I was introduced to Ken Bruen’s protagonist, Jack Taylor, through the television series of the same name starring Iain Glen. Jack was portrayed as an Irish ex-cop with more than a few chips on his shoulder, a fondness for alcohol, and a knack for solving crimes as a private investigator. Rough around the edges but surprisingly charming, the character on the screen echoed the character in Bruen’s books to a T.

Jack is back in this latest installment of the series, GALWAY’S EDGE. In Bruen’s hands, some of the common themes often associated with stories set in Ireland --- Catholicism, questionable priests, economic decline and inequity, crime --- are treated less as stereotypical hyperbole and more as part of the fabric of Jack’s Irish reality.

"As with all of these stories, GALWAY’S EDGE is engaging not only for its plot but for all that Taylor endures and ultimately survives."

In GALWAY’S EDGE, Jack is thrust into another investigation. Rumors abound that a group known as the Edge is comprised of Galway’s wealthiest and most powerful, set on ridding the city of the dirty underbelly of society, and especially those who have escaped justice. When word reaches the church that one of their own, a priest named Kevin Whelan, may be playing vigilante with the Edge, the church can’t abide by his actions. Father Richard, a priest high up in the Vatican known for a voracious appetite for food and eradicating “issues,” hires Jack to investigate the syndicate and talk Whelan out of participating.

Jack visits the priest in question, and a day later Whelan is found hanging in his yard. And he is just the first; more members of the Edge begin to die mysteriously, suggesting that an even more powerful group is edging them out of control in Galway. George Benson, a local millionaire, surfaces as the likely lead in the power play and reemerges throughout the story.

Along the way, Jack encounters a group of misfit characters who always fill Bruen’s pages. Sister Therese, the local Mother Superior, hires Jack to retrieve a stolen crucifix, but not before offering a swig to entice him. Jordan, a goth geek, helps steal back the valuable cross, along with other sleuthing tasks. An abused wife hires him to talk to her husband, who is also a cop. And a new client, riddled with cancer, hires Jack to end his life on his birthday.

It is no surprise that in Bruen’s 18th Jack Taylor novel, our disheveled hero (he’s fond of wrinkled clothes from thrift stores) continues to fight his own demons while also fighting those of others. Jameson taunts him, Xanax calls to him, and a new girlfriend is in the offing, if only briefly. As with all of these stories, GALWAY’S EDGE is engaging not only for its plot but for all that Taylor endures and ultimately survives.