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Fiction. Mystery. HTML:Detective Inspector Jack Lennon of the Belfast Police has watched the developing cooperation between Northern Ireland's Loyalist gangs and immigrant Lithuanian criminals with unease. The Lithuanians traffic women from Eastern Europe and Asia for the Loyalists' brothels, and they're all making big money in spite of the recession that has stopped Northern Ireland's peace boom in its tracks. Lennon has a more intimate knowledge of the city's brothels than he'll ever admit, but the surge in trafficked girls makes him question his lifestyle, especially considering he has his daughter, Ellen, to care for now. When a Lithuanian trafficker turns up dead on Christmas Eve with a shard of glass embedded in his throat, Lennon's plans to spend the holiday with Ellen are put in jeopardy. The dead man was the younger brother of a ruthless Lithuanian crime boss, Arturas Strazdas, and the young Ukrainian woman who killed him has escaped her captors. Now Strazdas holds the Loyalists responsible and won't let up until everyone involved has paid. A bloody gang war erupts across the city. Meanwhile, somewhere in Belfast, Galya, the Ukrainian girl, is running for her life, alone and scared, clinging to the darkest corners as the frozen streets empty for the holiday. Galya's captors told her how the police deal with illegal immigrants, that she is a criminal in a foreign land, and the law will not help her. And now she is also a murderer. She cannot be discovered by anyone, not the cops, not the gang who held her prisoner. There is only one person she can go to: a man she met on her first day as a prostitute, a friend who gave her a crucifix and an address to run to if she ever got away. He'd saved four prostitutes before her, he's told her, and she can be his fifth. But when Galya arrives at the address, she finds something more evil than she had ever imagined.… (more)
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Soon after the brother of a Lithuanian crime boss is found dead, three of his business associates are murdered. Detective Inspector Jack Lennon must work quickly to stop the situation from
Stuart Neville is by far one of the greatest crime fiction writers I have ever read. Starting with “The Ghosts of Belfast” and “Collusion”, Neville continues his Jack Lennon series with this new novel, again set in Belfast. “Stolen Souls” delivers non-stop action from first page to last. In fact, I was lucky to find a good stopping place in the middle so I could get some sleep because once back into it, I was in until the end. Neville’s protagonists are far from perfect. They are deeply flawed and living on the edge. Do these faults make us love them any less? Absolutely not. This is one of Neville’s gifts. We can forgive his heroes anything, because there is always someone out there darker and more evil than they could ever be.
Two other men were in the home with the man killed, Tomas Stazdas. They fear his older brother's wrath so bring Tomas's body to a waterway to dump planning to kill the girl there. However, Gayla is resourceful and escapes.
Arturas Stazdas wants revenge, not only against Gayla but against the two men who would have just dumped his brother's body.
Meanwhile, a man named Billy Crawford had befriended Gayla posing as a customer. He told her that if she escaped her captors, he would help.
Gayla calls him and he brings her to his home, telling her he's a Baptist minister without a Church and tries to save young girls who haven't lost their souls.
Investigating the case in Det. Inspector Jack Lennon. Soon after taking the case, he learns that there have been more murders.
The author writes in a style reminiscent of fellow Irishman, John Connolly. In Connolly's "Every Dead Thing," revenge is the center of the story as the protagonist searches for the person responsible for killing his daughter. In this novel, revenge is also a pivotal element.
Not for the squeamish, this is a story with such suspense that the reader needs a break to catch their breath. I enjoyed the novel and feel that it places the author in a high standard as a master story teller.
Okay... maybe this story isn't really more realistic, it is just that there is no 'super hero' character in this one. The bad guys are pretty far-fetched, but the basic premise is believable. It seems as though the author wants us to like Jack more by trying to make him seem more human here (i.e. he contemplates the moral repercussions of his prostitute visits)... but I think Neville should just stick to writing engaging violent thrillers and give up trying to write 'sappy'. We like these novels because they are dark and to the point, not because we want to know if the main character has an emotional epiphany.
Like the earlier novels, it is set in Ireland, but this time there is no reference to the political turmoil that country has undergone. I think this improves the thriller component of the novel since we North Americans don't have to figure out if the tension is based on religion or politics that are foreign.
It is violent, but not gory, and the underlying theme is dark and unpleasant. There is no sex, and there is some foul language, but it was not excessive. I will read more by this author, and more books about Jack Lennon.
Detective Inspector Lennon, the star of the series, just doesn't get
Neville's books are well done and he clearly knows police procedures. Dialogue is usually solid and the stories are realistic. I like the setting in Northern Ireland- it's a place with a history of violence, it's 'Irish' yet is part of Great Britain, and it's a big city (for over there, anyway) with big city problems.
Stolen Souls begins with a young lady from Eastern Europe, who'd been 'tricked' into entering the sex-slave trade, killing one of her captors, escaping on foot, and then crossing paths with Belfast's very first serial killer. The dead guy's family is unhappy with his demise and begin an all-out effort to locate the young lady, while the serial killer begins his preparations for what sounds like a really nasty end for his victim. Lennon catches the case, and the remainder of the novel takes us through his efforts to connect the dots. The conclusion is the best part, as a number of aspects of the investigation intersect and it's all wrapped up in a surprising way.
Stolen Souls is a nice addition to a relatively unexciting series. Other readers may find it extremely well done, but for me the main character, although sympathetic, is just a bit too bland.
Basically a spree of murders involving two Lithuanian and two local
Unfortunately, the intricate political landscape of Northern Ireland which dominated his first two thrillers has been relegated to the background, while an old fetish of crime writers (serial killer) has been added to the mix. Both trends take away the unique selling point of Stuart Neville’s thrillers and make him less interesting to read, according to me. Why? Because quirky madmen with serious but rare psychological afflictions on a serial killing spree make thrillers less ‘real’ (at least I can’t identify with such an environment – it simply does not occur in my day to day life). The charged political climate of Belfast and its concomitant family feuds and opportunities for illicit activities provided us with so much insight in his previous two thrillers that this thriller simply disappoints. The intricate political tension has been replaced by a bland atmosphere of ubiquitous violence, drab weather and empty streets in an ugly city. Pity.