The Ghosts of Galway - Hardcover

Bruen, Ken

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1786697009 ISBN 13: 9781786697004

Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2017

Synopsis

Ken Bruen is a singular voice in crime fiction “with his ear for lilting Irish prose and his taste for the kind of gallows humor heard only at the foot of the gallows” (New York Times Book Review). In The Ghosts of Galway, he brings those elegiac talents to bear on a case involving a famously blasphemous red book and Bruen’s equally profane antihero Jack Taylor.

As well-versed in politics, pop culture, and crime fiction as he is ill-fated in life, Jack Taylor is recovering from a mistaken medical diagnosis and a failed suicide attempt. In need of money, and with former cop on his resume, Jack has been hired as a night-shift security guard. But his Ukrainian boss has Jack in mind for a bit of off-the-books work. He wants Jack 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 Jack’s distaste for priests of any stripe, the money is too good to turn down. Em, the many-faced woman who has had a vise on Jack’s heart and mind for the past two years, reappears and turns out to be entangled with the story of The Red Book, too, leading Jack down ever more mysterious and lethal pathways.

It seems all sides are angling for a piece of Jack Taylor, but as The Ghosts of Galway twists toward a violent end, he is increasingly plagued by ghosts―by the disposable and disposed of in a city filled with as much darkness as the deepest corners of Jack’s own mind.

About this title

About the Author

Ken Bruen received a doctorate in metaphysics, taught English in South Africa, and then became a crime novelist. The critically acclaimed author of eleven previous Jack Taylor novels and The White Trilogy, he is the recipient of two Barry Awards and two Shamus Awards and has twice been a finalist for the Edgar Award. He lives in Galway, Ireland.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Up a shabby set of stairs then knocked on 201. It opened almost immediately. Not sure what I was expecting, probably a whiskey refugee and old.
Neither.
Young guy, in his early thirties, long brown hair, bland face, dressed in gray track suit. Then I was falling backward from a punch. He was about to follow through with a kick but I grabbed that and flipped him, then, getting up, I dragged him by his hair into the room, kicked the door shut, said,
“Stay down or I will break your fucking neck.”
The introductions out of the way, I looked round the room.
Bare.
Thomas Merton would have been comfortable with it. I asked,
“Where is the book?”
Up close he didn’t seem as young though maybe being dragged by the hair ages you. He picked himself up, slowly, watching my boots carefully, asked,
“Are you working for the church?“
I nearly laughed but went,
“I represent the private sector.”
He measured me, definitely found me wanting, but decided further tussle was wasted. Said,
“The book is gone.”
So I did what you do with a stubborn priest; I walloped him.
Twice.

Edition details

• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1786697009
• ISBN 13: 9781786697004
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304