Revisiting Stuart Neville’s debut
THERE are debut novels that announce the arrival of future literary gurus, then there are those that explode and send the writers shooting straight for the stars.
Irish writer, Stuart Neville struck the right chords with his first “The Twelve”, a fast paced, action packed thriller that established him as a force to reckon with in the literary world.
Published in 2009 by Vintage Books, this piece of fiction is a masterpiece, the writer weaves his story with finesse.
The protagonist, Gerry Fegan, is haunted by 12 ghosts from his past, people he killed while he was still a hit man. He has taken to the drink as a solution to his problem but the only way out of his predicament is to kill the people responsible for engineering the deaths of the trou- blesome “twelve”.
“Maybe if he had one more drink they’d leave him alone. Gerry Fegan told himself that lie before every swallow.”
The realisation that the only way to get rid of the ghosts is to punish the people who used him to carry out these assassinations sets him on a path of violent retribution.
His killing spree is threatening the political stability that is still in its early stages and some members in the top brass and criminals alike want him stopped.
From shooting them at point blank to smashing their heads with bricks, Fegan’s victims meet their maker in various ways. This book is alive, thanks to Neville’s storytelling abilities enabling him to paint vivid images in text, expertly describing every scenario in a captivating manner.
It is ironic that Fegan is now getting orders from the people he was ordered to kill, with each ghost marking their target.
The first to hit the dirt, Michael McKenna, had been responsible for the death of a young boy whom he had clobbered with a claw hammer 20 years earlier before ordering Fegan to finish the job with a pistol.
After he takes care of the criminal- come-politician with a bullet to the heart, the boy’s ghost vanishes, sparking the beginning of an exhilarating quest to get rid of the other eleven.
“The followers emerged from the dark places and jostled for position around the open door, glancing from Fegan to the body, from the body to Fegan. He studied each of them in turn, his eyes moving from one to the next. He counted them as they retreated to the shadows. The boy wasn’t among them. One down. Eleven to go.”
This paragraph on its own raised my expectation while I was reading the book as many questions started flooding my head.
The prospect of more assassinations and trying to figure out who the next target is keeps the reader turning the pages. Neville set himself within the big leagues with this book, displaying vast knowledge of Irish politics and criminal activities.
While the protagonist is a killer, the reader is forced to sympathise with him since the people being killed this time around are paying for their sins. There are several characters in the book that give it an extra edge, adding more explosive action and brilliant dialogues.
There is Campbell, a double agent whose existence in the book adds more action as he is in the mix in various gruesome violent scenarios. Marie McKenna and her daughter provide Fegan with an opportunity for redemption as he sets out to protect them from harm at all cost.
This book is thrilling in every sense, with twists and turns that make it hard to put down. Neville has since written more novels that include “Collusion”, “Stolen Souls”, “The Final Silence” and “Those We Left Behind” among others.