Ken Bruen
The private detective who drinks his way through the pubs of this city in nine television films is Jack Taylor, and his creator lived and died in Galway. Ken Bruen was born here on 3 January 1951, took a doctorate in metaphysics at Trinity, spent a quarter of a century teaching English on four continents, some of it dangerous, and came home to write the hardboiled novels that put Galway on the crime-fiction map.
Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.
The Quays, Tigh Neachtain on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.
The books
The Guards of 2001, the first Jack Taylor novel, won the Shamus Award for best private-eye novel in 2004 and was an Edgar finalist; The Killing of the Tinkers won the Macavity in 2005, The Dramatist the Shamus in 2007, Priest the Barry the same year, and Tower, written with Reed Farrel Coleman, the Macavity in 2010. He wrote the White Trilogy and the Brant and Roberts novels, of which Blitz became a 2011 film with Jason Statham, Paddy Considine and Aidan Gillen; Bust, with Jason Starr, came from Hard Case Crime in 2006; and his novel Merrick became a television series. Nine Jack Taylor novels were filmed from 2010 with Iain Glen. His circle included Starr, Coleman and Allan Guthrie. He died in Galway on 29 March 2025, aged 74. The model on this page pins the pubs and the Long Walk that Taylor haunts.
Questions people ask
Who is Jack Taylor?
When did Ken Bruen die?
Written from Wikipedia, "Ken Bruen" (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-09-19, and from the OpenStreetMap places on the model. Nothing has been added from memory; follow the source for its footnotes.