GHOSTS OF GALWAY: A Jack Taylor Novel

From Ireland's most lyrical crime fiction writer this is an addictive series setting a falling Irish angel Jack Taylor against a dangerous band of heretics. Bruen brings his elegiac talents to bear on a case involving a famously blasphemous red book and his equally profane anti-hero Jack Taylor. As well-versed in politics, pop culture, and crime fiction as he is ill-fated in life, Taylor is recovering from a failed suicide attempt. In need of money, and with former cop on his resumé, Taylor had been hired as a night-shift security guard. But his Ukrainian boss has him in mind for some unexpected off-the-books work. He wants Taylor to find what some claim to be the first true book of heresy, 'The Red Book', currently in the possession of a rogue priest who is hiding out in Galway after fleeing a position at the Vatican. Despite Taylor's distaste for priests of any stripe, the money is too good to turn down. M, the woman-of-many-guises who has had an eye on Jack's heart and mind for the past two years, reappears and turns out to be tangled up with the story of the Red Book, leading him down ever more mysterious and lethal pathways. The novel twists towards a violent end as Jack is increasingly plagued by ghosts and by the disposable and disposed of a city filled with as much darkness as the deepest corners of Jack's own mind. 330pp. Stylistically, very short sentences.