Jack Taylor has been through the wars. We’ve watched Jack for close to a decade now, righting the wrongs of the everyman in his hometown of Galloway. An addictive personality, who for all his protest does try and do the right thing. Bruen says that there is but one more Taylor story in his head and after reading SANCTUARY I’m good with that.
The accolades we’ve all paid this series along the way; lean prose, succinct plotting, honest look at addiction, great cultural references. They are all in Sanctuary. Some are notable for an almost overwhelming onslaught; some are notable for a silence that speaks volumes on Taylor’s state of mind.

Jack is still in Ireland as SANCTUARY opens having forgone his trip to America to be with a friend in need. And then comes the letter. Five victims will be had , one already dead, the last to be a child. Taylor struggles to make the threat heard to his old frenemies at the Guard. And he struggles with more. A revelation about recent history makes life itself as hard to bear as a Snow Patrol ballad.

Ken Bruen has amazed me always. With Sanctuary he has taken Jack Taylor from the streamlined to the sublime. With his understanding of the metered word and thoughtfulness towards all that has come before he gives his reader a Jack Taylor outing like none before. I so want Jack to find peace. Will it happen? Only he and Bruen know but I will be there for the Last Supper.

Ruth Jordan 0f Crimespree Magazine