Ken Bruen, the prolific Irish author who explored the dark side of Galway in his crime novels, has died at 74, the Irish Times reports.

Bruen, a Galway native, earned a Ph.D. in metaphysics at Trinity College Dublin and worked teaching English for 25 years in various countries.

He made his literary debut in 1991 with Funeral: Tales of Irish Morbidities, and followed that up two years later with Shades of Grace. Several books followed, including Rilke on Black, The Hackman Blues, and The McDead.

In 2001, he published The Guards, which introduced readers to Jack Taylor, an alcoholic former police officer in Galway. The novel won the Shamus Award and was a finalist for the Edgar and Macavity awards.

Bruen would go on to write nearly 20 more books featuring Taylor; the most recent, Galway’s Edge, was published last month. The books formed the basis for Jack Taylor, an Irish television series starring Iain Glen in the title role.

Bruen’s admirers paid tribute to him on social media. On the platform X, New York Times editor and novelist Ken Jaworowski wrote, “My gosh, this hurts. Ken Bruen was a masterly writer, and an incredibly kind soul. He blurbed my first novel—a rookie who emailed him out of the blue—and took still more time to offer me heartfelt advice. Please read him if you haven’t.”

And journalist Robert Anglen posted, “Ken Bruen was a back-alley bard who whose crime stories were dipped in pain, empathy and humanity. He could make you laugh until you raged. Going to be missed. RIP, storyteller.”

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer