The Twelve - Tapa blanda

"The Twelve is the best first novel I've read in years. It crackles. It grabs you by the throat. This is some guy to watch out for in a dark alley" (James Ellroy)

"The Twelve is not only one of the finest thriller debuts of the last ten years, but is also one of the best Irish novels, in any genre, of recent times. It grips from the first page to the last, and heralds the arrival of a major new voice in Irish writing." (John Connolly)

"Neville has the talent to believably blend the tropes of the crime novel and those of a horror, in the process creating a page-turning thriller akin to a collaboration between John Connolly and Stephen King... The Twelve is a superb thriller, and one of the first great post-Troubles novels to emerge from Northern Ireland." (Declan Burke Sunday Independent)

"An astonishing debut. Brilliantly conceived, masterfully written, Stuart Neville's The Twelve is both a heart-pounding thriller and a stunning examination of responsibility and revenge. He is going to be a major new voice in suspense fiction." (Jeff Abbott)

"This is the book when the world finally sits up and goes WOW, The Irish really have taken over the world of crime writing. I just flat out adored The Twelve." (Ken Bruen)

Sooner or later, everybody pays - and the dead will set the price...

Former paramilitary killer Gerry Fegan is haunted by his victims, twelve souls who shadow his every waking day and scream through every drunken night. Just as he reaches the edge of sanity they reveal their desire: vengeance on those who engineered their deaths. From the greedy politicians to the corrupt security forces, the street thugs to the complacent bystanders who let it happen, all must pay the price.

When Fegan's vendetta threatens to derail Northern Ireland's peace process and destabilise its fledgling government, old comrades and enemies alike want him gone. David Campbell, a double agent lost between the forces of law and terror, takes the job. But he has his own reasons for eliminating Fegan; the secrets of a dirty war should stay buried, even if its ghosts do not.

Set against the backdrop of a post-conflict Northern Ireland struggling with its past, The Twelve takes the reader from the back streets of the city, where violence and politics go hand-in-hand, to the country's darkest heart. Stuart Neville's gripping thriller marks the emergence of a brilliant new voice.