-
Belfast Noir
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies, Gerard Doyle, John Keating, Terry Donnelly
- Series: Akashic Books: Noir
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Anthologies & Short Stories
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Plus
$7.95 a month
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Ghosts of Belfast
- By: Stuart Neville
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 12 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.
-
-
What an unexpected good read!
- By DPM on 08-24-10
By: Stuart Neville
-
The Bloomsday Dead
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Forsythe is contacted by his former lover, Bridget, a New York Irish Mob boss, whose fiancé he killed. Bridget, calling from Dublin, says that her 11-year-old daughter has been kidnapped. Michael's choice is to fly to Dublin and help her find the girl, or be executed at the hands of Bridget's goons, who are holding him at gunpoint. He agrees to nothing, but is soon on the way to Dublin, leaving the first two of many dead bodies in his wake.
-
-
SIX STARS ******
- By Johnnie Walker on 03-23-07
By: Adrian McKinty
-
The Dead Yard
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this exciting sequel to the acclaimed Dead I Well May Be, the mercenary Michael Forsythe is forced to infiltrate an Irish terrorist cell, confronting murder, mayhem, and the prospect of his own execution.
-
-
Staying Cool, but not polar
- By K on 07-31-08
By: Adrian McKinty
-
The Chain
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Your phone rings. A stranger has kidnapped your child. To free them you must abduct someone else's child. Your child will be released when your victim's parents kidnap another child. If any of these things don't happen: Your child will be killed. You are now part of the chain.
-
-
Amazing yet terrifying
- By stuartjash on 07-10-19
By: Adrian McKinty
-
Hidden River
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alexander Lawson is a former detective for Northern Ireland's police force. After a disastrous six-month stint in the drug squad, he became addicted to heroin and resigned in disgrace. Now 24, sickly, and on the dole, Alex learns that his high-school love, Victoria Patawasti, has been murdered in America. Victoria's wealthy family sends Alex to Colorado to investigate the case, and he seizes the opportunity for a chance at redemption.
-
-
My favorite McKinty novel
- By Dave on 04-04-11
By: Adrian McKinty
-
Dead I Well May Be
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Michael, an illegal immigrant escaping the troubles in Northern Ireland is strong and fearless and clever, just the fellow to be tapped by Darkey, a crime boss, to join a gang of Irish thugs struggling against the rising Dominican powers in Harlem and the Bronx. The time is pre-Giuliani New York, when crack rules the city, squatters live furtively in ruined buildings, and hundreds are murdered each month.
-
-
What an amazing book
- By Starbuck on 03-11-06
By: Adrian McKinty
-
The Ghosts of Belfast
- By: Stuart Neville
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 12 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.
-
-
What an unexpected good read!
- By DPM on 08-24-10
By: Stuart Neville
-
The Bloomsday Dead
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Forsythe is contacted by his former lover, Bridget, a New York Irish Mob boss, whose fiancé he killed. Bridget, calling from Dublin, says that her 11-year-old daughter has been kidnapped. Michael's choice is to fly to Dublin and help her find the girl, or be executed at the hands of Bridget's goons, who are holding him at gunpoint. He agrees to nothing, but is soon on the way to Dublin, leaving the first two of many dead bodies in his wake.
-
-
SIX STARS ******
- By Johnnie Walker on 03-23-07
By: Adrian McKinty
-
The Dead Yard
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this exciting sequel to the acclaimed Dead I Well May Be, the mercenary Michael Forsythe is forced to infiltrate an Irish terrorist cell, confronting murder, mayhem, and the prospect of his own execution.
-
-
Staying Cool, but not polar
- By K on 07-31-08
By: Adrian McKinty
-
The Chain
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Your phone rings. A stranger has kidnapped your child. To free them you must abduct someone else's child. Your child will be released when your victim's parents kidnap another child. If any of these things don't happen: Your child will be killed. You are now part of the chain.
-
-
Amazing yet terrifying
- By stuartjash on 07-10-19
By: Adrian McKinty
-
Hidden River
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alexander Lawson is a former detective for Northern Ireland's police force. After a disastrous six-month stint in the drug squad, he became addicted to heroin and resigned in disgrace. Now 24, sickly, and on the dole, Alex learns that his high-school love, Victoria Patawasti, has been murdered in America. Victoria's wealthy family sends Alex to Colorado to investigate the case, and he seizes the opportunity for a chance at redemption.
-
-
My favorite McKinty novel
- By Dave on 04-04-11
By: Adrian McKinty
-
Dead I Well May Be
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Michael, an illegal immigrant escaping the troubles in Northern Ireland is strong and fearless and clever, just the fellow to be tapped by Darkey, a crime boss, to join a gang of Irish thugs struggling against the rising Dominican powers in Harlem and the Bronx. The time is pre-Giuliani New York, when crack rules the city, squatters live furtively in ruined buildings, and hundreds are murdered each month.
-
-
What an amazing book
- By Starbuck on 03-11-06
By: Adrian McKinty
-
Say Nothing
- A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Matthew Blaney
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December 1972, Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the IRA was responsible. Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing audiobook on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war.
-
-
Spectacular
- By Josh on 04-08-19
-
Falling Glass
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Coulter is a man who has everything. His beautiful new wife is pregnant, his upstart airline is undercutting the competition and moving from strength to strength, his diversification into the casino business in Macau has been successful, and his fabulous Art Deco house on an Irish cliff top has just been featured in Architectural Digest. But then, for some reason, his ex-wife Rachel doesn’t keep her side of the custody agreement and vanishes off the face of the earth with Richard’s two daughters. Richard hires Killian, a formidable ex-enforcer for the IRA, to track her down before Rachel, a recovering drug addict, harms herself or the girls.
-
-
Hold on to your seat!!!
- By Cheryl on 03-09-11
By: Adrian McKinty
-
Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly
- Detective Sean Duffy, Book 6
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Belfast, 1988. A man is found dead, killed with a bolt from a crossbow in front of his house. This is no hunting accident. But uncovering who is responsible for the murder will take Detective Sean Duffy down his most dangerous road yet, a road that leads to a lonely clearing on a high bog where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave. Hunted by forces unknown, threatened by Internal Affairs, and with his relationship on the rocks, Duffy will need all his wits to get out of this investigation in one piece.
-
-
In Love
- By David Shear on 03-10-17
By: Adrian McKinty
-
Collusion
- By: Stuart Neville
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack Lennon is a Detective Inspector trying to track down his former lover, Marie McKenna, and their daughter -- but his superiors tell him to back off. Bull O'Kane is a bitter old man who will stop at nothing for vengeance. The Traveller is an assassin without pity or remorse, who stalks Belfast, tying up loose ends. Forced into the center of it all is former IRA paramilitary Gerry Fegan, who must confront his past -- and The Traveller -- for the fight of his life.
-
-
Gripping Irish noir
- By Moku on 01-31-11
By: Stuart Neville
-
Slow Horses
- Slough House, Book 1
- By: Mick Herron
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Slough House is a dumping ground for British intelligence agents who've screwed up cases in any number of ways - by leaving a secret file on a train or blowing a surveillance. River Cartwright, one such "slow horse", is bitter about his failure and about his tedious assignment transcribing cell phone conversations. When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself.
-
-
Couldn't get into it
- By Jeff Brown on 07-12-19
By: Mick Herron
-
Armed Struggle
- The History of the IRA
- By: Richard English
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 20 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The IRA has been a much richer, more complexly layered, and more protean organization than is frequently recognized. It is also more open to balanced examination now - at the end of its long war in the north of Ireland - than it was even a few years ago. Richard English's brilliant audiobook offers a detailed history of the IRA, providing invaluable historical depth to our understanding of the modern-day Provisionals, the more militant wing formed in 1969 dedicated to the removal of the British Government from Northern Ireland and the reunification of Ireland.
-
-
A comprehensive history of the IRA
- By Stefan Filipovits on 02-04-20
By: Richard English
-
Fifty Grand
- A Novel of Suspense
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Paula Christensen
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An illegal immigrant is killed in a hit-and-run on a frozen mountain road in the town of Fairview, Colorado. No one is prosecuted for his death and his case is quietly forgotten. Six months later another illegal makes a treacherous run across the border, barely escaping with her life. She finds work as a maid and, secretly, begins to investigate the death of her father. But she isn't a maid, and she's not Mexican.
-
-
Anxiously Awaited
- By David on 05-04-09
By: Adrian McKinty
-
Rain Dogs
- Detective Sean Duffy, Book 5
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When journalist Lily Bigelow is found dead in the courtyard of Carrickfergus castle, it looks like a suicide. Yet there are a few things that bother Duffy just enough to keep the case file open, which is how he finds out that Bigelow was working on a devastating investigation of corruption and abuse at the highest levels of power in the UK and beyond. And so Duffy has two impossible problems on his desk: Who killed Lily Bigelow? And what were they trying to hide?
-
-
The Narrator IS the Story
- By Craig on 03-15-16
By: Adrian McKinty
-
Songbird
- Kings Lake Investigation Series, Book 1
- By: Peter Grainger
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective Sergeant Chris Waters got the call at 05.29 that July morning. This is it, said DCI Reeve, you'll be first there, it's all yours, you're the crime scene manager. Suddenly, after months of waiting and wondering, Waters finds himself in at the deep end, and alone at the scene of a puzzling murder. As the investigation proceeds, the detectives at Kings Lake Central find themselves visiting familiar places and talking to some familiar faces, while old enmities reappear in the incident room. Before this is over, Chris Waters will need to make a career-changing decision.
-
-
Loved it...
- By Kelly on 09-20-19
By: Peter Grainger
-
Where She Lies: A Gripping Irish Detective Thriller with a Stunning Twist
- Detective Finnegan Beck Series, Book 1
- By: Michael Scanlon
- Narrated by: Ruairi Conaghan
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a town full of liars, who can you trust? When Detective Finnegan Beck is demoted from his high-powered job in Dublin and relocated in disgrace to the small Irish town of Cross Beg, he predicts boredom will be his biggest threat. But then a beautiful local teenage girl is found strangled in the cold, dark woods a mile from town. The prime suspect is the seemingly gentle drifter who found Tanya’s body. Beck seems to be the only person who can’t escape the feeling that Tanya wasn’t killed at random.
-
-
Fabulous! Best I’ve listened to in awhile
- By George on 02-10-19
By: Michael Scanlon
-
I Hear the Sirens in the Street
- Detective Sean Duffy, Book 2
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A torso in a suitcase looks like an impossible case, but Sean Duffy isn’t easily deterred, especially when his floundering love life leaves him in need of a distraction. So with detective constables McCrabban and McBride, he goes to work identifying the victim. The torso turns out to be all that’s left of an American tourist who once served in the U.S. military. What was he doing in Northern Ireland in the midst of the 1982 Troubles?
-
-
Hear "Cold Ground" First, Then Audlble This!
- By Ted on 08-31-13
By: Adrian McKinty
-
The Sun Is God
- By: Adrian McKinty
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colonial New Guinea, 1906: A small group of mostly German nudists lives an extreme back-to-nature existence on the remote island of Kabakon. Eating only coconuts and bananas, they purport to worship the sun. One of their members, Max Lutzow, has recently died, allegedly from malaria. But an autopsy on his body in the nearby capital of Herbertshöhe raises suspicions about foul play.
-
-
Great prose, but not a great story.
- By MidwestGeek on 12-15-14
By: Adrian McKinty
Publisher's Summary
Launched with the summer '04 award-winning best seller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. Reflecting a city still divided, Belfast Noir serves as a record of a city transitioning to normalcy, or perhaps as a warning that underneath the fragile peace darker forces still lurk.
Featuring brand-new stories by: Glenn Patterson, Eoin McNamee, Garbhan Downey, Lee Child, Alex Barclay, Brian McGilloway, Ian McDonald, Arlene Hunt, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Claire McGowan, Steve Cavanagh, Lucy Caldwell, Sam Millar, and Gerard Brennan.
From the introduction by Adrian McKinty & Stuart Neville: "Few European cities have had as disturbed and violent a history as Belfast over the last half-century. For much of that time the Troubles (1968–1998) dominated life in Ireland's second-biggest population centre, and during the darkest days of the conflict - in the 1970s and 1980s - riots, bombings, and indiscriminate shootings were tragically commonplace. The British army patrolled the streets in armoured vehicles and civilians were searched for guns and explosives before they were allowed entry into the shopping district of the city centre... Belfast is still a city divided... You can see Belfast's bloodstains up close and personal. This is the city that gave the world its worst ever maritime disaster, and turned it into a tourist attraction; similarly, we are perversely proud of our thousands of murders, our wounds constantly on display. You want noir? How about a painting the size of a house, a portrait of a man known to have murdered at least a dozen human beings in cold blood? Or a similar house-sized gable painting of a zombie marching across a post-apocalyptic wasteland with an AK-47 over the legend UVF: Prepared for Peace - Ready for War. As Lee Child has said, Belfast is still 'the most noir place on earth.'"
More from the same
What listeners say about Belfast Noir
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- carmen
- 04-09-15
Not what I expected
I thought it was going to be all about the troubles( not the place) but actually there are different stories mostly crime but there are modern stories about Belfast. I really liked the one by Lee Childs that put an American spin on it. I also enjoyed the one by Garvin Downey How to Kill a Rat. It was about a journalist and it showed his process of uncovering stories. And a twist ending. Plus half of the stories are narrated by Gerard Doyle who could read the phone book while the listener goes through a whole range of emotions.
38 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Laura
- 12-11-17
Enjoyable, Right Up To The Dog Baiting/Fighting
I found some of these stories compelling, some less so, but couldn't get past the bit with the dog fighting and the sacrifice of the bait dog. I don't need to see those images in my mind's eye. The story I liked most was with the teen-aged private eye, a plucky fellow who gets into things a lot deeper than he ever imagined.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R. Campbell
- 06-14-15
The Most Noir City in The World
I love noir films - dark, atmospheric. I was excited to read this one, not sure why Belfast is particularly noir but willing to find out. The first stories in this series of short stories set the scene. Before, during and after "the troubles" in the 80s, Belfast has been a city of ghosts. In struggles against the English, between Catholic and Protestant, Belfast is full of pubs, allies and squares where this one was martyred and those died for no reason or she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stories are of children whose bombs went off early and simple folks caught in the cross fire. Dark, cold for much of the year and haunted by needless deaths, the editors begin by asserting that Belfast is "The Most Noir City in the World".
As the book progresses, the hard boiled crime dramas that define noir make their appearance. McKinty is rather clever in his arrangement of stories and though it starts slowly, it makes sense in the end.
I'd also like to mention that this was a real education for me. As bad as I was aware Belfast was in the 80s, the stories provide a window into the ongoing struggles of the good people of North Ireland. These stories are raw, direct, quintessentially Irish and gripping. Again, the dark shadows of the genre extent as the stories progress but all are well crafted, entertaining and educational in so far as they communicate the pain of the Irish experience and the legacy of the struggles of the 80s.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Protoknuckles
- 05-30-15
mixed bag
some stories were very good, but some were terrible. also, there's an existing mistake, where a narrator starts talking to the editor that was left in
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- HMac8
- 03-17-19
Some stories and narriations better than others
I absolutely loved some of the stories and most of the narrators but couldn't give it five stars all around due to a few that fell short of the quality of the others. I suppose in an anthology that's to be expected.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- BDHumbert
- 11-09-17
It should
Be no surprise that this collection had a very high variance. Several stories were 5 star worthy. But a few were 1-2 Star
Still if you are a fan of the Irish you could do worse
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patrick
- 05-31-15
Teriffic!
Superb, inventive and varied collection of place-and-time themed noir short fiction. Expertly read by the four narrators.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cynthia
- 05-17-15
The Dark, the Doomed and the Damned
I have half a dozen "Noir" books sitting on my bookshelf. Each book is a collection of short stories by top notch writers. They're fun to read when traveling to a new city, or revisiting a favorite place. If you live in Southern California, "Los Angeles Noir" (2007) and "Los Angeles Noir 2" (2010) are an eerie homage to Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane.
I'm not familiar with most of the writers in "Belfast Noir" (2014), except Lee Child, a British writer who created the adventurer investigator and hero, Jack Reacher. Well, I'm not as familiar with those authors - yet. What's neatest about each book is there's always a story that resonates with me. Ruth Dudley's "Taking it Serious" is going to echo always - and so is Glenn Patterson's "Belfast Punk REP." I'll be able to think of the stories, close my eyes, and remember where I was when I heard them the first time. Unfortunately, that was on the 605 North stuck in unrelenting early evening "rush hour" traffic that really should be called "slow to stop hour traffic". That's the drawback of an Audible listen, but it's a small sacrifice for a good story instead of inane radio hosts chattering on about celebrity arrests.
Like so many Americans, I've got a strong Irish immigrant background. I grew up knowing about 'The Troubles', but I hadn't really thought much about them since the Good Friday Agreements of 1998. Some of the stories - like Lucy Caldwell's "Poison" are time and location independent. A lot aren't, so the book has a historical and geographic introduction that helps put those stories in perspective. Almost all of "Belfast Noir" is narrated by voice actors using Ulster accents, which I enjoyed.
[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]
25 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ky
- 05-24-17
Interesting
An interesting read if you're interested in Belfast but needlessly edgy at times and graphic. It seems like its trying to be dark by way of over compensation
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Maine Knitter
- 11-25-16
Narrations were perfect
Noir is right! My favorite part was the introduction. Some of the stories were good; some were not; all were dark - as advertised.
The narrations were all exceptional!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Amazon Customer
- 03-03-20
English man as Narratot?
Not a huge fan of the narration. No idea why they cant find a native of belfast to narrate some of the stories. No offence Gerard Doyle that accent will fool alot of people but not those from Northern Ireland. I honestly couldn't listen to it.
1 person found this helpful