Reviewed by annieb123 on
Galway Girl is the 15th Jack Taylor novel by Ken Bruen. Released 5th Nov 2019 by Mysterious Press, it's 288 pages and available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats.
Jack Taylor is a mess. He's insubordinate, mentally ill, a blackout alcoholic, and generally completely fed up with everyone's bullsh*t. Most of Bruen's plots have a ton of disparate threads that come together at the end (usually explosively) and this one is no exception.
This is a beautifully written, often poetic thriller with a palpable Irish noir vibe. The plotting is taut, the setting is amazing and alive in the prose, and the secondary characters (at least the ones who manage to stay alive til the end of the book) are worthwhile and full of, well, character.
Although it's indisputably a really solidly entertaining book, fair warning, the language is rough and it's violent in scary and unpredictable ways. There is nothing cozy here but for lovers of gritty PI procedurals, this is a winner.
The returning characters have developed a lot over the series, and the author doesn't give a lot of back story, so it might be best to pick up some earlier books to get a sense of the characters and their backgrounds.
Amazing book. Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
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- 11 November, 2019: Reviewed
- Started reading
- Finished reading
- 11 November, 2019: Reviewed