"The Magdalen Martyrs"

Ken Bruen's "The Magdalen Martyrs" is his third book in the Jack Taylor novel series.  His first book in this series, "The Guards," won him a Shamus Award for Best Novel of 2003 from the Private Eye Writers of America.

This novel is set in Galway where Jack is once again living in a room at Mrs. Bailey's hotel.  He's trying to stay off the drugs and booze but finds himself unable to get a good night's rest.

Almost simultaneously Jack takes on two new cases.  One is a favor called in by Bill Cassell, a Galway tough.  He knew he'd have to "pay the piper" at some time for the favor Cassell did for him and thinks he's gotten off relatively easy.  Cassell wants him to find a woman who he claims long ago helped his mom escape from the notorious Magdalen laundry.  This was where wayward Catholic girls were sent -- either because they were pregnant or were disobedient to their parents.  The girls were forced to work in the laundry and were physically and emotionally abused by the nuns in charge and the staff.  Some decided to commit suicide to escape the conditions they'd been forced to endure.

Jack's paying case was a young man who believed his stepmother had killed his wealthy stepfather.  He's a successful computer guy and was away at the time of his father's death.  No autopsy was performed and his father was cremated so Jack has his hands full trying to decide where to start on this case.

In the meantime, Cassell, who is dying from cancer, doesn't think Jack is working hard enough on his request and has a couple of his thugs pay Jack a visit and that doesn't set well with Jack.  In addition, he gets in a bit of trouble by assaulting a man who was physically assaulting his young children in front of a store.  Witness statements varied and Jack ended up in jail.

So, Jack does what he does best and ends up back on drugs and booze.  Eventually he's able to solve both cases but in very unusual ways.  If he'd been paying attention to the news, maybe he'd solved one of them a little earlier.

I watched some of the Jack Taylor series produced for TV and this is one of the stories portrayed but the book (of course) has a totally different slant although part of the story doesn't vary from the book.

It is really hard for me to explain what reading one of the Jack Taylor novels is like for me.  Bruen intersperses books, quotes, music, etc. throughout the books and sometimes their relevance makes sense to me in light of the story and at other times I'm totally stymied by the relevance and even begin to feel I'm just not smart enough or knowledgeable enough to figure out the link!  I still like reading the books, though!  pazt