Stolen Souls
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Review
This guy can write --James Ellroy
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 Sunday Independent
A brilliant thriller: unbearably tense, stomach-churningly frightening --The Observer --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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 Sunday Independent
A brilliant thriller: unbearably tense, stomach-churningly frightening --The Observer --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Book Description
Another page-turning triumph from the phenomenal crime writer, featuring Detective Inspector Jack Lennon and a new gutsy heroine
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Stuart Neville's first novel The Twelve was excellent, the follow up Collusion pretty good too. STOLEN SOULS is just 'okay'.
Galya Petrova, whose soul might be one of the stolen ones of the title, is a young Ukrainian girl tricked into coming to Belfast for what she had hoped was a better life but ends up as one of the many trafficked prostitutes operated by a Lithuanian gang. One of her first customers seems to want to rescue her, and she goes in search of him after a nightmare event that leaves several of the gang dead - with a surviving gang member hell-bent on finding Galya and killing her. The murders bring Detective Inspector Jack Lennon onto the scene, who for different reasons may be another of the stolen souls. His job is to find the killer or killers and it's not long before he too is trying to find the whereabouts of the missing Ukrainian girl.
Galya finds the man she thought would be her saviour, but he turns out to be a very strange person, arguably the most interesting character in this tale. Unpredictable would be just one of the labels he merits, but one thing is for sure: Galya has jumped from the frying pan into the fire and now she's in greater danger than the situation she had escaped from. The reader knows that Lennon is the only one who can save her on this cold Belfast night on the eve of Christmas, but he has problems of his own to contend with, not least a very dangerous, cold and calculating inside-man in the upper echelons of the Northern Ireland security forces - a man Lennon has crossed paths with before in 'Collusion'. The conclusion is set up in such a way that Lennon has to watch his back from more than one murderous side.
I get the impression that as Stuart Neville's blossoming career develops, he is toning-down the near fantasy elements of his stories (The Twelve was borderline supernatural) and settling into a more police-procedural style, although in this latest story the reader has a view into the lives of everybody involved. The bottom line is that everything that happens in Stolen Souls could happen in real life, so it could be said to be a crime thriller that reflects authentic crimes that we see on the news. If that's the case - which is fair enough - then what we need, to give this story a real edge, is at least one really strong and interesting character, but for me Jack Lennon doesn't fit the bill. He's a cop I only half-cared about, unlike (for example) the likes of Connelly's Bosch, Nesbo's Hole or McDermid's Hill. Lennon's battered soul is quite well described so that the reader has a good understanding of his painful life experiences and the man those experiences have made him, but the finished product is one that's not particularly easy to like. So the irony is that, in a story that needs a front-man with heart and soul to sustain reader interest (and support), the title gives it away; Lennon's soul is barely alive, and while that may be a fair reflection of the demands on the private life of a Belfast detective - i.e. he has almost no private life at all - we as readers are not left with much to get our teeth into, little to root for.
It's a pity because Neville is a good writer who has already demonstrated his talents as a quality story-teller - in his first novel, that is - but Stolen Souls has something missing. Even noir has a soul, but in this case its heart is barely beating.
Galya Petrova, whose soul might be one of the stolen ones of the title, is a young Ukrainian girl tricked into coming to Belfast for what she had hoped was a better life but ends up as one of the many trafficked prostitutes operated by a Lithuanian gang. One of her first customers seems to want to rescue her, and she goes in search of him after a nightmare event that leaves several of the gang dead - with a surviving gang member hell-bent on finding Galya and killing her. The murders bring Detective Inspector Jack Lennon onto the scene, who for different reasons may be another of the stolen souls. His job is to find the killer or killers and it's not long before he too is trying to find the whereabouts of the missing Ukrainian girl.
Galya finds the man she thought would be her saviour, but he turns out to be a very strange person, arguably the most interesting character in this tale. Unpredictable would be just one of the labels he merits, but one thing is for sure: Galya has jumped from the frying pan into the fire and now she's in greater danger than the situation she had escaped from. The reader knows that Lennon is the only one who can save her on this cold Belfast night on the eve of Christmas, but he has problems of his own to contend with, not least a very dangerous, cold and calculating inside-man in the upper echelons of the Northern Ireland security forces - a man Lennon has crossed paths with before in 'Collusion'. The conclusion is set up in such a way that Lennon has to watch his back from more than one murderous side.
I get the impression that as Stuart Neville's blossoming career develops, he is toning-down the near fantasy elements of his stories (The Twelve was borderline supernatural) and settling into a more police-procedural style, although in this latest story the reader has a view into the lives of everybody involved. The bottom line is that everything that happens in Stolen Souls could happen in real life, so it could be said to be a crime thriller that reflects authentic crimes that we see on the news. If that's the case - which is fair enough - then what we need, to give this story a real edge, is at least one really strong and interesting character, but for me Jack Lennon doesn't fit the bill. He's a cop I only half-cared about, unlike (for example) the likes of Connelly's Bosch, Nesbo's Hole or McDermid's Hill. Lennon's battered soul is quite well described so that the reader has a good understanding of his painful life experiences and the man those experiences have made him, but the finished product is one that's not particularly easy to like. So the irony is that, in a story that needs a front-man with heart and soul to sustain reader interest (and support), the title gives it away; Lennon's soul is barely alive, and while that may be a fair reflection of the demands on the private life of a Belfast detective - i.e. he has almost no private life at all - we as readers are not left with much to get our teeth into, little to root for.
It's a pity because Neville is a good writer who has already demonstrated his talents as a quality story-teller - in his first novel, that is - but Stolen Souls has something missing. Even noir has a soul, but in this case its heart is barely beating.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I know this is a bit of a cliche, but I found it difficult to put this book down once I had got a few chapters into it.
The story concerns a young eastern-European woman who has been trafficked into prostitution in Belfast. She escapes and kills one of her "owners", triggering a sequence of events that leaves others dead.
The story follows a number of threads:
- the "Mr Big" who sends his henchman to mete out revenge;
- the police officer who is investigating the killings;
- the young woman on the run.
The book is written in fairly short chapters which switch between these threads, so you always want to read more to return to each thread, to find out what happened next.
Although the story is set in Belfast it really could be anywhere. Don't expect an insight into the city in the way that the Rebus books dscribe Edinburgh. The fast pace of this book would probably not allow time for asides to do this. This is not a criticism; I am only making this point because some other reviews on here suggest that people who are familiar with Belfast may be drawn to this book for the local interest.
The characters are well developed. I think this is the third book to feature DI Lennon but it is the first I have read and I didn't have any trouble getting to know about him. One criticism is that this book refers back to previous cases, which I suspect were the basis of the earlier books, and the amount of information that was given away would put me off bothering to read the earlier books, as I probably know how they end.
I would recommend this book and despite my previous comment I will check out other work by the same author.
The story concerns a young eastern-European woman who has been trafficked into prostitution in Belfast. She escapes and kills one of her "owners", triggering a sequence of events that leaves others dead.
The story follows a number of threads:
- the "Mr Big" who sends his henchman to mete out revenge;
- the police officer who is investigating the killings;
- the young woman on the run.
The book is written in fairly short chapters which switch between these threads, so you always want to read more to return to each thread, to find out what happened next.
Although the story is set in Belfast it really could be anywhere. Don't expect an insight into the city in the way that the Rebus books dscribe Edinburgh. The fast pace of this book would probably not allow time for asides to do this. This is not a criticism; I am only making this point because some other reviews on here suggest that people who are familiar with Belfast may be drawn to this book for the local interest.
The characters are well developed. I think this is the third book to feature DI Lennon but it is the first I have read and I didn't have any trouble getting to know about him. One criticism is that this book refers back to previous cases, which I suspect were the basis of the earlier books, and the amount of information that was given away would put me off bothering to read the earlier books, as I probably know how they end.
I would recommend this book and despite my previous comment I will check out other work by the same author.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Stolen Souls grabs the reader's attention from the word go, and holds it right to the last page. The narrative is focused and the chapters are short, so it is one of those books where you end up reading far more in a sitting than you ever intended and the end comes far too rapidly.
The story is set in Belfast and concerns an illegal worker, Galya Petrova who has been trafficked from the Ukraine to do manual work on a farm and is then introduced into something far worse. She falls foul of some particularly unpleasant and ruthless gangsters and is soon on the run, moving from one calamitous and perilous situation to the next. DI Jack Lennon, who was also in Stuart Neville's previous two novels, gets involved with the case which proves to be very disruptive to his life over the Christmas period.
On the dust cover there is a quote from Lee Child describing the author as an exceptional talent. I think this is entirely appropriate since there was much about the style of Stolen Souls which reminded me of Lee Child's Reacher series, and if you are familiar with those books you will certainly enjoy this.
This is a very well written thriller, and the plot is multi dimensional with constant twists and turns as it develops. The outcome is by no means predictable which keeps the interest alive right to the very end and whilst this is hardly the first tale about an exploited illegal immigrant, an absorbing story has been crafted around the concept. Highly recommended!
The story is set in Belfast and concerns an illegal worker, Galya Petrova who has been trafficked from the Ukraine to do manual work on a farm and is then introduced into something far worse. She falls foul of some particularly unpleasant and ruthless gangsters and is soon on the run, moving from one calamitous and perilous situation to the next. DI Jack Lennon, who was also in Stuart Neville's previous two novels, gets involved with the case which proves to be very disruptive to his life over the Christmas period.
On the dust cover there is a quote from Lee Child describing the author as an exceptional talent. I think this is entirely appropriate since there was much about the style of Stolen Souls which reminded me of Lee Child's Reacher series, and if you are familiar with those books you will certainly enjoy this.
This is a very well written thriller, and the plot is multi dimensional with constant twists and turns as it develops. The outcome is by no means predictable which keeps the interest alive right to the very end and whilst this is hardly the first tale about an exploited illegal immigrant, an absorbing story has been crafted around the concept. Highly recommended!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brutal storytelling
Like some other reviewers here, I enjoyed Stuart Neville's debut "The Twelve", but wasn't so impressed with this one. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Jl Adcock
Diminishing Returns
I'm a big Stuart Neville fan. I've enjoyed his previous two books (particularly "The Twelve" with it's supernatural/psychological elements) greatly and find he captures Belfast... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. D. J. Brindle
Becomes silly
Stolen Souls starts well.
Belfast has moved on from the Troubles. The old paramilitary thugs are still around, mostly at a loose end, but their leaders have long since... Read more
Belfast has moved on from the Troubles. The old paramilitary thugs are still around, mostly at a loose end, but their leaders have long since... Read more
Published 2 months ago by MisterHobgoblin
A good 3rd episode!
This is about people trafficking into prostitution in Belfast. It centres on what happens when a girl escapes and the effects of this on other characters we meeting throughout the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by A. Douglas
Neville is shaping up as an excellent writer of crime thrillers
I reviewed Stuart Neville's bravura debut `The Twelve' at the time of publication and thought it was fairly astonishing from a first time novelist. Read more
Published 2 months ago by G. J. Oxley
Up to the minute thriller
This is the second book I have read that features Jack Lennon as the main protagionist, and while I have really quite enjoyed it I felt that it didn't have the same depth as the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kevin McIlroy
Christmas In Belfast
Stuart Neville has written another great thriller with Stolen Souls following the success of his previous two books The Twelve and Collusion. Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. Brothwood
Blistering thriller
This is a blisteringly paced thriller set in Belfast (the second I've read in as many weeks!) that features Eastern European sex traffickers, gangsters and a psychotic religious... Read more
Published 3 months ago by AR
Not convincing but will appeal to some.
This is the third of Inspector Lennon's books howeverm this could be read out of series as a stand alone. Read more
Published 3 months ago by rhosymynydd
A good police thriller
I enjoyed this book. It is the first of Stuart Neville's I have read and although there are references to what has gone before in Inspector Jack Lennon's history, it isn't... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Sid Nuncius
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