Another Dark Thriller by Author Ken Bruen
THE MAGDALEN MARTYRS
By Ken Bruen
St. Martin's Minotaur
ISBN 0-312-35351-0
Reviewed by Sharon Greer
The bodies keep piling up in Ken Bruen’s recent release, The Magdalen Martyrs. Another dark thriller of obsession, revenge and murder thunders through the volatile pages of the third in a series of Jack Taylor adventures.
When a phone call comes through one late Sunday evening, Jack Taylor knows the game is up. Taylor had promised a local criminal, Bill Cassell, that he would fulfil any favour in exchange for protecting a young girl and eliminating a killer. Cassell is now calling in the favour.
Cassell is truly a hard man even the police avoid at all costs. Dying of liver cancer, Cassell approaches Taylor to assist in locating a woman Cassell’s mother had been acquainted with years before.
Taylor has been waiting in fear of this moment, anticipating something far more sinister than what appears to be brewing. Cassell’s mother had been in a Magdalen laundry and he is trying to locate a woman, Rita Monroe, who apparently helped his mother to escape.
Cassell feels indebted to this woman, but are his motives really sincere?
Magdalen laundries were horrific institutions run by Catholic nuns all over Ireland in the l950s. Conditions were appalling. Young, unwed mothers were subjected to extreme cruelty and horrendous abuse. It was only in the late 1990s that the full story was revealed.
Ken Bruen has cleverly managed to incorporate one of these bleak Magdalen laundries into this brilliantly crafted story.
As if this case wasn’t enough, Taylor is approached by Terry Boyle, a young man convinced his father has been murdered by his sleazy stepmother. And he wants Taylor to prove he’s right.
Add in an explosive mixture of pills and alcohol – you have a powder keg ready to ignite. With all the pill popping and heavy drinking, it’s a wonder Taylor manages to get out of bed at all in the morning. This is addiction at its lowest depths.
As with all three stories in the Jack Taylor sequel, Ken Bruen has managed to convey yet another cautionary tale in this grim narrative drenched in violence and chaos.
|
