Stuart Neville Books In Order

Publication Order of Jack Lennon Books

Publication Order of DCI Serena Flanagan Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Stuart Neville was a fan and customer of the No Alibi bookstore situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland before he became a writer. And now he holds his own book launch parties there. How times change! Born in 1972, Stuart Neville lives in a small town with his family, and not in Belfast, the city that plays a central role in his thrillers, but just outside it. He was a rock guitarist before he decided to become a writer. But when you look at him, he looks more like the guitarist he used to be than the author he is now. And that’s not it, he used to be a composer, a teacher, a salesman, a film extra, a baker and a hand double for a well-known Irish comedian, and is currently, along with being a writer, a partner in a successful multimedia design business in the wilds of Northern Ireland. Stuart Neville has been extremely versatile in his profession and interests, as is evident.

His writing career sprang from the publication of a short story in an online magazine. All that Stuart Neville expected in return for writing the short story was a T-shirt. Shortly after it was published, however, he received an email from a man by the name of Nat Sobel, a renowned New York literary agent. And Sobel told the writer that he wanted to see a novel.

Stuart Neville’s debut novel – The Twelve, popularly known as ‘The Ghosts of Belfast’ in America, garnered critical attention and acclaim soon after release. It was extensively reviewed in national newspapers and received the thumbs up by the industry giants like Jeff Abbot ,John Connolly,and Ken Bruen. The greatest compliment, however, for Stuart Neville came from his favorite writer, James Ellroy. He praised Stuart Neville’s work calling it the best novel he had read in years. The novel crackles and grips you by the throat. It is a flat-out terror trip. These were some of the best compliments Stuart Neville had ever received. Stuart Neville even got to meet the mighty Ellroy and interview him live on stage at the Waterfront Hall, which was an event organized by David Torrans of the No Alibis bookstore in Belfast.

In his impressively gripping debut novels -The Ghosts of Belfast or The Twelve, Gerry Fegan, based on a real-life IRA killer in Belfast, is living a miserable life after serving a prison sentence for terrorist murders. Released as part of the Northern Ireland peace process, against The Troubles, he’s ravaged by guilt and haunted by the people he killed, spending most of his time in a drunken stupor. The only solution that occurs to his tortured mind in order to get any rest is to do what the ghosts are telling him and kill the people who helped him to murder them. This book tells the story of how Fegan embarks on his self-appointed grim task. The best parts of the book concern the transition from a region in which criminal activity was passed off as an acceptable part of a fight for freedom, to one in which those same criminals have had to find a niche in a post-conflict Northern Ireland. Some of them go mainstream and become politicians and the like. Others pretty much carry on as before with the same brutal behavior, while others drift around without a clear role for themselves, and no skills to take part in constructing a future. There is a moral clarity to Stuart Neville’s writing about these aspects, which is appreciated and liked very much.

His debut novels, The Ghosts-of-Belfast or The Twelve won in the thriller category in the Los Angeles Times Book-prize and was selected as one among the top novels on crime by both The L.A Times and The N.Y Times. He has also been short-listed for various other awards, including the, Macavity, Barry, Dilys awards, including the Irish Book-awards Crime Novel of the Year.

The Twelve’ was literary gold for Stuart Neville and he was afraid that he would not have been able to produce another novel that would receive the same amount of recognition and success, which is why he felt a huge amount of pressure in writing the second novel, Collusion.

In his book, Collusion, Fegan, who fled to New York, made a fatal mistake by sparing the life of Bull O’Kane, a ruthless criminal who will stop at nothing to get his revenge. He wants Fegan dead, and he also wants the handful of witnesses who survived the bloody shootout and his humiliation at his border farmhouse silenced. The man he picks for the job is a stone-cold killer called the Traveller. But the Traveller isn’t the only one hunting for Fegan and the witnesses. Detective inspector Jack Lennon is also desperate to find his six-year-old daughter and her mother, Maria McKenna, both of whom were at the farmhouse that night and are under police protection. Bull O’Kane, now an invalid, has corrupt friends in high places and Lennon finds himself instructed by his superiors to back off as the Traveller goes about his deadly and bloody business. While in New York, Gerry Fegan realizes he will have to return to Belfast if he wishes to protect Maria and her daughter. This decision sets all three men on an inescapable collision course and a violent and tragic denouement.

Stuart Neville’s first 4 novels have all been long-listed for the Theakstonns Old Peculiar Crime-novel of the Year, and his novel Ratlines’ was short-listed for the C.W.A Ian Flemming Steel Dagger. His novels have since been translated into many languages,including Japanese, German, Polish,Greek Swedish and many more. The French-edition of The Twelve or The Ghosts-of-Belfast- Les Fantômes-de Belfast, won L- Prix Mystère de-la Critique du Meilleur Roman Étranger and The Grand Prix du Roman Noir Étranger.

Stuart Neville’s novel known as Ratlines, about Nazis harbored the state of Ireland following WWII was developed for television. Stuart Neville did not just handle writing duties, but also acted as an executive producer for the Irish series.

Stuart Neville believes that success is very short-lived. The more critical things stick with you as time goes by. And he also believes that this rule applies to writers and creative people, in general, who are always looking to improve. Because they want what they are doing now to be better than the last thing they did.