In the Galway Silence by Ken Bruen Review

Private Investigator Jack Taylor is approached by wealthy French businessman Pierre Renaud to find the killer of his twin sons. Jack quickly discovers the pair were nasty pieces of work but that their murderer is even more so: a Punisher-lookalike going by The Silence. Only now he has the vigilante lunatic’s attention and who could make Jack’s bleak life find a new level of misery…

I was looking at the shelves in the fiction section when the name Ken Bruen stuck out to me. I found out that he was the author of two movie adaptations that I’d liked - the Jason Statham movie Blitz (decent) and the Colin Farrell movie London Boulevard (better - definitely check that one out if you haven’t already) - and picked out In the Galway Silence. I read the first few pages there and then, was blown away by how quickly Bruen grabbed me and instantly made me want to see what happened next, and walked away with the book to enjoy later.

And enjoy it I did, to say the least. It’s been some time since I read a 300 page book as quickly as I devoured this one - the last time was on a short haul flight where the entertainment screens weren’t working, but I wouldn’t have used them anyway as I was completely taken with old drunk Hem’s Fiesta and his adventures in 1920s Europe.

Although this one isn’t really 300 pages - the font is quite large, there’s a lot of dialogue (frequently one word - laconic? You bet your sweet bippy), and the short chapters are broken up with single quotes on a page, sandwiched between blank pages. Bruen also has an unusual writing style, randomly breaking sentences down across several lines, throwing one adjective after another in a list, or spreading the letters of a word across the page. The effect is like you’re reading experimental poetry at times and only adds to the swiftness of the reading experience.

The material is also damn exciting. It opens with a double murder and the kills keep coming. Not only that but Jack gets roped into side missions, like when a paedophile kidnaps his girlfriend’s annoying son, or the opportunistic documentary filmmaker looking to make a movie about him, or the case of the neighbourhood dog poisoner. Even better, those subplots flow into the main plot in unexpected ways, like multiple rivers flowing into the sea.

Bruen peppers the narrative with numerous references to real life stories, all of them grim, many of them featuring the Catholic Church’s atrocities in Ireland that have been uncovered in recent years, as if to justify his own dark fictional story or even contrast it to make it seem somehow lighter by saying “You think I’m being gratuitously depressing? This is the world we live in!” It even cleverly makes you root for The Silence in their insane yet righteous quest, targeting (mostly) the scum of society.

I liked that Jack is a very literate and pop culture savvy person too with great taste. If you just go by his own recommendations in this novel - Bone Tomahawk, Gomorrah, Suburra, Ed Sheeran’s Perfect, Fargo Season 3 - you’ll get to experience some of the best art on offer from recent years. The characters themselves reflect this pop culture fascination too (it’s clearly an aspect mirroring the author) with the irritating son named Joffrey (from Game of Thrones) and another character called Tevis (as in Walter Tevis, the author of The Queen’s Gambit - there’s also a chess theme throughout this narrative).

Even the quotes that break up the chapters are great: “If you seek revenge, you should dig two graves” - Confucius, and “There is only one good plot. When two men want to sleep with the same woman” - William Faulkner. Oh and the jibes at Booker Prize novels - an author after me own heart! Was this novel written specifically for me? It bloody feels like it!

Like a lot of crime novels, this is part of a long-running series featuring the main character and, although there are occasional references to past adventures, there’s nothing included here that isn’t explained so you don’t need to have read anything before if, like me, you start here.

The one critique I’ll give it is The Silence’s motivation at the end: what was the game plan there - just keep doing that indefinitely? Seemed pointless - unless he wanted Jack to do what he did. It’s possible given how nuts he was. It’s a nitpick though - it didn’t move the needle much away from what was otherwise a damn near perfect crime novel.

Can you tell I’m more than a little impressed by all of this? Genuinely, I couldn’t put this book down and stayed up wayyyy past my bedtime to finish it because I couldn’t stop (finished at 4am - paid for it the next day but it was worth it). A first rate story, great protagonist, lots of snappy, smartarse dialogue, intriguing characters - In the Galway Silence is outstanding.

Everything about the book - the hard-bitten, totally convincing dialogue, the multiple, fast-moving storylines, the unique writing approach, the layout of the novel - speaks to a master novelist, totally confident in his abilities and effortlessly showing you how crime fiction is done properly.

In case you’re in the position I was not too long ago and didn’t have anyone recommending this writer to you, allow me the pleasure to mention his name to you, so that when you’re glancing at the shelves in your local bookshop/library next time, hopefully the name will jump out at you and entice you to slide the book off the shelf and make you read the first few pages: Ken Bruen. If you’re a crime fiction fan and don’t mind very dark material, you couldn’t do better than In the Galway Silence.