PRAISE FOR THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST

“Not only one of the finest thriller debuts of the last ten years, but also one of the best Irish novels, in any genre, of recent times.”—JOHN CONNOLLY, author of The Whisperers

“The Ghosts of Belfast is the book when the world finally sits up and goes WOW, the Irish really have taken over the world of crime writing. Stuart Neville is Ireland’s answer to Henning Mankell.”—KEN BRUEN, author of The Devil

“[A] crime novel that counts among the best brought out this calendar year…. The Ghosts of Belfast would have been a superior effort had it been just about Fegan’s struggle to assert his inner goodness in the face of larger evil, but its narrative power draws further strength from Neville’s acute understanding of Northern Ireland’s true state, and how, in just a few short years, ‘the North had become the poor relation, the bastard child no one had the heart to send away.’”—Los Angeles Times

“The Ghosts of Belfast, a bleak, despairing first novel by Stuart Neville, is the most authentic piece of Irish noir fiction since Ken Bruen’s thriller, The Guards.”—MARILYN STASIO, The New York Times Book Review

“Stuart Neville belongs to a younger generation of writers for whom the region’s darkest years are history—but that history endures, as his first novel, The Ghosts of Belfast, shockingly demonstrates…. This noir thriller plays out in a Belfast that, even in summer sunshine, remains oppressively gray. The clannishness of its inhabitants is vividly evoked in Neville’s descriptions of a tiny rowhouse packed with mourners for a murdered man’s wake or a seedy pub where the bartender has learned to look the other way when violence arrives. A riot scene, one of the novel’s best, captures a new generation’s appetite for blood and an old veteran’s nostalgia…. In scene after gruesome scene, Neville attempts to persuade us that this time around, with this repentant murderer, the killing is different.”—Washington Post

“In his stunning debut, Stuart Neville delivers an inspired, gritty view of how violence’s aftermath lasts for years and the toll it takes on each person involved. The Ghosts of Belfast also insightfully delves into Irish politics, the uneasy truce in Northern Ireland, redemption, guilt and responsibility…. Neville delivers an emotionally packed novel that is both empathetic and savage. Neville never makes Gerry’s visions of ghosts seem trite or silly. Like his countryman, John Connolly, Neville keeps the supernatural aspects believable…. The Ghosts of Belfast is a haunting debut.”—OLINE COGDILL, South Florida Sun Sentinel

“The Ghosts of Belfast is a tale of revenge and reconciliation shrouded in a bloody original crime thriller…. Fierce dialogue and the stark political realities of a Northern Ireland recovering from the ‘Troubles’ drive this novel. It’s not difficult to read this brilliant book as an allegory for a brutal past that must be confronted so the present ‘can be clean.’”—CAROLE BARROWMAN, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Brutality abounds…. Neville has a good grasp of the niceties and perversities of Northern Ireland politics.”—Dallas Morning News

“[I]mpressive.”—The Guardian (UK)

“Here’s one more novel that is sure to find placement at or near the top of many Best of 2009 lists…. Along the way, author Neville condenses the fear and hate that troubled Ireland for so long, at the same time creating a memorable character with ease and a cool, deceptively straightforward writing style.”—DICK ADLER, The Rap Sheet

“Neville’s novel deals in a very pragmatic way with contemporary issues, but he isn’t afraid to introduce some very old-fashioned concepts, not least of which are guilt, redemption and—potentially, at least—a spiritual salvation…. Neville has the talent to believably blend the tropes of the crime novel and those of a horror, in the process creating a page-turning thriller akin to a collaboration between John Connolly and Stephen King…. [The Ghosts of Belfast] is a superb thriller, and one of the first great post-Troubles novels to emerge from Northern Ireland.”—Sunday Independent (UK)

“Just when you thought the invasion of excellent Irish crime writers—a group nicknamed Celtic Noir—had ended, along comes Stuart Neville with his first novel…. Neville condenses the fear and hate that troubled Ireland for so long, at the same time creating a memorable character with ease and a cool, deceptively straightforward writing style.”—Barnes and Noble Review

“Stuart Neville’s superb debut novel … is a brilliant thriller: unbearably tense, stomach-churningly frightening. Fegan and his nemesis, the government double agent Davy Campbell, are magnificent creations: not sympathetic, but never wholly repugnant. And just as haunting as Fegan’s apparitions are Neville’s stunning re-imaginings of the darkest atrocities: the bombs, the beatings, the torture, the point-blank murders…. It is impressive indeed to create an entertainment out of such material, but more than that, Neville has boldly exposed post-ceasefire Northern Ireland as a confused, contradictory place, a country trying to carve out a future amid a peace recognized by the populace as hypocritical, but accepted as better than the alternative. This is the best fictional representation of the Troubles I have come across, a future classic of its time. Stuart Neville has finally given Northern Ireland the novel its singular history deserves.”—The Observer (UK)

“If you read only one thriller on your summer holiday, then make sure it is Neville’s stunning debut. It’s an astonishing first novel, set in today’s Northern Ireland, and the subject matter could not be more controversial: it features a former paramilitary contract killer who is haunted by his victims. Twelve ghosts shadow his every waking hour and scream through every single one of his drunken nights. Written with a wonderful touch for the politics of the post-Good Friday agreement, it is as fresh and subtle as you could wish for. Awesomely powerful, fabulously written, and with a hero who is also a villain that you cannot help sympathizing with, this novel is simply unmissable.”—Daily Mail (UK)

“[The Ghosts of Belfast] is a revenge tragedy in the Elizabethan mode, scripted by Quentin Tarantino and produced by the makers of The Bourne Identity…. But it possesses a profound and wider significance…. [It] is an important part of [Northern Ireland’s] purging.”—Irish Times (UK)

“Stuart Neville’s blistering debut thriller is a walk on the wild side of post-conflict Northern Ireland that brilliantly exposes the suffering still lurking beneath the surface of reconciliation and the hypocrisies that sustain the peace.”—Metro (UK)

“Neville’s debut is as unrelenting as Fegan’s ghosts, pulling no punches as it describes the brutality of Ireland’s ‘troubles’ and the crime that has followed, as violent men find new outlets for their skills. Sharp prose places readers in this pitiless place and holds them there. Harsh and unrelenting crime fiction, masterfully done.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“[A] stunning debut…. This is not only an action-packed, visceral thriller but also an insightful insider’s glimpse into the complex political machinations and networks that maintain the uneasy truce in Northern Ireland.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“In this well-crafted and intriguing series debut, Neville evokes the terrors of living in Belfast during ‘the Troubles’ and manages to makes Fegan, a murderer many times over, a sympathetic character … The buzz around this novel is well deserved and readers will be anticipating the next book in the series.”—Library Journal, Starred Review

“Neville’s debut novel is tragic, violent, exciting, plausible, and compelling…. The Ghosts of Belfast is dark, powerful, insightful, and hard to put down.”—Booklist

“Stuart Neville will go far as a writer…. It’s a wonderful novel, brave and fierce and true to its place and time. I sincerely hope it sells a million copies.”—DECLAN BURKE, Crimespree

“Both a fine novel and a gripping thriller: truly this is a magnificent debut.”—RUTH DUDLEY EDWARDS, author of Ten Lords A-Leaping

“Neville’s debut thriller grabs hold and doesn’t let go … [a] frighteningly assured first novel.”—GEORGE EASTER, Deadly Pleasures