The Twelve by Stuart Neville (2009)
I first heard about this novel when playwright David Hare praised it in one of those ubiquitous end of year lists. He had picked it up by chance at an airport in the USA where it was published as The Ghosts of Belfast.
The new title isn’t exactly eye-catching, doubtless the publishers were worried that the backdrop of the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland might put off potential readers in the UK.
This is borne out by the fact that nothing on the front or back cover tells you that it is set in Belfast even though this location is fundamental to the plot.
The action takes place while peace negotiations are at a delicate stage and this is a vital ingredient in creating the tension and in making it more than just another straightforward revenge thriller.
Stuart Neville (photograph by Greg Haire/HardLight Studios)
The story revolves around Gerry Fegan, a 45 year-old who has served time (12 years) for the bombing of a butcher’s shop on the Shankhill Road in 1988. A mother and child, together with one of the shop’s staff died in this explosion.
These are three of the 12 victims who now plague Fegan’s conscience and appear to him as ghosts. He dreams of “peaceful sleep and bloodless hands” but knows that he cannot undo what he has done. His sole hope is that he can in some way assuage his guilt and in the process make the ghosts disappear. The only way to do this is to follow the silent instructions of these apparitions and systematically eliminate those who gave the orders or assisted in the murders he committed.
Initially the structure of the novel seems overly contrived but gradually you are drawn into the harsh criminal underworld which Neville describes in vivid and often gruesome detail. The abiding message is stated in the starkest terms : “Death clings to men who have wielded it, like the stench of an abattoir”.
What make the novel so strong is that no attempt is made to romanticise Fegan, or make him into an innocent victim of the system. He may be a product of the conflict, but he volunteered his services well aware of what this involved. As Davy Campbell, a government agent who has infiltrated the mob says : “He was a vicious bastard before; now he’s a crazy vicious bastard”.
The novel’s political agenda is spelt out in a somewhat plodding manner. Those doing the deals behind the peace negotiations at Stormont are wont to say things like : “We can’t afford any upsets, not with the money and time that’s been invested”. But, at the same time, the character of the manipulative Paul McGinty as bridge between the thugs and politicians is convincingly drawn as is the sadistic Bull O’Kane as the symbol of the old order.
Unlike O’Kane , McGinty recognises the need to face up to the reality that Northern Ireland of the 21st century is not the same as it was at the height of the conflict in the 1980s. In the aftermath of 9/11, the notion of terrorists as heroic freedom fighters faded fast and the thirst for war dried up. Neville raises the stakes by emphasising the extent to which Fegan’s murders are taking place at a time when the media has become a more effective weapon than Semtex.
The novel’s hard as nails macho world is only partially softened by the character of Marie (and her daughter Ellen) and the scenes play out like an updated Western movie with Fegan in the John Wayne role as a flawed but fearless protector prepared to do what a man’s gotta do.
It’s a tight and brilliantly written thriller and a highly impressive debut . The one weakness is that for such an uncompromising novel, I found the brutal finale geared too obviously to the sequel, Collusion, which has already been published.
To fulfil the tag-line “everybody pays” an even harsher ending would have made more sense. I have serious doubts that the follow-up can maintain the high drama but I sincerely hope Stuart Neville can prove me wrong.
