Press Reviews

Note: Some reviews refer to THE TWELVE, the UK edition of THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST

"A crime novel that counts among the best brought out this calendar year ... THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST would have been a superior effort had it been just about Fegan's struggle to assert his inner goodness in the face of larger evil, but its narrative power draws further strength from Neville's acute understanding of Northern Ireland's true state." - LA Times (read the full review)

"A rare example of legitimate noir fiction ... Would rattle the composure of a saint." - New York Times (read the full review)

"[A] stunning debut ... This is not only an action-packed, visceral thriller but also an insightful insider's glimpse into the complex political machinations and networks that maintain the uneasy truce in Northern Ireland." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Sharp prose places readers in this pitiless place and holds them there. Harsh and unrelenting crime fiction, masterfully done." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Neville's debut novel is tragic, violent, exciting, plausible, and compelling. The Ghosts of Belfast is dark, powerful, insightful, and hard to put down." - Booklist

"A brilliant thriller: unbearably tense, stomach-churningly frightening. This is the best fictional representation of the Troubles I have come across, a future classic of its time. Stuart Neville has finally given Northern Ireland the novel its singular history deserves." - The Observer (read the full review)

"If you read only one thriller on your summer holiday, then make sure it is Neville's stunning debut. It's an astonishing first novel ... Written with a wonderful touch for the politics of the post-Good Friday agreement, it is as fresh and subtle as you could wish for. Awesomely powerful, fabulously written, this novel is simply unmissable." - Daily Mail (read the full review)

"Neville has the talent to believably blend the tropes of the crime novel and those of a horror, in the process creating a page-turning thriller akin to a collaboration between John Connolly and Stephen King. [The Ghosts of Belfast] is a superb thriller, and one of the first great post-Troubles novels to emerge from Northern Ireland." - Sunday Independent (read the full review)

"Stuart Neville's blistering debut thriller is a walk on the wild side of post-conflict Northern Ireland that brilliantly exposes the suffering still lurking beneath the surface of reconciliation and the hypocrisies that sustain the peace. Neville ceaselessly cranks up the tension ... but it's his caustic assessments of present-day Northern Ireland, penetrating its sad, confused predicaments, that really hit home." - Metro (read the full review)

"An absolute crackerjack of a debut ... tightly plotted and tautly written ... barrels along at Ellroy speed." - Hot Press

"[The Ghosts of Belfast] is a revenge tragedy in the Elizabethan mode, scripted by Quentin Tarantino and produced by the makers of The Bourne Identity ... But it possesses a profound and wider significance ... [The Ghosts of Belfast] is an important part of [Northern Ireland's] purging." - Irish Times (read the full review)

"A dark thriller which refuses to remain within the boundaries which can often confine Northern Irish literature. Neville instead breaks free of the mould, producing a novel which is both honest and refreshing. If you want a thriller which will have your heart thudding from start to finish, you will not be disappointed by the first offering from Stuart Neville." - Ulster Tatler

More press reviews will be added as they become available.