In the Galway Silence

Powered by nonstop action and acerbic wit, Edgar-finalist Bruen’s 14th novel featuring ex-cop Jack Taylor (after 2017’s The Ghosts of Galway) is—like the pints of Guinness that the saga’s existentially tortured, pill-popping antihero consumes on a daily basis—unfathomably dark. When the woman he cares for, a speech therapist named Marion, leaves Ireland to attend a conference in the States, so too does any semblance of stability or contentment in Taylor’s life. He’s asked to investigate the horrific murder of a man’s adult twin sons, two morally bankrupt Menendez brothers wannabes; Marion’s bratty nine-year old son is abducted by a pedophile; his ex-wife shows up with a daughter he didn’t know he had; and a serial killer known as the Silence begins a deadly chess game in which he’s an unwilling participant. Bloody chaos ensues. Readers who can get past the decidedly nonlinear and at times downright muddled narrative will find a deeply flawed but endear- ing character whose suffering is both tragic and transformative. Agent: Lukas Ortiz, Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency. (Nov.)