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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
When I picked up Stuart Neville’s The Ghosts of Belfast I thought the ghosts described were metaphorical. After all, what former killer for the IRA doesn’t have the “ghosts” of his victims following him around? We meet the protagonist, Gerry Fegan, drinking in a pub, trying to drown out the voices and sight of the quite literal ghosts that have been following him around since just before he got out of Her Majesty’s Maze Prison. There are eleven of them, and they let him know that the only way to get rid of them is to get revenge on the people who caused their deaths...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
The Troubles may be over and peace in Northern Ireland reached, but Gerry Fegan's troubles are far from over. During the tumult he was one of the IRA's most ruthless henchmen, killing twelve people - and now their ghosts literally haunt him. He's always had a talent - if you can call it that - for seeing the dead, but these ghosts have haunted him for seven years, keeping him awake with their screams, something only the drink can quiet. When he converses with a prominent politician, McKenna, in the bar in which he frequents, he finally discovers what the ghosts want. They don't want his remorse; they want him to kill the people who gave him the orders that resulted in their deaths.
Sometimes fiction can be a better teacher than the history books. I knew nothing of the Troubles in Northern Ireland before reading this novel, and the IRA was a far-off entity of freedom fighters who occasionally made American news. On the surface, Ireland has changed greatly: it's prosperous and there are more opportunities than ever before. Because no one beyond Fegan is sure who's responsible for the murders, Fegan's mission threatens to upend all the shady deals between the Unionists and the Republicans that tenuously keep peace in place. But there's no stopping Fegan once he's figured out what his ghostly companions want.
Complicating matters is Davy Campbell. An undercover agent, Campbell a man who's been on the inside so long he can't imagine ever getting out. But his handlers - whom I gathered to be British intelligence - disagree. In a way, Campbell and Fegan are one in the sense that they're both compromised men who made their living off the Troubles. In their scenes together I could feel the sympathy between them. Despite Campbell's apparent betrayal to the cause, he gets a reprieve from Neville's cold eye, for Neville's portraits of the politicians and people in power in this novel is unforgiving.
Marie McKenna, niece to the murdered McKenna, is Fegan's love interest and all the more interesting because Neville plays her as more of a lifeline for Fegan, the life jacket thrown to a man drowning in his efforts to reach redemption. His hopes for happiness and healing rest solely with her and her daughter, Ellen, though it's Ellen, through her childhood innocence, who helps him the most. She's the Ireland Fegan fought for.
The writing is taut and stripped of all banality. I really felt for Fegan - for who hasn't done things they regret? - and hoped fervently that he would find some measure of peace, if not actual happiness. Whether he gets that in the end, or has traveled too far into the abyss, is something to be pondered long after reading.
Sometimes fiction can be a better teacher than the history books. I knew nothing of the Troubles in Northern Ireland before reading this novel, and the IRA was a far-off entity of freedom fighters who occasionally made American news. On the surface, Ireland has changed greatly: it's prosperous and there are more opportunities than ever before. Because no one beyond Fegan is sure who's responsible for the murders, Fegan's mission threatens to upend all the shady deals between the Unionists and the Republicans that tenuously keep peace in place. But there's no stopping Fegan once he's figured out what his ghostly companions want.
Complicating matters is Davy Campbell. An undercover agent, Campbell a man who's been on the inside so long he can't imagine ever getting out. But his handlers - whom I gathered to be British intelligence - disagree. In a way, Campbell and Fegan are one in the sense that they're both compromised men who made their living off the Troubles. In their scenes together I could feel the sympathy between them. Despite Campbell's apparent betrayal to the cause, he gets a reprieve from Neville's cold eye, for Neville's portraits of the politicians and people in power in this novel is unforgiving.
Marie McKenna, niece to the murdered McKenna, is Fegan's love interest and all the more interesting because Neville plays her as more of a lifeline for Fegan, the life jacket thrown to a man drowning in his efforts to reach redemption. His hopes for happiness and healing rest solely with her and her daughter, Ellen, though it's Ellen, through her childhood innocence, who helps him the most. She's the Ireland Fegan fought for.
The writing is taut and stripped of all banality. I really felt for Fegan - for who hasn't done things they regret? - and hoped fervently that he would find some measure of peace, if not actual happiness. Whether he gets that in the end, or has traveled too far into the abyss, is something to be pondered long after reading.
3.75
Creepy and dark, but page turning nonetheless. IRA killer who feels so much guilt and is haunted by his victims, so needs to kill the others involved in the original murders. The gore is what might keep me from picking up the next one right away, I have to be in the right frame of mind to delve into these.
Creepy and dark, but page turning nonetheless. IRA killer who feels so much guilt and is haunted by his victims, so needs to kill the others involved in the original murders. The gore is what might keep me from picking up the next one right away, I have to be in the right frame of mind to delve into these.
Great book, would make a great movie. As long as they don't try to reimagine it in someplace in the US. The Troubles as a backdrop is what gives it such power.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was an alright read for me, but paled in comparison to some other Irish mysteries I've read that also feature the Troubles...most notably [b:The Cold Cold Ground|13008754|The Cold Cold Ground (Detective Sean Duffy, #1)|Adrian McKinty|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355027843s/13008754.jpg|18170309], etc. series featuring Sean Duffy. I kept getting the different Irish "thugs" confused and found that I had a hard time caring about any of the characters. There was also too many action sequences (which would actually be great on film or t.v.). On the other hand the book's theme of justice v. vengeance resonated strongly with me and seems to be a theme in my recent reads.
Nearly a decade ago, I added this book to my Audible account and about the same time, I also downloaded Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty. I know I listened to one of them, but I cannot for the life of me remember which, as it was before I tracked anything in Goodreads. Since The Ghosts of Belfast features actual ghosts, I decided to listen to it this week, and I'm so glad I did.
Gerry Fegan is haunted by the ghosts of people he killed during The Troubles in Belfast. His only hope for peace is to kill the people he worked for who ordered the killings he committed. They won't go quietly, either, especially when they figure out Gerry is behind the string of new murders. The description says this is book #1 of the Jack Lennon Investigations series, but I'll be honest, I don't remember hearing a character named Jack Lennon in the audiobook, but I'm sure I wasn't paying as close attention to the book as I could have. Regardless, I thought the plot was fantastic and the longer I listened the more I enjoyed the characters and the story. Gerard Doyle is also a fantastic narrator.
Gerry Fegan is haunted by the ghosts of people he killed during The Troubles in Belfast. His only hope for peace is to kill the people he worked for who ordered the killings he committed. They won't go quietly, either, especially when they figure out Gerry is behind the string of new murders. The description says this is book #1 of the Jack Lennon Investigations series, but I'll be honest, I don't remember hearing a character named Jack Lennon in the audiobook, but I'm sure I wasn't paying as close attention to the book as I could have. Regardless, I thought the plot was fantastic and the longer I listened the more I enjoyed the characters and the story. Gerard Doyle is also a fantastic narrator.
It just got to be too many revenge deaths as some sort of redemption path ... couldn't bear the idea of that. Initially, I thought that I was reading a serial killer novel flipped sideways with a sympathetic killer aching to right his wrongs by the insane idea of killing more people, except that they were bad people who deserved his bullets. But when I realized that the author was going to let this madness play out as a legitimate path to redemption I had to quit. And while I can handle a violent novel, this one seemed to revel in it far more than necessary.
This book was a page turner. If you don't mind some violence, foul language, and ghosts, then you might want to try this book. I found the main character, Gerry Fegan to be a damaged, tortured soul that I wanted to know more about & hope that he is a character in the other two books in this series.
I'm adding the next two books in the series in my "want to read" list.
I'm adding the next two books in the series in my "want to read" list.