The Ghosts of Belfast

By: Stuart Neville

Narrated by: Gerard Doyle

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

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. Now he has given Fate - and his quarry - a hostage. Is this Fegan's ultimate mistake?

©2009 Stuart Neville (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Mystery / Thriller, 2010
• Notable Crime Books of 2009 (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times)
• The Year’s Most Mesmerizing Mysteries (Maureen Corrigan, NPR)

"Stuart Neville's debut novel about the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland is harsh, brutal, and unrelentingly grim. With spare, crisp dialogue, and a gift for turning an Irish phrase, Neville plants himself firmly in Adrian McKinty territory. And who better to narrate than Gerard Doyle? Doyle gets it—and so do we. His whine; his growl; his rough yet sensitive, always-passionate performance gives everything a listener could want from an audiobook." ( AudioFile)

"With this stunning debut, Neville joins a select group of Irish writers, including Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes, and Adrian McKinty, who have reinvigorated the noir tradition with a Celtic edge." ( Publishers Weekly)

Absolutely Brilliant!

This is a great read and the pace doesnt let up for a minute...it is narrated so well i was so disappointed when the book finished. I have discovered the sequel was published this month, so i hope Audible dont take too long getting this started.

A Suspenseful Belfast Noir Western

Seven years out of prison after serving a twelve-year sentence, the ex-IRA soldier/terrorist Gerry Fegan--a respected and feared Republican hero--is being haunted by twelve ghosts. Fegan's 'followers' are people he killed during the Troubles. They coalesce from shadows to appear before him 'big as life,' looking at him and watching him pee and clamoring when he tries to sleep so that each night he has to drink himself into oblivion. The ghosts who scream the loudest are not the British soldiers or the Irish police but the civilians, like the boy he shot and the mother and infant he accidentally blew up. The prison psychologist said that the followers are manifestations of guilt, but they are so vivid and noisy that Fegan can't understand why people around him don't notice them.

One of the neat things about Stuart Neville's suspenseful Belfast Noir novel, The Ghosts of Belfast (2009), is that because we spend much time in Fegan's mind, and because his followers start badgering him to kill the men who years ago made him kill them, and because he's otherwise so sane and sympathetic (wanting to do beautiful wood work rather than kill), it's easy to question whether he's crazy or actually haunted. Fegan's followers even start hinting what he should do in certain situations, as when the mother with the infant encourages him to accept a ride from the ostracized Marie McKenna after her uncle's funeral.

In addition to Fegan's point of view, Neville also writes from those of different characters, like a reluctant Minister of State, a corrupt Northern Irish politician, and Fegan's double and foil Davy Campbell, a Scottish undercover agent infiltrating the IRA and post-IRA gangs for the British government. Both Campbell and Fegan were trained to violence like pit bulls (the analogy is implied at one point), and both are intelligent, alienated, and solitary--but while Fegan feels beauty and regret and yearns for a normal life, Campbell only wants to continue his dangerous double life, unable to envision anything else.
There are potent moments in the novel: Fegan going for a walk with Marie and her little daughter Ellen in the botanical gardens; Fegan remembering when he met McKenna as boys about to be caned at school; Campbell reading Fegan's letter to his mother; Fegan watching Finding Nemo with Marie and Ellen; Fegan seeing moonlight on a mirror bay and wishing his followers could see it too; Campbell being surprised in Fegan's bathroom; Father Coulter taking Fegan's confession. . .

There is fine writing in the novel, like 'He turned his eyes to the ground where cigarette butts and old chewing gum, things people no longer wanted in their mouths, were trampled into the path.' There are telling lines in the novel, like 'People have long memories, especially when it's someone else's sin.' Neville also writes savory Irish colloquial speech, as when Marie says, 'There was this girl, a stewardess, looked like she'd been licking piss off a nettle.'

The book's depiction of contemporary Northern Ireland is interesting. Some of the men targeted by Fegan's ghosts are influential political figures whose deaths would jeopardize the precarious Northern Ireland peace process below which fester long hatreds between Loyalists and Republicans, Protestants and Catholics. Money is pouring into new real estate developments, and many more cars are parked on the streets and foreigners walking around than before, but even if things change, people don't, and the violence is never really over. Even as it's specific as to time and place, the novel depicts universal problems in human nature concerning history, power, money, love, violence, and collateral damage. It's a graphic and grim book but a poignant one, as when Fegan glimpses what normal life for normal people might be.

Rather than a mystery (we know the killer from the start, and there's no detective to follow), the novel is a noir western. In a central idyll Fagan watches the John Wayne classic The Searchers. And later when he thinks, 'Men like him no longer belonged here,' it's easy to read Northern Ireland as a frontier city transitioning from the old wild time of violence, outlaws, and might makes right to the new civilized time of trains, politicians, and peace, in which the heroic man of violence has no place. Finally, Shane must leave Joey and his mother.

At first the audiobook reader Gerard Doyle sounds a little monotonous, but he turns out to be fine at building intensity when necessary and excels at reading the voices of different people: Scottish, Irish, Oxbridge, male, female, adult, child, etc.

**SPOILER**
In the climax chloroform is employed too liberally and conveniently, Fegan doesn't comport himself enough like a formidable killer advised by ghosts, and--despite the 'everybody pays in the end' theme repeatedly stressed in the book--he doesn't finally pay. Maybe he will in a future novel?

Ghouling and Haunting

If you could sum up The Ghosts of Belfast in three words, what would they be?

Ghouling and Haunting

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Belfast Redemer

Any additional comments?

Thought it was written and preformed. The Irish accent got a little hard to follow and some characters blended together. Some of that might just be me being a dumb American, but all in all very solid performance and story line.

It was OK

Any additional comments?

The story was a little slow and since it takes place in Belfast I had a hard time keeping up the accents. It did pick up more at the end - I enjoyed the second half of the book a little better.

An entertaining book.

the books keeps ypu on the edge of your seat. Characters well developed. Doyle played the characters superbly. I enjoyed the story and would likely read again. Not predictable and the ending did turn out the way I wanted it to. you will like it

Amazing and dark

Brutal, suspenseful, dark, original, violent, twisted are all words that come to mind about this book! I'm glad it's book one of a series, although I may need something a bit lighter before starting the next one. Listened for 2 straight days it was so good! Gerald Doyle is simply amazing! I've listened to several Irish thrillers now just to listen to him speak for hours!

So depressing!

Would you try another book from Stuart Neville and/or Gerard Doyle?

Probably not unless it wasn't about Ireland.

What was most disappointing about Stuart Neville’s story?

Ireland just seems like a place where so many live such despairing lives. Poverty, hatred, fighting, it just goes on and on and the bad language is awful.

Did Gerard Doyle do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes he did but there is a complaint. He seems to often suffer from dry mouth and you could hear the sound of it and man, does that grate on the nerves! Drink more water, Gerard.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

Intriguing story marred by gratuitous violence

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The theme of redemption was overwhelmed by a level of brutality that was unnecessary for character of plot development.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

NO

Love the Narration

Compelling story and extraordinary performance.
It’s cool when the narration enhances the story so much!

"Freedom Fighting" to Racketeering

Through the psychological struggle (insanity?) of the central character, Stuart Neville brilliantly captures the rough edges of the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland. He does a great job painting the backdrop -- how criminality became "freedom fighting" or "loyalism," then morphed back into racketeering as the peace process took hold in a post 9/11 world.

I used to spend childhood summers in Northern Ireland during the 1960s and early 70s, so I was particularly alert for flaws in authenticity. If there were any, I missed them.

The narrator, Gerard Doyle, is excellent -- superbly capturing both the nuances of the psychosis of the main character and the Belfast brogue. He seamlessly transitions between condescending Whitehall officials and Belfast thugs.

Given the death toll, this book is not for the squeamish or for listening with youngsters in the car. The detail is certainly designed to make the reader/listener uncomfortable -- and ultimately how I was drawn into the head of the central character.

In summary, an excellent yarn, very well produced as an audiobook.