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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.  ** ### 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*