Customer Reviews

Stolen Souls: A Jack Lennon Investigation Set in Northern Ireland

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Set in Belfast, a young woman from Lithuania named Gayla, is coerced into coming to Ireland for a chance at a better life. She thinks she'll be in a good home working as a nanny. Instead, she's sent to do hard labor at a farm and then sold into prostitution. When the people who run the group attempt to force her into prostitution and one of them is attempting to rape her, she manages to kill him in self defense.

Two men were in the home with the murdered man, Tomas Stazdas. They fear Tomas's brother so try to dump Tomas's body into a waterway, planning to drown Gayla there too. Gayla is a fighter and when the men aren't paying attention, she escapes.

Tomas's brother, Arturas is a sadistic gangster. When he informs his mother, in Lithuania about her youngest son, she demands that he kill any one associated with her son's death.

Gayla remembers a man who said he'd help her if she ever got away from her house of prostitution. She calls him and he meets and brings her to his home. He tells her that he is a Baptist minister but without a church.

Investigating the case is Det. Inspector Jack Lennon. Soon after being assigned to the case, he learns that there have been additional murders.

The author writes in a style reminiscent of fellow Irishman, John Connolly. In Connolly's "Every Dead Thing," revenge is the center of the novel as the protagonist searches for the killer of his child. In "Stolen Souls" revenge is also central to the story with Arturas's demand for revenge at all costs.

Stuart Neville uses description well and when things turn against Gayla again and again, we can almost feel as though we are in her shoes wondering if there is any reason to expect help.

Not for the squeamish, this is a story that is so dramatic that there are times when the reader needs a break from the action. I enjoyed the novel and feel that it demonstrates that the author is a master storyteller.

"Stolen Souls" by Stuart Neville follows Galya Petrova, a Ukrainian teenager brought to Belfast, Ireland under false pretenses and made to work as a call girl after working on a mushroom farm, as she murders her very first client--Tomas Strazdas, the brother of the man who runs the whole ring--and escapes from the two thugs assigned to guard her, before getting herself into yet more trouble.

Parallel to Galya's escape, we follow the story of Detective Inspector Jack Lennon, as he is assigned to investigate the murder of Tomas and the two thugs who chased after Galya, while living with his own demons. Lennon's wife Marie was killed in a house fire, and he is a single dad to little Ellen. As Lennon tries to solve Galya's case, he develops an interesting relationship with his neighbor Susan, though he hesitates to make it romantic.

Meanwhile, Galya contacts a man who claims he can help her--a mysterious man who calls himself Billy Crawford. As he drives Galya to his house, Galya starts to question herself for trusting him. Before long, she finds herself in an impossible situation.

My thoughts: Neville is an Irish author, and the writing reflects that. You feel like you're in Ireland. Jack Lennon, the lead character (alongside Galya), is a very multi-layered character. He is against human trafficking, yet had experience with call girls himself. He is lonely after becoming a widower, yet refuses the company offered to him by a woman who he admires. He wants to be a good father, yet frequently puts his safety on the line. Galya, the other lead character, is young, yet--considering her life experience--interestingly naïve. She listens to a man who lies--promising to hire her as a family nanny to teach English to little kids--only to wind up as a call girl. She barely escapes, only to fling herself into the arms of yet another man--one whom she knows equally little of--and proceeds to trust yet again. Between the two lead characters--each with his own faults--Neville plots an elaborate tale of lies, betrayal, and murder.

Stuart Neville's "Stolen Souls" is a real page turner. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland during Christmas season, it opens with a young Ukranian woman, Galya, covered in the blood of a man whom she is killing by twisting a makeshift dagger deeper into his throat. Terrified and revolted, Galya is defending herself from the rape and beating that the man intended to give her to "break her in" as a sex slave prostitute. But she knows her act will probably cause her own swift death.

The dying man is Tomas Strazdas, the younger spoiled brother of Arturas Strazdas, who runs the slave ring that brought Galya to Northern Ireland by promising a good job in Western Europe and fronting her expenses to get there. But when she and other newbies arrived, owing huge amounts to their "benefactors," they found themselves at best forced to work in back-breaking and unsafe jobs to work off their supposed debts.

Those who, like Galya, are young and attractive have a worse fate. They are brutally physically coerced into the sexual service industry. Those who will not break and cooperate are killed. Galya's problem is immediate because Arturas makes sure that Tomas, who is stupid and impulsive, never goes anywhere without minders, two of whom are on the other side of the room door that Tomas had locked. They are becoming alarmed at the noises that they are hearing and Tomas' failure to answer their calls. They soon break in and discover the room's secret.

Arturas will blame the minders for letting Tomas be killed by a prostitute and will certainly kill them. They must cover up: Dump the body; Kill the girl; Invent a story. But their plan soon goes awry and Galya manages to escape. She accepts help from a guy whom she met briefly and who offered her help if she could get away. This exposes her to greater danger.

These events enmesh Detective Inspector (DI) Jack Lennon, who is unexpectedly called in over Christmas. Soon both Arturas' people and Jack are searching for the girl. The plot is well planned and believable, and the action is unceasing. Neville is a fluid writer and he paces the story beautifully, making the reader care about Jack's crumpled personal life and Galya's fate as well as about other characters (such as Jack's long suffering girl friend). The story gallops to an eerie and deliberately untidy climax which, just as in reality, does not pack up everything in a pretty package. Jack has no idea whether he can trust anyone as he puts his life on the line for a girl he does not know and will never see again.

This is an excellent thriller, extremely well-written. Unlike lesser efforts, there is no certainty of a happy ending for anyone, including Jack, and the sense of peril is strong. Readers should be warned, however, that the atmosphere of the book is dark throughout and the violence portrayed is sometimes extreme.

Stuart Neville has written two brilliant novels set in contemporary Northern Ireland. The first, Ghosts of Belfast, focused on an IRA assassin who out of prison wants no further death or violence. He is haunted by the ghosts of his victims (or his own conscience), who urge him to kill his IRA masters. He is effective and the result in Collusion is a blood-bath and the assassin's death. He encounters an honest lapsed Catholic cop, Jack Lennon, who has been included in the new "merged" police force which replaced the RUC, a loyalist organization with numerous links to the Protestant thugs. Lennon uncovers a pair of nasty Lithuanian pimps who run afoul of Gayla, a strong young woman who does not wish to be turned into a whore. Gayla ends up with a real psychopath, but Lennon rescues her. The point of this is that it is helpful to read the first two novels, but this one stands on its own, although not as haunting and powerful as the Ghosts of Belfast. The author makes clear the extent to which the British government was willing to collude with the criminals responsible for the violence to preserve the peace accord of 1998. Ireland's prosperity was short lived, and in the present real estate and banking collapse, unemployment, endemic during the Troubles, is again in double digits. I am not any more optimistic about Ireland's future than is Neville. This is strong stuff.

You'd think that Northern Ireland had enough troubles without importing them but that's exactly what happens in this fast paced, action packed thriller. Lithuanian gangster, Arturas Strazdas, has set up a scheme to con young Eastern European girls into coming to Ireland for high paying jobs such as nannies but are actually turned into slave call girls. One of the girls, Galya, has some gumption and murders Strazdas' brother and escapes. Unfortunately, her "savior" puts her into an even scarier position. Meanwhile Detective Inspector Jack Lennon, working on Christmas Eve due to a vengeful co-worker, is working frantically to save her.

This is my first Stuart Neville book and I am going back to read his other ones. I was that impressed. It was interesting to read how Ireland's immigration of Eastern Europeans is impacting lives. I found it fascinating to read about other countries struggle with immigration issues. I also find it interesting to

read about other people's law enforcement. It's remarkably similar to ours and yet so different. Neville's writing reminds me of Robert Parker's. Short chapters, sparse and clean writing and full of nonstop action.

I couldn't put this down and wanted to see what would happen next. There was a lot of things that happened that were completely unexpected by me. That's a compliment. I highly recommend this book.

I discovered Stuart Neville by accident.

I was meandering in a local bookstore and came across his first book. I thought it was good and yet slow. I had his second book on my to read list and when the opportunity to read this one came up I jumped at it.

I read the book in one day.

A lot of the negative reviews seem to dislike the main character, which I can understand but I like the craft of this book. The author builds characters that the reader cares about. There are very few characters in the book that a reader can remain neutral over. Even the crabby relative who only seems to play a minor role evokes visceral reactions.

This is Neville's gift.

The scenes are gritty and leave a taste in your mouth that can't be denied. This book won't stand on same shelf with literary greats from past centuries but for a brief respite of entertainment it will do just fine. This fast paced action drama delivers on a believable and well crafted plot.

A really gritty crime story set in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Financially strapped girls in eastern Europe are approached by seemingly nice, educated people with job offers in western Europe which pay very well and will allow them to send money home to help their families get out of debt.

The nice office job, or retail sales or teaching jobs never happen and the girls find themselves enslaved in sweat shops or brothels.

This is the story of one of those girls. She is one singled minded lady who wrecks havoc upon her criminal bosses. The criminals are not so smart, but they make up for it by being vicious and sadistic. There is a lot of very explicit violence in this book, but I found it to be a fascinating read.

Galya Petrova, a beautiful, young Ukrainian woman, is a victim of human trafficking. She is imprisoned within a Belfast brothel. Galya escapes after killing a worthless, bullying loser, Tomas Strazdas, who tried to rape her. Unfortunately, he's the brother of a wealthy mobster, Arturas Strazdas, who orders his henchman, Herkus Katilius, to find and kill the young woman. Finding Galya will be difficult because she has once again become a prisoner. This time, a religious fanatic, Billy Crawford, who preys on prostitutes, is holding her captive. Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Jack Lennon follows a bloody trail littered with corpses in hopes that it will lead to Galya.

Stuart Neville's bloody, fast-paced crime drama, "Stolen Souls," begins with a stab to the throat and ends with a shocking act of bloody retribution. Its intriguing, nonstop action and violence moves at a fast clip over a period of a few days, primarily Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The most joyous time of the year becomes the deadliest season for mobsters, corrupt policemen, and a vicious serial killer masquerading as a Baptist minister. In Belfast, emergency sirens drown out the caroling, the red-and-blue flashing lights of police cruisers are reflected in the deep snow, and mangled corpses become gruesome holiday decorations. Initially, Inspector Lennon's biggest concern was whether or not he'd see his daughter Ellen on Christmas Day. Now, his biggest concern is merely staying alive.

Initially, I had my doubts about the success of "Stolen Souls" considering that one of the most interesting characters in the series was killed in its previous novel, "Collusion" (Collusion (Jack Lennon, Book 2)). The strong supernatural element that began with the series' outstanding debut, "The Ghosts of Belfast" (Ghosts of Belfast), has considerably diminished with each novel. The series began with the insane hit man, Gerry Fegan, seeing the ghosts of his victims. Later, he has prophetic visions. Now, Inspector Lennon's six-year-old daughter Ellen draws prophetic sketches. She sees a bad man chasing after a young woman. What makes "Stolen Souls" stand apart from the others is the tremendously dangerous dilemma in which Inspector Lennon finds himself. An atrociously evil mobster, an indestructible hit man, a corrupt police officer, and a deranged serial killer all want him dead for various reasons, but mostly because he is trying to prevent them from killing Galya.

The author doesn't waste the reader's time with boring, unnecessary description or dialogue. However, he brings each character vividly to life by describing sordid details from their pasts. For example, Arturas Strazdas is the evil owner of the European People Management, which supposedly finds migrant workers for companies. However, it is a front for human trafficking, chiefly the trafficking of poor, young European women for prostitution. Arturas sometimes suffers uncontrollable fits of anger during which he strikes himself. Once, a housekeeper merely witnessed one of his fits; he had her murdered and her body forever hidden. His mother, Laima, is equally despicable; she is the one that orders the execution of everyone involved in Tomas's death.

Christians may find the author's choice of a serial killer is highly offensive. Why do many Christian characters have to be depicted as fanatics, hypocrites or worse, serial killers who prey on the helpless? Billy Crawford is supposedly an ordained Baptist pastor who hears God ordering him to "deliver" the prostitutes to Him. Crawford believes he is rescuing them from becoming "Stolen Souls," i.e., emaciated prostitutes who have sex like automatons, without feeling or emotion. At least the author chose a Baptist pastor in lieu of the clichéd Catholic priest. I am a Baptist. Was I offended? Slightly. Mostly I was amused. The overuse of the word "whore" was also humorous. It was like hearing the word "ho" in a rap album over and over again.

Speaking of hypocrites, Inspector Lennon could be classified as one of the "flawed" heroes that are so in vogue these days. His determination to rescue Galya probably stems from the fact that he, a police officer, often visits brothels. He keeps telling himself (in hopes that he will believe it) none of these prostitutes had been forced into having sex with him; they are not the victims of human trafficking. He endeavors to be a good father to Ellen; once again, he probably does it out of guilt for having abandoned her mother, Marie McKenna, when she was pregnant. However, the reader can't help but believe him to be a good guy when he repeatedly risks his life to save Galya. In the previous novel, "Collusion," he battles a hit man, known as the Traveller, who is hell bent on killing Marie and Ellen.

"Stolen Souls" is an excellent novel in an equally excellent series. It can be read as a standalone but I highly recommend reading the three novels in order. A character from "Collusion" makes a brief, but startling, appearance in "Stolen Souls." The reader won't comprehend the true horror behind the event. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I was Inspector Lennon. I dare say that "Stolen Souls" is the best of the series. At the least, it is tied with the debut, "The Ghosts of Belfast." "Stolen Souls" is highly recommended reading for all fans of foreign crime drama. I am definitely looking forward to the next installment in this unique series.

Joseph B. Hoyos

For me, Stolen Souls was a fast read. I picked this book because the description interested me, prostitution slavery, Northern Ireland, Russian mob. Gayla, a young, Ukranian girl is duped into prostitution in Belfast. She is purchased by a Lithuanian crime boss, and just when she is ready to start in her new "profession", she escapes by killing the boss's brother. Gayla, frightened, exhausted, alone in a foreign country, calls a man who left his number with her, just in case she should happen to escape. Her savior is not what he seems. John Lennon, a Belfast detective is drawn into the case. The murders start to mount as the crime boss seeks vengeance for his brother's death. The main theme is not that intricate, however the characters are certainly interesting. I do feel the characters were sufficiently developed to make their plight empathetic. There were some loose ends which I assume are picked up in the next John Lennon novel sometime in the future. All in all, certainly worth a read.

Stolen Souls is a mystery in which the clock is ticking as Detective Inspector Jack Lennon tries to locate a runaway Ukrainian sex slave who has been trapped by a serial killer. The book's plot started off with just the right amount of action, suspense and atmosphere that had me believing I was in for a real reading treat.

Unfortunately, until the last 75 pages or so the pace of the book was a bit slow for me. But, the bigger factor that kept this book from earning at least a four-star rating from me is that none of the characters, even the main character (Jack Lennon), were developed richly enough for me to feel that I knew them well enough and, thus, to care very much about them one way or the other. Perhaps some of my issues with the weak characterizations in Stolen Souls might have been minimized (or even nonexistent) if I had read the author's two other novels, in that several of the characters in Stolen Souls had been previously featured in these books.

All in all, Stolen Souls was interesting enough for me to finish but not a book that I would recommend highly to readers who have not had experience with Neville's previous books. However, Neville showed me enough in Stolen Souls that I am likely to give one of his previous books a read before coming to a definite decision about whether he is or is not an author for me.