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The past seven years have witnessed the emergence of yet another outstanding crime writer from Ireland. Stuart Neville writes evocatively and eloquently and with that singular sense of bleakness that readers have come to expect from the Emerald Isle. He builds stories that are both convincing and compelling, and if you haven’t got round to reading him yet, you’re in for a treat.
Walking along a towpath on the outskirts of Belfast, Raymond Drew ends his life in the canal, leaving his Belfast home to his niece Rea Carlisle, daughter of Graham Carlisle, an Irish politician on the rise. Visiting the house for the first time in nearly thirty years, she makes her way upstairs. There, in a sparsely-furnished attic room she discovers an oversized, leather-bound book. Its secrets stretch back decades, but have not lost their impact. If revealed they will jeopardise if not end her father's burgeoning political career. She asks a friend, police inspector Jack Lennon, for help; five years earlier they'd been on the brink of a relationship that he had ended.
Rea is unaware that Lennon is facing his own problems: he's being investigated as the lead suspect in a murder case. He'd shot and killed a fellow police officer. The man had been bent, paid ten thousand pounds to kill a sex worker, a young woman whose knowledge threatened a local killer. Lennon had taken three bullets himself before killing her assailant, but the woman had lived. He'd spent a year in hospital recovering from his wounds, and still walked with a limp.
Lennon's home life is scarcely better. Following his wife's death he'd wrestled with her family for the affections of his young daughter, Ellen. The McKennas had been involved in the underworld, and viewed their daughter's marriage to a copper an unforgiveable act of betrayal. Adding to the mix, they're Catholic, and want to have Ellen confirmed in the Church. Lennon is a Protestant, and a lax one at that. Since the shooting he and Ellen had moved in with another woman, Susan, and her daughter, Lucy, as they attempted to forge some sort of a viable relationship out of the bits and pieces of his broken life.
Lennon suspects DCI Dan Hewitt was behind his shooting, and he has a file on the senior officer, trying to piece together the evidence of misconduct that will take him down. But Lennon's obsession with Hewitt has taken its toll on his relationship with Susan, adding yet another layer of stress to his already fragmented life.
Lennon thinks he's seen it all. But years of police work have hardly prepared him to fight a three-front war, saving his career, keeping his daughter from the clutches of a conniving family of hoodlums, and trolling for evidence of grisly crimes committed in the distant past that threaten the comfortable lives of powerful people today. Then he comes face-to-face with a cold-blooded killer who has absolutely nothing to lose.
It speaks to the strength of Neville's writing that his debut novel, THE TWELVE(THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST in the US), was nominated for an Anthony Award for Best First novel of 2010. Shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Best Novel of 2014, THE FINAL SILENCE is Stuart Neville's fifth crime novel since 2009, and his fourth in the Jack Lennon series. It is classic noir, made all the more credible by its Irish setting. Neville has a keen eye for suspense, and skillfully shifts from one viewpoint to another in this layered tale. The characters are all-too-believable, the dialogue perfectly suited to each, the emotions nuanced, the ending a twist that readers won't see coming. One of the strongest novels I've come across in a very long time.
§ Since 2005 Jim Napier's reviews and interviews have appeared in several Canadian newspapers and on various crime fiction and literary websites, including his own award-winning site, Deadly Diversions. He can be reached at jnapier@deadlydiversions.com
Reviewed by Jim Napier, March 2015
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