The latest installment in Bruen's series finds ex-cop turned private eye Jack Taylor on the hunt for a psychotic assassin who has been killing Galway police officers, one by one.
... 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.