Collusion

In his second outing, Neville proves that his terrific debut novel, The Ghosts of Belfast, was no fluke. This is a well written, carefully constructed thriller full of dark and dangerous characters. The storytelling and pacing are near perfect. This is a book that stays with you after you've finished listening to it.

Gerard Doyle's brilliant narration adds immeasurable texture and richness to the reading experience. With his work on the two Neville books, together with his equally outstanding narration of Adrian McKinty's Michael Forsythe trilogy, Doyle has firmly established himself as the narrator of choice for Irish noir.

For all those who suffered withdrawal symptoms after reading Adrian McGinty's trilogy of violence and revenge, fear not, for here is Stuart Neville, promising to keep you on the edge of your seat or driving around the block. This is the sequel to Ghosts of Belfast, which should be read first. Gerard Doyle, as always, is terrific.

I loved Collusion and The Ghosts of Belfast. Pretty rough and gritty and read really well by the narrator. the only negative is the mouth noises in Collusion were quite bad at times. After listening to Ghosts of Belfast, I wonder if this is an Audible problem with editing, as the first book was narrated beautifully. Still it wasnt so bad i couldnt finish it. I hope Stuart Neville keeps writing more books like this.

In Collusion we meet Jack Lennon, a character who, although he didn't actually appear in Ghosts of Belfast, has a tremendous significance to many of the characters introduced in that novel. Lennon is deeply flawed and unlikable (he seems almost to relish testing the limits of the few friendships he enjoys), and yet there is something indefatigable and at the same time human about him that endears him to the reader.

All the surviving characters from Ghosts have returned, their continuing stories adding to the tapestry Neville has created with these first two novels. Not all of them will be appearing in the third.

This novel is gritty, and full of intriguing characters. It lacks the freshness of Ghosts, but makes up for it with a taut, gripping complexity. It is by no means necessary that readers visit Ghosts before reading Collusion, but it might be helpful.

Gerard Doyle is excellent. Despite being an American, his superb accent work made all the characters distinct.

A good book that is well narrated. I would recommend this to my friends and family. Thanks to Audible for having this in store.

In the first book, there was a mystery about whether the ghosts were real or just a madman's delusion which gave an interesting spin to a very violent story -- I enjoyed it a great deal and bought this (foolishly) without reading reviews. This sequel was just a long tedious slog through the squalid lives of characters I never want to "meet" again. How to make it better? Come up with another interesting original idea instead of wringing the last drops of bile from a story whose best part was already told.

Not without reading a lot of glowing reviews beforehand. He clearly has talent but ths was awful.

Gerard Doyle makes this book just as he did the first novel in this series, The Ghosts of Belfast. He is simply superb. He manages Irish accents, differentiates characters and keeps the story moving brilliantly. Thirteen was an incredible book. It would be hard for Neville to match it. This is a good book but not quite as good as the first one. And for readers who are unfamiliar with the intricacies of the plot of The Ghosts of Belfast this novel will be uninterpretable. Almost all of the action in Collusion stems from incidents and characters in the first book, and not a lot of explanation is provided for the novice reader. Neville is the best at writing short, action packed chapters that switch points of view among characters. He is a pleasure to listen to. If Doyle reads his next one, I will for sure be a listener.

What can I say? I am a fan! I love the story, the writing and the narrator.

It took me a little while to adjust to the reader and his accent. It's an Irish story after all. For readers/listeners who likes happy endings, be prepared. It's not an awfully sad ending but it is bittersweet.

I was a little bit disappointed by this book. The story is banal and the writing is not very elegant sometimes even monotone in style. I don't think that I will buy an audio book by this author again.