Bruen portrays Galway through the barbed narrative of his anti- hero, a philosopher-drunk prone to poetry and vengeful violence. Like all the classic loner detectives, Jack Taylor has trouble with life, hanging on by the skin of his teeth as Ireland hurtles towards a perilous prosperity. But in Bruen's world, the clichéd Celtic tiger is devouring its young, and drink and drugs flow through Galway Bay like a drowning stream. Bruen, born in 1951, spent 25 years as an English-language teacher in Africa, Japan and Asia,
