it's devilishly smooth disguised death in his very veins. It adds another affliction to the already well afflicted - and that's part of the charm isn't it? Jack's not meant to be a nice man, he's not meant to be the copper you run to. No. He's the bloke at the bar you go to when the bottom of the barrel has turned you down. Yet, he gets results - and in THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS he does just that.

Of course, this wouldn't be a Bruen novel if some claret didn't get spilled along the way. Enter a serial killer hell bent on murdering tinkers (oh there's a nice wee twist to this one) and a deranged maniac taking heads off swans and Jack's got a bit on his plate - plus the drinking and drugging, as well as the odd relationship with a lass and befriending a cop from London. Despite Jack being pulled in so many directions, Ken Bruen keeps it all on point, allowing each thread to overlap and merge with no another to form a greater narrative.

THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS is a fantastic sophomore outing for Jack Taylor.

Review first appeared on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So he's now addicted to coke (just finshed the first chapter). I'm so happy I'm not Jack Taylor.

So he has now lost most of his teeth and his balls are black and blue - I refer you to my previous sentence.

Finished it now. Not sure about these. Its great that the investigations aren’t solved with the precision of a CSI investigation. But that said I’d like a little more detecting from Jack. And it always good to have a hero that is flawed but there are limits to the level of Jack bashing I can enjoy. But I shall be reading the next one.

[K.A. Laity · Rating 5 out of 5]

The latest Bruen I’ve read is actually the second Jack Taylor book, after The Guards. For those keeping score at home, this is when Taylor loses his teeth (mark that on your Jack Taylor Injury Scorecard, a big 50 points). I can’t really explain why I haven’t tried to read them in order; I suppose it’s because if I made a deliberate effort to put them all in order I would read them through in one great orgy of words until they were all done and then where would I be? Probably standing on the streets of the Claddagh listening to Bruen type.

And the Gardaí would come drag me away.

So, it’s better that I just read them in the order in which they cross my path, which happened with this tale of the tinkers and Taylor. He’s still raggedly recovering from his flight after the end of The Guards and the deaths left in his wake. It’s Jack, so he’s managed to screw up his life even more in London and as he returns to Galway, things look bleak. Then he’s asked to help deal with the killings of young tinkers because his former colleagues in the force have no interest in their world. The tinkers give him a home, his friends give him hope and he’s got a good idea who might be behind all the killings.

But you know it’s going to turn out badly because Jack Taylor is a magnet for nightmares. Bruen gives you a Galway that rustles with skittering shadows and malevolence. The circle of recurring characters have been sketched in by this second volume, but they grow more intricately here. Terrible things lie ahead for some and it makes the happy moments even more bittersweet. There’s philosophy, poetry and too much backsliding from Jack. Bruen tells his tales with a ragged beauty, his eloquence matched only by the bleak horror.

Sure it’s grand.

[Geoff. Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The term 'procedural' has, for some, a taint to it. Routine, churner, etc. Not so the Jack Taylor stories written by Ken Bruen. Jack is a former (read dismissed) Garda, often submissive to the demons drink and drugs. Jack has a keen eye for trouble, his own and that of others. Unlike so many fictional 'tecs, Jack is well-read. Every Jack Taylor story interweaves books and music that inform his life.

Some authors are 'name droppers', slipping the names of authors, poets, singers etc as 'evidence' of the character's "sophistication". Credit, then, Ken Bruen whose references are intrinsic to the story or to painting Jack's history.

"Killing' is rich (as are all of the Jack Taylor novels) in such literary and musical references.

Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
I Saw A Stranger - Tommy Fleming
No woman, no cry - Bob Marley
Living next door to Alice - Jive Bunny
Sunday morning coming down
Angel of Harlem - U2
Just another town - Johnny Duhan
Bend It - Dave Dee
Changes - Phil Ochs

The Countrywoman - Paul Smith
Gore Vidal - Fred Kaplan
House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski
To Bedlam and Partways Back - Anne Sexton
Satan Wants Me - Robert Irwin
Jernigan - David Gates
Chester Himes - James Sallis
The Angels Will not Care - John Straley
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye - Horace McCoy
The Simple Art of Murder - Raymond Chandler
Wonders of the Invisible World - David Gates

[Valentin Derevlean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personaj excelent, construcția romanului șubredă, intrigă minimă. Însă Jack Taylor e unul dintre personajele mele preferate, așa că...

Las o concluzie din scurta recenzie de pe blog:
Rezistent, deși distrus, violent fizic, deși gura pare să îi fie tot timpul arma cea mai bună, idiot în unele decizii, dublat de un instinct de polițist care nici de-a naibii nu funcționează, Jack Taylor e genul de detectiv predestinat eșecului. Cazul îl va rezolva până la urmă, nu fără victime colaterale, noi remușcări și vinovății mai mult sau mai puțin reale. Cum se termină romanul? Cinic și întunecat, așa cum e și viața personajului principal.

Mai multe:
https://vderevlean.wordpress.com/2020...

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

After listening to the first in the series, I immediately ordered the next three in the series. Ken Bruen's writing and descriptions are both phenomenal and I thoroughly enjoy the literary and musical references. Short but not so sweet, but thoroughly entertaining.

[Shirley Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noir at it's Irish best! Ken Bruen is an author of few words. His Jack Taylor books are short, succinct and directly to the point, and let me tell you, a lot happens in between the covers of his books. Jack Taylor is my new favourite anti-hero. He's a hard drinking, hard-scrabble and surprisingly literary PI who lives in Galway, Ireland. This is the second book in the series and Jack is coming back to Galway after a year in London. He left because his life was in a real mess and he had many people after his blood. He comes back to Galway still a raging alcoholic but he's also a cocaine addict. His life is a mess and he can't seem to get out of his downward spiral. As he sits in one of his favourite watering holes shortly after returning, a big gypsy walks into the bar and asks Jack for his help. Someone is killing young gypsy men in his clan. Jack comes out of his alcoholic haze and recognizes a man who seems just like himself and he agrees to help. The pace of this book will blow you away and even though it's short we get more than enough characterization and plot to keep a reader wildly turning pages. Jack is a train wreck and he'd be the first to admit it, but he is the most insightful, quick-witted PI you're ever likely to meet. It makes me wonder how spectacular he'd be if he was sober.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally. The book where I finally get what the big fuss is about. The two other books by Ken Bruen that I've read, I either didn't like (AMERICAN SKIN) or was a little underwhelmed (THE GUARDS: good but not great).

This novel finds a balance between character and setting. The tone, details, and humanity shine from the gutter. The unapologetic approach to the hero is exactly what hardboiled writing is all about.

And to top it off, Bruen has thankfully limited the amount of pop culture and music references and chose to concentrate on the story. Not the plot mind you. The "mystery" that the story is supposedly about is incidental, taking up the last fifteen pages. However, the rest of the book is a study in loss and desperation.

If Bruen can combine the strengths of this book with an actual plotline, rather than the loose drunken stagger of a plot in this book, he has it in him to write a crime novel that is truly a classic. Maybe he has. I will keep reading Bruen and see where it takes me.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book in Bruen's "Jack Taylor" series (following the Shamus-winner THE GUARDS) picks up with ex-Garda Taylor returning from London in even worse shape than when we last saw him (hard to believe) and asked to help find out who's been murdering Galway's gypsies. THE KILLING OF THE TINKERS is literate, darkly poetic, melancholy, and absolutely brutal. You can almost wring Irish Whiskey out of its pages.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I liked this one much more than the first of the series. People who were annoyed by the lists in the first book will be less annoyed; they don't disappear, but they're less frequent. The extremely terse style has been mitigated; there's more than dialogue, chapters are fleshed out, and he actually does a bit more actual detective work, rather than having things fall into his lap.

It's still very Galwegian; shoutouts to employees of Charlie Byrnes' bookstore and other locales in and around Galway abound. And the swans..........you can't get more Galway than that.
Jack takes on a case in defense of a marginalized group: the tinkers. I'm wondering if this is one of the things that make (so Bruen claims in an interview) the Irish dislike his work. Or maybe it's the fact that the lack of attention given to the matter by the Gardai might tick off those most likely to read a mystery novel, cops themselves. Maybe they didn't like being called out for not caring.

Still not certain that Jack will ever "grow on" me, but we're at least allowed to get to know him a bit more. There's something of Bruen in this book as well, albeit in other characters: Kiki, Jack's wife-for-five-minutes, has a Ph.D. in metaphysics (Bruen himself did a Ph. D. in the same), and another bit of his life that we see portrayed in another character. It's still beyond me that anyone who's reached such a level of alcoholism that he's doing laundry three times a day can "get it" as much as he can, but there you have it.

[Mike Sumner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess Jack Taylor is akin to marmite. You either love him or dislike him. Well, I love marmite, so there it is. Ken Bruen's clipped, staccato writing style pervades a brooding Irish landscape - windswept, rain-lashed Galway where Taylor has returned with a cocaine habit and little else after a year spent in London, apart from befriending Keegan, a DS in the Met, who is not averse to straying into criminal activity if the end justifies the means. Just as well for Jack when Keegan turns up unannounced in Galway. You would want Keegan on your side. Particularly when Jack is approached by Sleeper, a recognised king amongst tinkers. He wants Jack to find out who has been ruthlessly killing young travellers and dumping their bodies in the city centre....

This is raw, gutsy stuff. Jack hasn't changed his habits since being thrown out of the Irish Gardai. He drinks to excess almost daily and continues with his cocaine habit, albeit to a lesser degree. Laura helps to steer him away from a path of self destruction, for a while... And yet, beneath that hardened exterior beats a good heart. If he has a 'wedge' he will share it with the needy. Cross Jack at your peril.

This is the 2nd in the Jack Taylor series and I love it as much as The Guards.

Sláinte !

[Liesl de Swardt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not much care for this book. Jack solves the crimes more by chance than real detective work. For once in my life I prefer the TV series to the book.

[Michael Martz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ken Bruen's "The Killing of the Tinkers" in 4 words: good writer, bad character.

Ex-cop (Irish variety) and current PI Jack Taylor is off the wagon, big time, and a local gypsy leader asks him to investigate the seeming serial killing of several young 'tinkers'. He doesn't investigate as much as just meander around in an eff-ed up state during almost the entirety of the novel, thinks he finds the right guy for the crimes, the gypsies take care of the punishment, but then there's the whole thing about whether Taylor's incompetence has resulted in an incorrect 'judgment'.

Can't do any more of these. Kind of like the old 'Bad Lieutenant' movie with Harvey Keitel back in the day..... interesting to see the depravity and all that, but once is plenty (and this is my 2nd of the Taylor series).

[Paul-François ALBERTINI · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Taylor, ancien flic de la Garda reconverti en detective privé est une épave qui carbure a la coke et à la Guiness. Dans cet opus il est chargé par des "tinkers" (les gitans d'Irlande) de trouver qui assassine sauvagement les leurs.
Comme chez Chandler, l'enquête n'est qu'un prétexte pour dérouler une galerie de personnages haut en couleur (tenancier de pub stoïque, pilier de bar mutique, ancien flic alcoolique, prêtre loufoque etc.). Les dialogues font mouches par leur humour pince sans rire. Si Taylor fait beaucoup penser à Philip Marlowe, il est encore plus désabusé et moralement borderline. Je poursuivrai la lecture de cette serie qui comporte 9 tomes.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Taylor este noul meu antierou preferat. Fost polițist, actual alcoolic, drogat, cinic are toate (ne)calitățile potrivite unui antierou. Ceea ce face romanul lui Ken Bruen și mai interesant, dincolo de intriga detectivistă, sunt desele referințe culturale și umorul. Mai ales umorul, bine calibrat, autoironic și critic la adresa societății. Trebuie să recunosc că acest roman m-a suprins plăcut așa că acum am cumpărat și celelalte volume de Ken Bruen apărute la Crime Scene.

[Aysegul Ozkan]

Nasil bir puan versem bilemiyorum. Turkce'ye cevrilmez diye tahmin ediyorum. Turk polisiye okuruna fazla gelir.

[Юрко Ричак · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jameson - це те що об'єднує мене і головного героя!!! А решта - клас!

[Kostas Kanellopoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our bookish hero way off the wagon again

[Jane Dugger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't say exactly what it is about this series that resonates with me but - boy - it does. Jack is irreverent, snarky, poor choice maker and alcoholic. However, I find him so endearing.

[Joe Kraus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not much given to the idea of detective series. For me much of the fun in a book is getting to meet a new character, and that’s gone if it’s someone we’re seeing again after a first – or a dozenth – earlier volume(s). On the other hand, Ken Bruen writes so well, with so sharp and comically sweetened a hardboiled edge, that I think anything he writes is worth a shot.

I don’t think this one quite reaches to the level of the first Jack Taylor novel, The Guards, but that’s a masterpiece, so it’s more than fine to come close. And this one comes very close. Especially with its killer ending, this steps right up to that level of true excellence.

Bruen writes here with the same inspired hardboiled mumbling as The Guards. Sometimes his sentences come out as poetry; more often they just stop short. If it’s not inspired, neither he nor Jack will waste our time in saying it.

That’s as true at the level of the chapters as it is with those sentences. Some chapters wind around an incident, taking us right up to something disturbing in the world or in Jack’s blighted soul. Others belch out an insight and conclude all within the space of a page or two.

So, as far as I’m concerned, I’ll listen to Bruen meditating on whatever he cares to share, be it the murders of a bunch of Irish Tinkers, the thrill-kill beheading of a bunch of swans, or the writers or singers he thinks are most neglected.

For much of this book, I paid only loose attention to the plot. [SEMI-SPOILER] Jack is sure he’s solved the mystery of the Tinker-killer early in the novel, and it becomes less a whodunit and more a how-to-get-revenge. In that light, I just enjoyed the prose and the constellation of other characters, especially Cathy – the ex-punk turned mother of a child with Downs Syndrome – and Kiki, the intellectual who marries Jack when he’s in a manic mood and repents when she sees him in full.

I’d read a bunch, put it down for a few days, and then pick it up with the same joy a little later.

And then, [FULL SPOILER] comes that ending. The last couple dozen pages make it clear Jack’s fingered the wrong man for the Tinker killings. His certainty has sicced some mean bastards on a nasty but ultimately innocent man. And it’s as hard as hardboiled gets when Jack confronts the man – his teeth ripped from his jaw with pliers – knows the truth for himself, and nods again toward his murder. What else is he to do? If he owns up to the mistake at that late date, then he’s a dead man himself.

The final page is note perfect in its leaving Jack disgusted with himself. He’s cleared a lot of money on the job, but he can’t take knowing what he knows. So he hires someone to kill ‘Mikey,’ the man he knows for the true killer at the last.

Bruen gives us all that in the space of a couple paragraphs. It’s a dark truth made all the darker in the telling. Yet it’s inspirational too in the discovery that someone so plugged into genre that he’s working in series has the capacity to hone the stiletto as he does.

So, yeah, I’m all in for the next one. I can’t imagine the next will be as good as this one, but if the slippage from this one (number two in the series) to number three is as slight as the slippage from The Guards to this, then I’m sure I’ll enjoy and admire it too.

[Felix Zilich · Rating 4 out of 5]

В первой книге Джек Тейлор бухал по-черному, во второй - он еще и на кокс подсел. Вернулся из Лондона домой в Голуэй абсолютным изгоем, конченым джанком и еще… женатым человеком. Новая жена Джека – немка с научной степенью по метафизике – по ходу сюжета приезжает в Голуэй, но уже на следующий день (и двадцать страниц спустя) сбегает в неизвестном направлении. Если кто не в курсе, степень по метафизике у самого Кена Бруэна, поэтому не сразу и проссышь кто кого в книге выебал: писатель своего любимого героя или герой - писателя.

У детектива-изгоя клиенты теперь тоже из “неприкасаемых”. Община цыган-тинкеров нанимает Джека, чтобы найти тварь, которая зверски убивает их братьев. Уже несколько часов спустя к дому Тейлора подкатывают местные гопники, которые при помощи монтировки и доброго словца объясняют бывшему копу, что дружить с черножопыми – это совсем не по-ирландски. Гопники ломают Джеку руки и ноги, выбивают ему все зубы. Тейлор после этого несколько недель валяется в больничке; расследование, тем временем, неспешно раскручивается и раскручивается.

Как обычно у Бруэна – правда не принесёт никому ни счастья, ни профита. И меньше всего – детективу в старой ментовской шинели. Хотя чего я говорю. Зубы, ноги, рёбра, четыре женщины. Никто не сделает Джеку Тейлору больнее, чем он сам. Слайнте, май френдс!

[AngryGreyCat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just recent read the first in this series and enjoyed it so much that I picked this one, The Killing of the Tinkers, up from the library. In this outing of the series, Jack Taylor is more messed up (if you can believe that is possible) than he was in the first book. Jack has decided to add a side of cocaine addiction to his already rampant alcoholism on his path to self destruction. On top of the drugs and alcohol he also is burning through women, including a wife he picked up in London. Now that Sutton is gone, Jack has acquired some new sidekicks, Keegan and Sweeper, who add their own color to the book.

In this book, the mystery surrounds murdered gypsies (tinkers) and as a side plot, murdered swans. Jack stumbles his way drunkenly through the mystery, acquiring some pretty brutal injuries along as the way and losing some teeth. It seems like you should be able to smell the whiskey dripping off the pages at some points. The resolution is messy, not a typical “neat and clean with all the ends tied up”, but it suits Jack and his decidedly messy life. I am definitely going to continue with this series of very engaging page turners, even though this biggest mystery might be how Jack stays alive.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another ripping great read courtesy of Ken Bruen. It's important to read the Jack Taylor series in order because the character evolves and you don't want to miss anything.

In The Killing of the Tinkers, Jack is hired to find out who is killing members of the Tinker community (aka gypsy). His reputation is catching up with him. There are subplots throughout which will be useful in later books (according to a Jack Taylor reader friend of mine).

Jack Taylor is flawed, but a good man. Jack is a well-read man and there are exceptional book references and quotes from books that are not to be missed.

Warning: there is much alcohol and drug abuse throughout. If you can't stomach that sort of thing, steer clear.

To reiterate, do not read the books thinking you're simply "reading" the Netflix 9-episode series (so far). The books are different in some details and characters. The series is quite good, too; watch it as a separate entity.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Killing of the Tinkers is a much darker, much more focused Jack Taylor novel than the first book in the series. I enjoyed it a lot more than The Guards. Still quite economical with his wording, there is definitely no wasted space in this book. And I can say with full authority now: The Jack Taylor television show is basically a complete reimagining. The Iain Glenn character is more of a good guy, less impulsive...less... uh... terrible... than the Jack Taylor I just read about. This guy is bad news. Completely destructive. But the portrait of Galway and the seedier side of Jack's psyche is just fascinating. To paraphrase another popular series, If you are expecting a happy ending, you have not been paying attention. These books are tragedies. Much like real life can be. Particularly for a person that does not help himself much. Onward and upward.