Book Review: The Magdalen Martyrs

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Magdalen Martyrs     Amazon US PB Amazon US TPB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada TPB Amazon Canada HC
Ken Bruen
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Jack Taylor # 3
St. Martin’s, Mar 2005, $22.95, 288 pp.

The finding business has proven quite dangerous for Jack Taylor, who is quite acrimonious that life has past him by with the worst time of the year being Christmas bad cheer for all the lonely people. Actually this season he feels less self pity than usual although his last case (see KILLING OF THE TINKERS) was more brutal than ever. He still needs to eat and drink (even if his binges mean hospital stays) and this is about all he can do since he and THE GUARDS departed.

Cancer victim Bill Cassell calls in a favor from Jack, who owes the local kingpin. Bill orders Jack to locate Rita Monroe, “the Angel of the Magdalen” who helped his mother escape the appalling abuse of these church “prisons”. Trying is not good enough as Bill's enforcer will cancel debts the old fashioned way if Jack fails or gets drunk. A second client surfaces as Terry Boyle hires Jack to prove that his father was murdered and the official accident report is a lie; instead he insists that his stepmother killed his dad. As Jack investigates both cases, he begins to find a link though he was not looking for one as the same police officer seems to surface in both inquiries.

Jack is at his “rosy” antihero best struggling with sobriety to work both cases. The story line is action-packed and takes an intriguing twist (no olives) when the seemingly separate investigations merge sending Jack even further over the edge. Although alcoholism is taken perhaps too lightly, the look at the Church 1950s atrocities towards female wards is shocking (see Marita Conlon-Mckenna’s historical fiction THE MAGDALEN for more). Readers will appreciate Ken Bruen’s latest Taylor British Noir.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner