Rating: 4/5
Review:
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 necessary to have read the previous two.
It's a good story involving Eastern European gangs and people smuggling and an unexpected plot generated from this which I won't spoil. Neville creates very believable characters, he paces his story well and the dialogue in particular is excellently done. He generates a very powerful sense of place - the place being mainly the seedier bits of Belfast - and I found the whole thing very readable and involving.
There were some flaws. I do wonder why it is considered necessary for every fictional policeman or woman to have an Incredibly Complicated Personal Life and I did get a bit fed up with the rather cliché-ed tension over whether he would keep his promises to get home to his daughter. I could also have done without a paranormal element in which his young daughter dreams about details of a case she knew nothing about, although luckily this didn't feature very large, and *two* arch-enemies for one policeman seems a little over the top. I didn't find the irritations too intrusive, though and, to his credit, Neville managed to subvert my expectations several times and I enjoyed being genuinely surprised.
So, this is a very decent, well written book with a good plot and well-developed characters. For some reason I can't quite put my finger on it reminded me slightly of the Rebus series, which is a very good thing, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a gritty, thoughtful police-based thriller.
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