Ken Bruen, Priest

Priest

Ken Bruen

St. Martin's, Mar 2007, $23.95

ISBN: 0312341407

Former Guarda alcoholic Jack Taylor remembers why he ended up in a Galway mental institution. He was watching Serena May, the Downs Syndrome child of friends Jeff and Cathy when he opened up the second floor window to allow some air inside the sweltering apartment; he lost focus and she fell out the open window to her death. He also knows he was cold sober though he blames himself for negligence.

He feels powerful guilt though he is freed from the institution but continues to avoid alcohol. Father Malachy surprises Jack when he visits him in his new digs as the two loathe one another. Malachy asks Jack to investigate the murder of Father Joyce. Meanwhile Ni Iomaire better known as Ridge, who picked Jack up from the hospital, asks Jack to find out who is stalking her. Finally "his" Cathy requests that he locate her husband, amidst the homeless with a guarantee that if he fails she will kill him. With a new partner Cody, Jack begins his inquiries to help him forget his causing a wrongful death by neglect.

The three cases take a back seat to the dark somewhat depressing changing Ireland where the Church is losing its hold to the new affluence. The storyline is filled with non-stop action as Taylor perhaps too easily solves his cases with the assistance of Cody. However, the star of his fifth thriller is present day Ireland where the tradionalists and the modernists battle for supremacy.

Harriet Klausner