Bleak in Belfast

Stolen Souls is the third installment of the Detective Inspector Jack Lennon series. The white slave trade moves easily around  the EU and in this installment Ukranian girls, & Lithuanian ganngsters blend right in with Irish thugs. Neville is not for the light- hearted, but he does what good authors do- makes you feel like you're there.

I'm about 2/3 through so if you comment , don't spoil the ending.

The story of his tenuous relationship with his young daughter. He wasn't a part of her life in her first six years (book1 Belfast Ghosts) and she's scarred from a kidnapping that also led to the death of her mother in book 2 (Collusion). Lennon is trying to raise her while fending of the mother's side of the family. His side of the family doesn't want anything to do with him since he's a Catholic who joined the PSNI (police).

Jack is now pursuing a Baptist minister who offers runaway prostitutes sanctuary in order to kill them.

Jack's need to visit brothels  presents an interesting moral quandary.

Minor, but believable, plot twists occur at the end. Dan Hewitt, a superior in another Dept. will remain a thorn in his side

If I ever visit the Republic of Ireland should I roll the dice and cross the border, into Northern Ireland.

More later

03/10/13:  

Jack managed to save the Ukranian white slave trade victim but that is rarely the case. In Helsinki White, a James Thompson novel about Finnish cops, Inspector Vaara's crew rescues Estonian hookers from their pimps and ships them home. where they're  beaten and killed when  Estonian thugs find out about the Fin pimps. Brutal world.

5/31/13: 

I wonder how mixed (Prots & Caths) the police service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is today.

7/24/13: 

I wonder how the "royal baby"  excess is going over in some segments of the Catholic popilation in NI.

8/12/13- 

Neville's latest book Ratlines , about Nazis in the Republic of Ireland  in the 1950's and 60's  starts out with promise. It's noteworthy that folks in the R of I refer toWW2 as the EMERGENCY. R of I was neutral during WW2.

8/15/13-

  Plenty of twists  and not a typical finish in Ratlines. The stories of how so many Nazis landed safe and wealthy  in many places is well documented but still disturbs.

9/26/13

James Thompson's follow up to Helsinki White, Helsinki Blood,  may be more violent. The white slave trade is again a major theme. Inspector Vaara is literally on his last knee.

2/18/14

Shifting  further into Scandinavia. I started in the middle of the Erlander series with Arctic chill by Arnaldur Indridason.

2/23/13

Cold titles fit Indridason scenery. Hypothermia  gives answers but not everyone goes to jail. Erlander's resolve moves these tales. Chilling people to death then reviving them ... sometimnes.

4/24/14

Outrage  took Erlander into more gruesome turf but was decent. I notice it was panned but it was worth reading.

7/4/15

 James Thompson,  went out for a walk on Aug 7. 2014 and died. Cause of death : accident, drowning ? who knows? Mystery writer's cause of death remains a mystery. If anyone has a link to more details, feel free to post it here.

8/15/15

A quote from Stuart neville on some Irish "bad guys"

“... but they could barely organize a round of beers.” ― Stuart Neville, The Ghosts of Belfast

8/24/15

Neville's latest, The Final Silence, is another reminder , that one joins a gang for life. In this novel it was  Prots (UVF)

3/25/16

Thought this fit the blog title: mtv

Belfast City Council is proposing to use up to £300,000 of ratepayers' cash to bring a star-studded MTV concert to Belfast

9/4/16

Stuart Neville's latest,Those we left behind, featuring Detective Serena Flanagan, reiterated a  growing theme. IRA & UVF get along when extrorting money for allowing business to work on certain Belfast turfs.  Then they return to their respective corners
Stuart neville on some Irish "bad guys"

2/17/18:

 a #stuartneville quote about Irish bad guys could be applied to the #FBI : “... but they could barely organize a round of beers.”

10/14/18

Have I told you lately that I favor male writers when it comes the the detective and or mystery genre? One exception has been #tanafrench, a Dubliner born in Vermont, who keeps the reader engaged and wanting more. Her latest  "The Witch Elm" is more of a mystery and less of a police detective mystery and worth the read. I'm about 3/4 through and not near a guess at the culprit (s).
One theme that re-appears in most of her books is that the teen years ain't always the glory days.

10/26/19 

 "I crave truth. And I lie. ”  a line from a character:  In the Woods by #tanafrench 

10/31/20

 #tanafrench Her latest, The Searcher, is a solid story about an ex cop from Chicago, who moves to a small town in Ireland seeking tranquility and change and gets involved in a missing persons case.