Okay, book nerds of internetland, what’s the fucking deal? The Ghosts of Belfast drops in the US in 2009 and every other post out there is about how fucking awesome Stuart Neville is. Such praise was just as all hell because, you know, Ghosts fucking rocked our collective shit hardcore, but dude didn’t go away after that novel, dear reader. In fact, since then guy’s written two, last year’s Collusion and this year’s Stolen Souls, and in the Nerd’s opinion, Neville gets better with each book. The Jack Lennon series is one of the most exciting series going and Neville remains one of our most ridiculously talented writers – spread the fucking word already! But that’s enough brow-beating from the Nerd, allow me now to hip you to what Jack Lennon’s up to these days.
It’s Christmas Eve and Inspector Jack intended to spend the holiday with his daughter, but he gets a call about a body found near the ocean, has to take the case. Then more bodies quickly appear around Belfast and he starts to pick up a pattern. Turns out a Ukranian girl escaped from the Lithuanian sex traffickers holding her captive, cutting the throat of a prominent gangster in the process. Now the dead man’s brother Arturas is out for her blood, and many, Irish and Lithuanian both, are paying the price in his pursuit of vengeance. The girl, Galya, has fled into the arms of a seemingly kind man, but soon finds that she’s jumped out of the fying pan and into the fire. Now it’s up to Jack to, in a matter of a few short hours, stop the turf war between the Loyalists and the Lithuanians and save Galya before “Billy Crawford” shows his true, horrifying colors.
With short, punchy chapters and clean prose, Neville’s Stolen Souls is never without stomach cramp-inducing tension. We alternate between the journeys of Jack Lennon, young Galya, the coke-crazed Arturas, the psychotic Billy Crawford, and Arturas’ driver Herkus, with the shit going up another body part each chapter until by the end they’re fucking frantically treading in it. The violence is ghastly (the opening line is “Blood hot on her hands” for fuck’s sake) and the action and suspense scenes vivid, with all three aspects especially high-lighted in a horrific encounter in a cellar. In other words, shit is miles away from middle-boiled.
Where Collusion was far less supernatural than Ghosts, Stolen Souls is even less supernatural than Collusion, with only a vaguely prophetic dream from Jack’s psychically-gifted daughter Ellen bringing any mysticism to the proceedings. Fans of the series will be happy to know that Jack gets a Christmas card signed with a poorly scribbled “t”, cluing us that the Traveler may be back in a future Lennon adventure. A very scary mother character is also discussed at length but never shown, making the Nerd cross his fingers that she’ll pop up soon as well.
But that’s just some shit to entice those who are already familiar with the series. If you’re outta the loop on this shit, make some changes in your fucking life already, dear reader. The Jack Lennon series is a personal favorite of the Nerd’s, and Stolen Souls the best yet, one of the best books of a very strong year. Pick up Stolen Souls now (it’s a Christmas book, after all) and you’ll be screaming about it from the interweb rooftops until you’re hoarse, same as your dear old Nerd.
Loved Neville’s first two books. I’ll be reading this one for sure