SANCTUARY: A Jack Taylor Novel
Ken Bruen
Minotaur Books
Thriller
ISBN: 9780312384418
With each new book --- and he is clipping along with at least two a year at this point --- Ken Bruen doesn’t so much redefine the crime novel landscape, or alter it, so much as make it his own.
I present as Exhibit “A” SANCTUARY, Bruen’s seventh Jack Taylor novel. Taylor is an ex-Irish guard turned de facto Galway private investigator. He is not a rumpled knight with a taste for rock and rye; he is a full-blown alcoholic who falls on and off the wagon just a little less often than you or I might partake of a change of clothes. Either way, the transition is not pretty, but Bruen never lets Taylor’s eyes blink once as he drags us, sometimes kicking and screaming, through the wreckage of what occurs. There is a passage in which Taylor describes what will kick a recovering drunk off of a successful rehab, one that so perfectly paints the picture of the razor wire that all addicts walk that it brought tears to my eyes. Bruen gives us descriptions of similar quality at a frequency of about one per page in this story of pursuit, deception, regret and, ultimately, redemption.
SANCTUARY begins with Taylor’s receipt of a cryptic letter signed by “Benedictus.” It presents a shopping list of murder --- two guards, a nun, a priest and a child --- informing Taylor that only he will truly comprehend. The murders begin, apparently unrelated, with only Taylor aware of their common significance. He already has much on his plate, given the illness of his former Garda partner and a revelation that sends him, as well as faithful readers of this series, reeling in horror.
Nonetheless, Taylor attempts to determine who the mysterious Benedictus is, working backward from the identities of the murder victims to find some common thread other than their occupations as listed, even as his warnings to the local guards fall on deaf ears. Given Taylor’s less-than-stellar reputation, he really cannot expect much more. Taylor accordingly must rely on his own powers of deduction, both diminished and fueled by alcohol abuse. But when Benedictus’s choice of a final victim strikes dangerously close to home for Taylor, he must risk all on one last guess and pray that he is right, even as he realizes that he is well-nigh damned either way.
A recurrent, unifying theme of the Taylor novels is the manner in which the backspray of an alcoholic’s past misdeeds and omissions continues to haunt and resonate years, even decades, later. This is especially true in SANCTUARY, where the shade of an act of Taylor’s performed years before under the cloak of inebriation comes back to haunt him. As always, Bruen’s prose is beautifully spare, instantly familiar and utterly unforgettable, infused with enough memorable turns of phrase to fill three books. And --- as if one needs more --- he weaves music and literature throughout the narrative, providing a recommended list of noir and other fiction, and several CD titles for musical accompaniment, that will hold you until his next offering.
Finally, let us not forget the Leonard Cohen joke near the beginning of SANCTUARY that will leave the knowing bent over double in laughter, however inappropriately.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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