A Galway Epiphany — Ken Bruen

"In the newest novel in Bruen''s thrilling series, ex-cop turned private eye Jack Taylor is pulled out of his quiet new life on a farm by three mysteries that soon prove dangerously linkedJack Taylor has finally escaped the despair of his violent life in Galway in favor of a quiet retirement in the country with his friend Keefer, a former Rolling Stones roadie, and a falcon named Maeve. But on a day trip back into the city to sort out his affairs, Jack is hit by a truck in front of Galway''s Famine Memorial, left in a coma but mysteriously without a scratch on him. When he awakens weeks later, he finds Ireland in a frenzy over the so-called Miracle of Galway."" People have become convinced that the two children spotted tending to him are saintly, and the site of the accident sacred. The Catholic Church isn''t so sure, and Jack is commissioned to help find the children to verify the miracle or expose the stunt. But Jack isn''t the only one looking for these children. A fraudulent order of nuns needs them to legitimatize its sanctity and becomes involved with a dangerous arsonist. Soon, the building in which the children are living burns down, with one of the children and the nuns inside, and the doors bolted. Jack recognizes the arsonist''s stamp and begins to suspect that the surviving girl is more sinister than miraculous. He sends her to live on the farm but is troubled over the manipulative control she soon seems to exert over Keefer. Jack''s plan to intervene is derailed by traumatic memories of his deceased daughter, which send him into one of his characteristic Jameson benders. He comes to days later to find a nightmarishly gruesome scene on the farm. His quest to find the girl is now personal, and the stakes could not be higher. Sharp and sardonic as ever, ""the Godfather of the modern Irish crime novel"" ( Irish Independent ) is at his brutal and ceaselessly suspenseful best in A Galway Epiphany."""