Book Review - The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville

Synopsis:  Fegan has been a “hard man,” an IRA killer in northern Ireland. Now that peace has come, he is being haunted day and night by twelve ghosts: a mother and infant, a schoolboy, a butcher, an RUC constable, and seven other of his innocent victims. In order to appease them, he’s going to have to kill the men who gave him orders.

As he’s working his way down the list he encounters a woman who may offer him redemption; she has borne a child to an RUC officer and is an outsider too. Now he has given Fate—and his quarry—a hostage. Is this Fegan’s ultimate mistake?

First Line:  Maybe if he had one more drink they'd leave him alone.

Random Quote:  Fegan turned his eyes to Caffola.  The cold beginnings of rain dotted his face and forehead as he watched the other man retch.  He looked back to the UDR men.  Their eyes glinted in the gloom of the alley while the other darkened forms moved behind them.  Their lips parted in toothless grins, loose red flesh revealed within.

Fegan closed his eyes again and wished for another way.  As foolish as it was, he wished for another life away from this.  He wished for peaceful sleep and bloodless hands.

He wished.

Review:  I'm not entirely sure how I've gone so long without reading this book or knowing about this author. This is wonderful noir fiction set in post-Troubles Ireland and it will quietly remind you again and again how awful things were before the Good Friday peace accord.  No one's hands are clean.  We so often think only of Muslim extremists when we think of terrorism and forget Oklahoma City and the IRA and the white supremacist movements.  We don't have a clue about colonialism (neo- or not).  Imperialism is an abstract word.  Most of all, I think we forget the sheer human cost - a cost that resounds through history and world events.

Car fire - Belfast (image source)

With Fegan, Mr. Neville has captured the despair of a hard man when the work is done.  Haunted by his past, literally and figuratively, Fegan cannot forget - his ghosts can't forgive.  Lovingly and meticulously written, Ghosts of Belfast forces the reader to care about someone they might condemn after reading about them in the newspaper.  It reminds us that the use horror and terror as political weapons can happen anywhere and that sometimes not love nor revenge can redeem.

I loved this book and will now have to find and read Mr. Neville's other books - if they're as good as this one I'm in for a great ride.

FTC Disclosure:  Copy from publisher via NetGalley

Publishing Information:  Soho Crime - July 23, 2012

Format:  Kindle

Rating:  ★★★★

Reading Challenges:  A to Z Reading Challenge, Literary Exploration Reading Challenge, 2013 Mystery/Crime Reading Challenge

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