Book #31 Cross

Cross by Ken Bruen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I cannot get enough of Jack Taylor. This series by Ken Bruen is so darned good. Jack is vulnerable, a reforming alcoholic, a haunted man. So many events in his life since being kicked out of the Guards have left him in a bad place. Cannot say too much - so many threads run through this series and I don't want to spoil it for any reader who is thinking about embarking on it.

In Cross a boy has been crucified in Galway City. People are shocked; the Irish Church is scandalised - and no further action is taken. Then the sister of the murdered boy is burned alive and Jack decides to take matters into his own hands...

This is a dark, compelling portrait of a man who continues to seek redemption, who has few friends - if any. The dialogue crackles with authenticity, dark, powerful, often humorous. We see Jack deciding on a move to America, selling up in Galway and moving on. And then Bruen gives the reader another kick in the gonads, right there on the last page, that leaves Jack devastated. And you just know - you have to move onto book #7....

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Book #30 The Shipping News

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has taken me far too long to read this Pulitzer Prize winner by Annie Proulx (first published in 1993). Too busy with other commitments for a while. Returning to The Shipping News from time to time was akin to putting on a favourite pair of slippers. Comfortable. This tale is a gem, almost poetry.

The main protagonist is known only as Quoyle. A hapless, hopeless journalist living and working in New York. He is ashamed of his physical appearance - a large, jutting chin is his main embarrassment. It doesn’t help his marriage to his no-good wife Petal. She likes sleeping around and makes no secret of it. Perhaps it is justice then when she is killed in a spectacular road accident. The bereft Quoyle sets out with his two daughters to the land of his forefathers - the remote corners of far-flung Newfoundland, accompanied by his aunt, a woman of remarkable talents when it comes to - upholstery. Quoyle takes up the post of shipping news reporter on the Gammy Bird. There’s a name for you!

The characterisation is perfect. So many individuals who add so much to this gentle story. Names like Jack Buggit (the newspaper proprietor), Mavis Bangs, Dawn Budgel, Alvin Yark and Tert Card who all speak a dialect that took Proulx two years to master with a Newfoundland dictionary. And all of this against the backdrop of a cruel and empty land, towering icebergs with cores of beryl, blue gems within white gems, on cliffs where the wind has blown so hard for so long that the trees are no more than chest-high, gnarled into natural bonsai called tuckamore (I had to Google it!).

The Shipping News is a wonderful, slowly unfolding and exhilarating Atlantic drama, a slow burner with a perfect ending. I loved it.

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Book #29 Priest

Priest by Ken Bruen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read back to back with Jack Taylor #4. I had to. Events at the end of The Dramatist left me reeling. Could anything worse have befallen Jack? Is Galway the kind of place to seek redemption? God, Jack - I really felt your despair. Your tortured soul. And the dark fiction continues in Priest.

Jack leaves hospital - the madhouse, the loony bin - where he has been for several months. Refuses further medication - "I felt my eyes retreat from the nine-yard stare, move away from the dead place." How did he finish up in an asylum? He doesn't remember. Collected by female Guard Ni Iomaire for his return to life in Galway even though the disfunction of their alliance continues, unabated. Does Jack have any friends left? Will he stay on the wagon? And as a new life beckons, Father Joyce is decapitated in a Galway confessional, shocking even the most hardened cynics and Jack is asked to find his killer, in the church rocked by scandal of the most disturbing nature.

Murder, conspiracy and a real danger for Jack - close and personal. Jack is a broken human-being. Past events continue to haunt his every waking hour as he continues to fight his alcoholism. But he does and he survives. Like it or not Jack you are a sensitive individual and I am concerned about what happens to you because Ken Bruen has written another gut-wrenching end to a fine book.

So, I am going to catch my breath before moving onto #6....

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Book #28 The Dramatist

The Dramatist by Ken Bruen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jack Taylor number four. I'm on a roll. More dark, disturbing, hard-boiled entertainment. Hang on just a minute. Lemsip and yoghurt. Daily fare for a re-invented Jack?! Not drinking, no drugs, virtually quit smoking and - yeah - that's correct - attending mass fairly regularly! Has Jack finally succumbed to a life less wired? Huh? So why the hell do you keep getting beaten up?! Are you still the 'finder' everyone admires, albeit in a rather disingenuous fashion? Who the hell are the Pikemen? Are they for real or just a fantasy of Irish imagination? And Cathy persuades you to visit your ex-dealer serving a six stretch in Mountjoy prison. He wants you to 'find out' about his sister's questionable death. Fell down the stairs and broke her neck. Really? How are things going off the booze, Jack? Coping? Your one redemption in life is being Godfather to the daughter of Jeff and Cathy. Serena May, a child with Down's syndrome. You love that child; you babysit and you read to her. A shining star in your bleak life.

And then, those last few pages. That stunning, horrific, conclusion. A few lines of prose that will rip your heart out. Left me gasping, distraught. Read those lines over and over. Oh dear God, no....

Ken Bruen has an undeniable talent for noir. His prose shines. This is entertainment, for me, of the highest order. It's black, it's Irish. But that ending. I have to move on to number five in the series.

What the hell happens to Jack.......

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Book #27 The Magdalen Martyrs

The Magdalen Martyrs by Ken Bruen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Back to Jack. Cannot help it. I love Ken Bruen's books - the Jack Taylor series. This is the third. The ex-Garda protagonist, hapless alcoholic, one might say hopeless as well, Jack staggers through life in Galway as a kind of honorary private detective and a mess of a human being. Hired by thugs who recognise his tough-guy bravado. Doesn’t quite work out for Jack, never does. He does get laid; the drugs help. This is real Irish noir. I know there are those that don’t like this series. But I enjoy Jack’s company. He loves reading and festoons his narrative with apt quotes from favourite authors. His hangovers are legendary. But somehow he always finds a way back. And the plot, for what it is, ingeniously incorporates the Magdalen laundry, a notoriously harsh home for wayward girls.

This series is a treat. Number three is dark, bleak and very funny at times. The best so far, for me.

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Book #26 The Sellout

The Sellout by Paul Beatty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There is satire and then there is satire and The Sellout has it in spades. This burlesque lampooning in a send-up of race and politics in America is hilarious, outrageous, provocative and brilliant. There are laugh-out-loud moments (be careful where you read it!) and page after page of pure genius. It will undoubtedly appeal more to American readers, but wherever you are, do not miss this winner of The Man Booker Prize 2016.

Damn, I nearly choked on my burger…..

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