Customer Reviews

The Magdalen Martyrs (Jack Taylor)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With such a diagnosis, who couldn't (at least if you're reading these reviews) connect with Jack Taylor? The third in the series finds Bruen a bit more relaxed, if you can say that about a man creating not only the drug-addled (see novel #2) but back to booze (novel #1) protagonist out on another mission in which again packets of cash come his way almost serendipitously to allow him to fund his ramshackle and lackadaisacal vocation. I'm pleased to find only two errors this time out. The first would likely be lost to a non-Irish reader: Mount Melleray gets misspelled--I remember Joyce's characters discussing it as a dry-out facility, and was surprised this wasn't added to Jack's reverie on the site. The second only a Galwegian might catch: Scoil "Fhursa" gets garbled into the phonetically proper but orthographically flawed "Ursa," unless it's a Latin-Gaelic pun.

As for the plot, why does Harriet Klausner keep calling these "British" noir? It's again a Galway story, and added to the characters this time out is an appealing foil, the ban garda (policewoman) Brid Nic an Iomaire, who Jack takes down a peg by calling her by the ugly anglicized rendering of her surname, "Ridge." Cliched set-ups: this time Jack falling in bed at every chance with the mum of his latest employer--again balance against raw accounts of being down and out, chemically speaking.

Yuppified, tourist-trampled, and "refugee"-ridden old/new Galway again provides the atmosphere, at turns oppressive and cleansing. Few natives of the city survive. The "drinking school" at Eyre Square grows. Characters manage to cover long swathes of the admittedly compact city center seemingly instantly, but like any writer I suppose Bruen cuts to the chase when necessary. Miss Bailey, the sentry, and Supt. Clancy endure. I miss Keegan, but Brendan and Bill return again, and their predicaments impel much of the plot. Cathy seems to be fading away, and Jeff continues as an unevenly drawn confessor figure. Why Jack hates his mum so remains for me too ambiguous, but two earlier relationships left disappointingly vague in "The Killing" get a bit of welcome clarification, however briefly, as Jack recalls Kiki and Laura in a moment of self-incrimination to account for his past treatment of these two former loves.

While it's hard to believe that even a doped-up Jack would choose both the lacerating honesty of Thomas Merton and the hokey claptrap of Khalil Gibran for comfort, the allusions continue, mostly not for no apparent reason! I did find this time around the vignettes of the Magdalen victims moving and a welcome change from the totally first-person style of Bruen's two earlier Taylor books. They avoid sentimentality and preachiness, while still conveying the horror perpetrated upon those women.

The Church comes in for a hard time in this work, at least from the Franciscans who keep circling Jack, and of course Fr. Malachy, but the entry of the doppelgangers Fr. Tom and Danny Flynn represent an appealingly disorienting couple of unsettling interlocuters. There's less violence in this installment, more misery, but also the pace is a bit more controlled, and this book was easier than "Guards" to read--Bruen getting more comfortable in Jack's skin--and the events better unfolded than "The Killing."

Jack Taylor is a man unhappy in his own skin. He hates sobriety and he hates his drug and alcohol addictions. Not so much the addictions themselves but the mornings after or the days later after another mind wrecking binge is over. His thin control over the addictions is shaky from the very beginning of this dark read currently available in hardback. What keeps him sane and barely in control is his love for books and his library that he keeps with him when circumstances force him to move from place to place. They have once more made the journey with him as he is back in Bailey's Hotel and hating the holiday season because of the gloomy weather as well as what it represents. He is also very unhappy that Bill Cassell has found him and is calling in his marker. Cassell certainly isn't a friend and the fact that Jack owes him a debt, which forces him to do whatever Cassell wants, sours his mood completely.

On the face of it, it doesn't seem so bad after all as Cassell just wants him to find somebody. He wants Jack Taylor to find a woman that helped Cassell's mother escape the Magdalen laundry years ago. The Magdalen was a horrible place for unwed mothers run by the church in Ireland where appalling abuse was inflicted on the unfortunate young women sent there. The woman's name was Rita Monroe and if Jack does not find her, living or dead, Cassell will punish him severely.

Jack begins his assigned task and before long gets a very physical reminder from Cassell and his minions to work faster. And while, from one point of view the reminder works, on another level it unleashes forces within Jack that neither he nor Cassell can control. Not only does the terror of what was done to him push Jack to the edge of his sanity, his addiction demons are once more awakened and he works the case with a new vengeance-both on himself as well as those who stand in the way.

With frequent allusions by name as well as content to other authors and their novels, which range across a wide spectrum, the novel becomes part mystery read and almost part suggested reading list. As the pages pass, the author spins a darkly disturbing and mesmerizing tale of one man's struggle to remain sane and in some semblance of control while being powerless to stay sober. Jack's neuroses, which are many, quickly become the readers own as his world comes alive on the printed page. The tale is told in fragments and flashbacks in a choppy style overlaying a deep subtext of the pain within and the battle against it. The result is a jolting and intense experience that gives the reader something far different than from most books in the genre.

This entire review previously appeared online at the mystery morgue.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2005

"The girl was on her knees, polishing the floor. She was dressed in shapeless faded overalls. A spotless white apron bore witness to the laundry she was confined to." So begins Ken Bruen's third installment in the life of his alcoholic, reading, ex-police officer, a former member of the Guards, kicked out of course for excessive drinking. Bruen takes on the Catholic Church here and specifically the awful stain on it, what has become known as the Magdalen Martyrs where unwed mothers were kept literally as prisoners and were forced to do manual labor-- if they were lucky. Some did not survive.

Taylor is hired by Bill Cassell to find one Rita Monroe whom he describes as someone who helped his own mother escape from the awful Magdalen laundry. As usual, Taylor both drinks and reads anything-- from Yeats to Kafka to Khalil Gibran to Robin Cook-- and for one reason or another usually steps on his own feet in trying to carry out whatever his current mission is. Cathy and Jeff make return appearances as does Brendan Flood; the obnoxious Father Malachy; Jack's hated mother who has suffered a stroke; and one breath of fresh air, his landlady Ms. Bailey, the most decent of people.

In much the way Chuck Palahniuk has made the underbelly of Portland, Oregon his own, Bruen makes Galway his town although I'm not sure I want to visit all the places he would take me. Taylor-- as we expect-- sort of falls into figuring out what is going on, and we have the now obligatory surprise ending.

THE MAGDALEN MARTYRS is another Bruen grim tale that will hold you in its spell.

I suppose what Ken Bruen is able to mine is a palpable sense of 'there but for the grace of God go I,' or other Irish-Italian-Jewish axioms grandmas all over the world whispered to grand kids. The prose is tight, the action swift, the confusion greater as the plot unfolds than in the beginning, and we really don't want Jack Taylor to have that next drink or next line or next joint. Because we know what it does. Because we know what it does to him. Because he knows what it does to him.

The search for the Magdelene murders-martyrs-perps might be pandering in say Chicago or New York, but it sure makes sense in Galway. And as Jack searches deeper he begins to appreciate .and share with us its horrors.

I have no problem with the writing. Excellent. Taylor beating on his mother gets tiresome. The relationship he has with Father Malachy reminds me of Clint Eastwood's Frankie Dunn, but of course Jack Taylor would run over the Pastor and his mother if he had the chance. Frankie Dunn wouldn't.

Good writing. Sad story. I guess Jack Taylor and Ken Bruen have a niche in writing about drunks. Funny thing is, they usually die. 5 stars. Larry scantlebury

Ken Bruen's unique style gets sharper and grittier with each new book. THE MAGDALEN MARTYRS, his third Jack Taylor novel, cements him as an enormous talent and fresh voice among Irish writers. The smart-mouthed, self-destructive Taylor, an ex-Garda, still retains his Garda jacket. Jack refuses to acknowledge the periodic letter demanding the return of said jacket, to wit Item No. 8234, mostly because he doesn't play by anybody's rules but his own. When common wisdom suggests one course of action, Jack nearly always takes the opposite direction.

In Bruen's latest tale, Galway tough guy Bill Cassell calls up for repayment of a favor he did Jack a while back, and Cassell is not the kind of guy you say no to. It sounds simple, really. Cassell wants to find one Rita Monroe --- an ancient nun who worked at the Magdalen, a one-time home for young women "in trouble" --- to thank her, he says, for her kindness to his mother. Delighted to be off the hook for so altruistic a task, Jack starts making inquiries. But he should have remembered the old adage: If it seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is. Just the mention of the Magdalen causes doors to slam and conversations to shut down. Not one person sings its praises or mourns its closure. The more Jack learns about it, the less he understands his mission. And Cassell keeps the pressure on.

While conducting his investigation, a couple of seemingly random murders occur, but Jack is too involved in his return to booze and drugs to make a connection. He floats along in his chemical euphoria --- surprisingly staying alive, but not out of jail. Interspersed with actually endeavoring to find Rita Monroe, he struggles with personal tragedy, finds himself enjoying some energetic sex (with just about the worst partner he could have chosen) and continues to terrorize his mother's good friend, Fr. Malachy, when his mother isn't available firsthand.

Even with the many pitfalls and backslides that plague him, Jack somehow manages to solve the mystery, but he still finds it hard to get back into anyone's good graces. Jack Taylor ultimately is a likable character, despite attempts on his part to be anything but agreeable.

Supremely tight writing and razor-edged dialogue spin you through the pages. As is always the case with any Ken Bruen book, THE MAGDALEN MARTYRS is much too short.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

Bruen's books are not masterpieces by any standand but I love reading them. I love the unpredictability and the stark realism he presents. Life does not have easy answers. Look elsewhere if you want them.

This third installment of the Jack Taylor series finds Jack back to square one: hungover, renting the same room in Mrs. Bailey's hotel, and frequenting the one pub that hasn't kicked him out yet. An associate calls in a favor which requires that Jack locate a former employee of the Magdalen Laundries. As usual, things are not as they seem and Jack becomes the object of unwanted (and very violent) attention.

My love/hate relationship with Jack Taylor continues in this book. He is at times so despicable, yet it is hard not to admire his perverse sense of justice and (occasional) willingness to defend the innocent at his own expense. Any of the Jack Taylor books are like two books in one: the first is a fictional crime story, and the second is a readers' guide to crime fiction. Jack Taylor is not many things but he is a veritable encyclopedia of literature.

"The Magdalen Martyrs" is the third book in Ken Bruen's addicting (pun intended) Jack Taylor series and for me it was the book that finally caught me up on the series to-date. I mention this only because of the way my knowledge of the future of a few of the characters in "The Magdalen Martyrs" might have affected my reaction to the roles they play in this book.

Jack Taylor, by many standards, is an awful man. He is no stranger to violence - an alcoholic, a user of hard drugs both recreationally (including during sex) and to escape his troubles, not a man to be taken lightly. By other standards, though, Jack is a good and an interesting man. He will not walk blindly past a father publicly abusing his child; he respects the elderly for their experience; he is loyal to the core when it comes to old friends and old haunts; he is a literate man who knows history and loves books as much as physical objects as for what is inside them. Jack is also smart enough to know that he has caused most of his own problems in life but not smart enough to change the habits that keep him in so much trouble.

When Bill Cassell, an Irish mobster to whom Jack owes a personal favor, asks him to find the woman who helped Cassell's mother escape the old Magdalen laundry decades earlier, Jack gets busy because he knows that no one refuses Bill Cassell and lives to talk about it. The Magdalen, once a church-run home for promiscuous young women, was staffed by nuns, one of whom, in particular, took delight in physically abusing the girls as punishment for their promiscuity. A few of the girls died at this woman's hands, so to have escaped the Magdalen for a new life on the outside was akin to a clean jailbreak.

"The Magdalen Martyrs" is about fighting demons and there is no one better equipped to battle demons than Jack Taylor, be they demons from the present, from his past, or even from before he was born. Taylor, while simultaneously working two separate investigations, confronts the evils of the long-gone Magdalen laundry, his own multiple addictions, his violent temper, his intense hatred of his elderly mother, and his contempt for his mother's pet priest, the odious Father Malachy - among other demons.

As always, a Jack Taylor novel is more about the man than the cases he works - exactly what keeps fans of the series coming back for more. Despite his many flaws, Jack Taylor is an easy man to like, and I wholeheartedly recommend the entire Jack Taylor series to readers who enjoy delving into an intriguing character to the depth that a long series, such as this one has become, allows.

Readers with the stomach for dark, hardcore action simply will not want to miss Jack Taylor.

After an insipid effort, _The Dramatist_, I was delighted to see Bruen return to the outstanding standard set by _The Guards_ and _London Boulevard_. His writing is not only exquisite and lyrical; the story allows the characters room to develop, even this late in a series of linked novels. _Martyrs_ is outstanding.

He is so easy to read and his comments on smoking and drinking are so apt for my generation. On sex he is a little weak but you can't have it all.