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Ken Bruen

Priest: A Novel (Jack Taylor Series) Hardcover – March 6, 2007

by Ken Bruen (Author)

124 ratings

Book 5 of 15: Jack Taylor

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Ireland, awash with cash and greed, no longer turns to the Church for solace or comfort. But the decapitation of Father Joyce in a Galway confessional horrifies even the most jaded citizen.

Jack Taylor, devastated by the recent trauma of personal loss, has always believed himself to be beyond salvation. But a new job offers a fresh start, and an unexpected partnership provides hope that his one desperate vision--of family

--might yet be fulfilled.

An eerie mix of exorcism, a predatory stalker, and unlikely attraction conspires to lure him into a murderous web of dark conspiracies. The specter of a child haunts every waking moment.

Explosive, unsettling and totally original, Ken Bruen's writing captures the brooding landscape of Irish society at a time of social and economic upheaval. Here is evidence of an unmistakable literary talent.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Minotaur Books
Publication date

March 6, 2007
Dimensions

6.48 x 1.16 x 9.46 inches
ISBN-10

0312341407
ISBN-13

978-0312341404
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Recovered from incapacitating guilt over the death of a child on his watch, Jack Taylor is released from the loony bin at the start of Shamus-winner Bruen's searing fifth book about the alcoholic Galwegian ex-cop (after 2006's The Dramatist). Jack's friend Nio "Ridge" Iomaire picks him up from the hospital and mentions the gory headlines: a pedophilic priest, Father Joyce, was beheaded. At the request of another frightened priest, Jack launches an unofficial investigation with the assistance of an eager, younger partner, Cody. All the while fighting his constant ache for a drink, the maverick PI also helps Ridge ward off a stalker. Jack is a keen and literary narrator, and Bruen's latest Irish noir makes for a kind of savage poetry, at once exhausting and exhilarating. Bruen has been a finalist for Edgar, Anthony and Barry awards. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Jack Taylor has spent the last five months in the loony bin, recovering from the horrific tragedy at the end of The Dramatist (2006). Maybe it's his new frame of mind--most of his friends are dead or have become his enemies--or maybe it's something else, but Ireland seems to have become even more foreign to the cranky ex-Guard in that short time. His head is clanging with thoughts about the increasingly commodified Irish soul as he finds himself, barely prepared, sucked into three new cases: finding out who beheaded a child-molesting priest; catching his last remaining friend's stalker; and locating his missing ex-best friend--the father of the girl who died while Taylor was babysitting her has disappeared into skid row. Dark days, even for Taylor, though he still finds time for ruminations on literature, music, and pop culture. If you like this cup of tea, it's brewed about the same as the last one. But Bruen, a writer of talent and originality, has yet to push himself to the next level. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product details

Publisher : Minotaur Books; First Edition (1st printing), (March 6, 2007)
Language : English
Hardcover : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 0312341407
ISBN-13 : 978-0312341404
Item Weight : 1.25 pounds
Dimensions : 6.48 x 1.16 x 9.46 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,680,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12,894 in Hard-Boiled Mystery
- #57,918 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
124 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		16%
3 star		7%
2 star		5%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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H.C. Carey

It's too much

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2017

Verified Purchase

So I've read these in order and this is the worst, but maybe only because it's cumulative.

The basic premise of these novels is Taylor is well intentioned but a flawed screw up. He gets results sort of accidentally. In this book it starts to seem like pure sadism, just piling misfortune on the guy. It gets ridiculous. Caution, spoilers.

So in this one, Taylor ends up, highly improbably, with a kind of surrogate son, a silly character who of course gets killed, equally ridiculously, by one of two women, or perhaps by a guy, sniping from a rooftop. In the last one, his surrogate kid falls out a window. In this one his surrogate son gets shot on the street. The chief of the Garda still hates him for some reason. Beatings happen, Taylor throws up, despite not drinking. People he likes die because of stuff he does. It's like Kafka, except without the absurdist humor.

The books have humor, but also take themselves very seriously. So the idea of heaping endless tragedy on the protagonist is played with high seriousness and lots of literary quotations. Along with Taylor getting ridiculous misfortune, he gets equally ridiculous good fortune. People are constantly leaving him money and apartments.

Probably better to read these occasionally, rather than sequentially

4 people found this helpful

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Gary Griffiths

Unconsecrated Ground

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2007

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Not that further proof was needed, but "Priest", Ken Bruen's latest apologies-be-damned journey into Hell, is additional evidence that if he is not the most talented writer of crime fiction today, he is certainly the most uninhibited. Not unlike Bruen's paradoxical hero Jack Taylor, who is as comfortable reading classic fiction in the library as he is bashing in an adversary's head with a hurley stick, Bruen's jagged, stripped down Irish prose, rendered with a chainsaw, contradicts its poetic appeal. Indeed, Ireland's classic warrior poets have been reinvented in Ken Bruen and the tragic, down-on-their-luck heroes that fill his pages.

This time around, Taylor is being released from a psychiatric hospital, three years of his life lost, racked in guilt by the death of a child under his care. When a priest in Galway has been decapitated, Taylor's old nemesis, the nicotine-stained Father Malachy, swallows some pride - just barely - and enlists Taylor's help. What follows is a painfully graphic tale of pederasty in the Catholic Church, a gut-ripping expose covering tainted ground where few writers dare to tread. But despite the reprehensible central theme, life actually begins to start looking up for recovering alcoholic Taylor. Mrs. Bailey, his beloved landlady, has passed away during his incarceration, leaving to Jack an apartment and small inheritance. His always-combatant relationship with "Ridge", the lesbian cop of Ireland's Ban Guarda, shows signs of softening. And then Cody, a young investigator wannabe who's been admiring Jack from afar and drops into his life and, to Jack's initial dismay, is soon more of a son than a partner. Almost enough for long time readers to fear that loaner Jack is thinking about settling down, raising a family, and trading in his hurley for knitting needles.

But soon any illusions of this unlikely honeymoon are over, and Bruen jerks the reader so abruptly back into the voids of Irish melancholy and irony that even "The Dramatist", the Bruen noir-fest that put Taylor into the loony bin in the first place, reads like a day in the amusement park. Yet through the despair and ugly twists, Bruen manages to keep the pages turning with his beautifully twisted dialogue and lyrics and his unique talent for encapsulating Ireland's melancholy in a miserly sparse allotment of words. Dark and disturbing, "Priest" has that irrespirable appeal that draws moths to flame. Don't miss it.

25 people found this helpful

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JM Harvey

A great half of a book.

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is very well written as usual, but the ending was a lot to be desired. It ends so abruptly and so melodramatically that I can’t help feeling a little annoyed. Nothing is resolved. I hate two part books especially when they’re not more than a couple hundred pages long.Basically I have to pay $16 for a complete novel

Helpful

Frank J. Konopka

Jack Taylor and the clergy

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2009

Verified Purchase

In this excellent book, Jack Taylor becomes involved in the brutal murder of a priest who has molested young boys in the past. Jack is back from a long stay in a mental hospital, following the death of the child he was watching, but he is not completely over that incident. His struggles to overcome that guilt, and his constant battle with the desire to drink, are part and parcel of this excellent story. The author scatters clues to the identity of the killer throughout the book, so that should come as no shock to the reader. Also, he intimates that there may be more tragedy in Taylor's life, and that also happens. Mr. Bruen is a consummate writer, and this series is one that holds the interest from first page to last. I know that, as of this time, there are two more books about Jack Taylor, and I can't wait to get to them!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

... Bruen is a true master and creator of the great jack taylor series

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2018

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Ken Bruen is a true master and creator of the great jack taylor series.... ir ias very true to likfe and very exciting and a great read for all who love the noir gandra

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Seamus

Is nothing sacred

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2019

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Good character study & insights into religious turmoil in Ireland

Helpful

buthelake

Edgy truth

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

Jack Taylor gets five stars in every book. Ken Bruen leads this man to hell and back in his con tante survival against demons past and present. The novels never really end, like Jack's life no fancy bows on that package, just edgy truth

One person found this helpful

Helpful

patricia osmundsen

ken bruen is a really good writer but as the series progresses the stories are ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2015

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ken bruen is a really good writer but as the series progresses the stories are not quite as high quality. one grows tired of jack taylors drinking. how can ones brain solve mysteries when ones brain is pickled with alcohol?

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Pádraig Ó

Holy Smoke (and drink)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2014

Verified Purchase

Jack Taylor is back.
Great book this and it easily matches the previous books. Have to say I'm hooked on the Jack Taylor series now.

At this point in his life, Jack is still coming to terms with the terrible loss and the fallout.
He's got a sidekick now (not that he really needs one) and a familiar face returns with deadly menace.
Meanwhile someone isn't too happy with the clergy and some of the usual suspects are looking over their shoulders to see what happens next.

Top read yet again.

SuperSeaMonkey

Creepy but hooking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

This one brings a whole new light to Jack Taylor and helps you to understand his psyche a whole lot more. Worth the read.

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

enjoyed the story

J Lagden

Priest

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 14, 2013

Verified Purchase

I read this book after seeing the series on the TV. This added greatly to the story as I could visualise the characters. Although this was a rather dark story I did enjoy it and will read others in the series.

S C Shulver

An enjoyable read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

I had seen 'Jack Taylor' series on Channel 5 TV & was keen to read some more stories- wasn't disappointed although at times I got a bit confused with the plot. Would definitely read more of Ken Bruen's 'Jack Taylor' books though!

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