The Final Silence - Hardcover

Praise for The Final Silence

Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel

December 2014 Indie Next List

"Never forgets the human heart that beats inside the bleakest darkness."
--Val McDermid

"Like dispatches from a war zone--terse prose, dark thoughts, raw feelings . . . A more formal mystery than Neville's previous ones, its characters remain possessed by Belfast's old, familiar ghosts."
--The New York Times Book Review

"The critics are already calling Stuart Neville 'the king of neo-noir' and the shoe fits. If you loved Ratlines (and I did), you will adore The Final Silence, set again in Belfast with a plot so strange, tight and compelling, you won't be able to put the book down."
--The Globe and Mail

"Excellent . . . Neville has no end of tricks up his sleeve."
--Toronto Star

"Deftly plotted, fast paced and the denouement packs a real punch."
--The Guardian

"A great thriller . . . [Neville] has created a strange and fresh story that will have readers perched on the edge of their seats."
--Suspense Magazine

"Uncompromisingly noir accounts of a city where the legacy of The Troubles refuses to go away."
--Reviewing the Evidence

"Classic noir."
--Deadly Diversions

"Superlative . . . A pulse-pounding crime novel from a master of the genre."
--Booklist, Starred Review

"This is the fourth Lennon tale with the shadow of Northern Ireland's past bloody sectarian violence, the Troubles, still hanging over all . . . Alternating points of view reveal the horrifying mind of the killer as well as the hate and suspicion that remain years after peace has been declared . . . [A] highly regarded series."
--Library Journal

"Gripping from start to finish . . . Neville's economical yet nuanced prose style drives the plot forward at breakneck speed while building complex characters with the deftness that defines a thriller writer at the top of his game."
--Irish Independent

"[Nevillle's] novels tend to revolve around contemporary crimes that have their roots buried deep in Northern Ireland's Troubles. The Final Silence is no exception, its succinct and pacy storytelling stretched taut across a morass of unresolved tensions and motives for murder that don't necessarily fit the prevailing post-peace process narrative."
--Declan Burke, The Irish Times

"Crisply written and fast-moving, the novel has a brutal honesty that confirms Neville's place in the first division of crime writers."
--The Spectator (UK)

"Neville's brutal plotting and ability to ratchet up the tension in almost every scene keep the pages turning until the chilling conclusion. A masterclass in the psycho-thriller genre."
--The Herald Scotland

"Engrossing . . . the action builds to a chilling conclusion."
--Publishers Weekly

"Neville's gritty tale sets a man barely holding on to his personal worth loose in a city still recovering from the Troubles."
--Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Stuart Neville

"Neville's novel is a coldly lucid assessment of the fragility of the Irish peace . . . a rare example of legitimate noir fiction."
--The New York Times Book Review

"An exceptional talent. Crime fiction doesn't get much better."
--Lee Child

"The current master of neo-noir detective fiction."
--Boston Globe

"Stuart Neville belongs to a younger generation of writers for whom the region's darkest years are history--but that history endures."
--Washington Post

"Neville's tightly wound, emotionally resonant account of an ex-IRA hit man's struggle to conquer his past displays an acute understanding of the true state of Northern Ireland."
--Los Angeles Times

"Complex fiction with a disturbing ring of truth."
--Financial Times

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, memories of the city’s troubled history haunt every street corner, but for one tortured soul, the incredible violence in his past is also his most cherished legacy.
 
Rea Carlisle, daughter of influential Northern Irish politician Graham Carlisle, has inherited a house from an uncle she never knew. It doesn’t take her long to clear out the dead man’s possessions, but when Rea forces open a locked room, she finds a leather-bound book. Tucked in its pages are fingernails and locks of hair: a catalog of victims.

Horrified, Rea wants to go straight to the police, but her father intervenes—he’s worked too hard to have his brother’s twisted legacy ruin his promising political career. Thwarted by her father, Rea turns to the only person she can think of: disgraced police inspector Jack Lennon.

Meanwhile, Lennon finds himself the lead suspect in a murder investigation led by one of the force’s toughest cops, DCI Serena Flanagan. His implication in the murder, coupled with the story Rea has brought to him, leaves Lennon more than slightly suspicious that the two are part of a grisly conspiracy.