... as sharp and sardonic as it is starkly bleak and violent, it shows the master raconteur at his best: lyrical, brutal, and ceaselessly suspenseful ... That is the beauty of Bruen’s prose. He continues the poetry in many of his chapter breaks, and he sometimes quotes other authors who also have a poetic bent to their writing ... Do not miss Galway Girl, a novel that shows Ken Bruen’s writing at its finest and Jack Taylor’s life at its gruffest.
Ken Bruen peppers his tales of world-weary ex-Garda (Irish cop) Jack Taylor with shamrock bromides that are often thought provoking or darkly humorous ... Bruen’s command of language and metaphor is on full display in his trademark staccato verse, and his sense of place is superb. And to top it all off, the final scene is so artfully and powerfully rendered that I had to go back and read it again. And again. And I likely will again.
Bruen’s masterful blend of free verse and sharp prose sends readers on a free fall into Taylor’s head and evokes a shadowed Galway that meets him with hostility, pity, and grudging respect. Something’s shifted in Taylor, and his fans will be forced to endure an excruciating wait to see where it takes him.
Prolific Bruen is at the top of his inimitable form here with typical first-person narration, one-line paragraphs, free-flowing Jameson, and almost as much blood ... For fans of the series and its protagonist, and readers who admire Jack’s devious ways of making things right.
... works very well, even though it shouldn’t ... cringeworthy and more, in all the best ways. Even when you anticipate what Taylor or any other character is going to do, you still hope against hope that they won’t. Hopes such as these are repeatedly dashed. But the tale is so beautifully and bleakly told that one simply cannot stop reading ... Each of Bruen’s Jack Taylor thrillers builds on the last, but he does a prime job of giving newcomers just enough information to follow along ... an ending that is dark in pitch but oddly satisfying ... Bruen gives readers more than a top-flight story here ... It is but one indication of the casual power of Bruen’s writing that I am already cringing over what might happen in his next Taylor tale, even as I eagerly and impatiently anticipate it.
... superior ... Abrupt violence and plot twists keep the action popping, as Bruen plays his story like a series of brilliant improvisational jazz solos ... Bruen reinforces his place as the master of Irish noir.
