Jack Taylor awakes from a coma to find a stranger seated by his hospital bed who claims to have saved his life. Rafferty, who pretended to be Taylor's brother to gain admission to his room, says he disarmed the man who'd attacked Jack with a knife and tossed him off the bridge where the altercation took place.

During the 18 months Jack has been under, the pandemic has changed much about the life he remembered. As a reward for saving his life, Rafferty wants Jack to be his new buddy, a replacement for a former "rat" who betrayed him. Jack considers him an annoying bollock, but he's glad of a guide through the convoluted pandemic changes.

Shortly after his release from hospital Jack is approached by Sheila Winston, a former nun, who wants to hire him to stop a man who bludgeoned two sisters with a hammer. She fears the attacker is escalating in violence and may kill his next victim. She says they haven't been helpful when he advises her to go to the Guards. Sheila reveals she's also been in contact with Edge, a vigilante group that sometimes intercedes when the law fails, but they turned her down because they stay away from religious affairs.

Reluctantly, Jack agrees to look into the attacks after a meeting with the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Mercy at their convent. Rafferty says he operates a podcast called Galway Confidential (hence the title) and offers its use to assist the hunt. From there, things spiral with more attacks on nuns, a subplot involving a couple of punks preying on the homeless, an alcoholic priest in need of rehabilitation and (of course) a woman of interest.

Galway Confidential is an entertaining read, with sharp insight into people and places, poetic prose, gripping action, lots of surprising twists, Irish wit, and recourse to Jameson whenever appropriate.

The ending wasn't what I expected. That's the late, great Ken Bruen for you. He had a knack for surprising the reader.