it was my first Taylor....what a dialogue...Desperado

Vivid dialogue, interesting picture of contemporary Ireland. Weirdly slipshot book, though. At 200 pages, with large print and big margins, it's unnecessarily repetitive (how many times do we need to go over Taylor's physical description--he limps, wears a hearing aid, blah, blah), establishes facts from previous novels in a clunky, obvious way, and has odd inconsistencies, as if the author couldn't be bothered to reread/rewrite even this slim volume. Taylor's one of those alcoholic, drug-addicted (on, then off the wagon here) self-loathing gutter romantic types, and pretty thoroughly unpleasant. (Oh, the plot involves a looney nun serial killer who knew Taylor when.) ( )

I don't think there is anyone who writes dialogue better than Ken Bruen. His character, Jack Taylor, is flawed but Bruen makes him so endearing you can't wait to see what comes out of his mouth, or his thoughts, next. Jack receives a letter in the mail listing the people that will be murdered. He dismisses it as a crank letter but then the people start dying. In the previous book Jack was headed to America, but a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer so he stuck around for support. With the Jack Taylor series, the author focuses more on Jack's life in Galway, Ireland, writing it like a diary, with whatever case Jack is working on set in the background like an afterthought. This may aggravate some people but when it's a character driven series such as this and a writer like Bruen, I can forgive him anything. ( )

These books are amazing and keep getting better. Truth is the more I read authers like Ken Bruen, Ian Rankin, and charlie Houston, the less John sandford and Lee Child I want to read. ( )

One of his best!