Not as good as The Ghosts Of Belfast but it closed up the loose ends from that book nicely. ( )

Tense Northern Ireland conflict among a central criminal, opposed hitmen and a cop with personal involvement. Collusion between No. Ireland factions and residuals of the "troubles".
See excellent reviews below for details. ( )

Collusion by Stuart Neville is the second book in his Belfast series of novels. This one is driven by the events from the first book and has D. I. Jack Lennon rushing to unravel the conspiracy that involves collusion among Loyalists, IRA members, and law enforcement in order to rescue his former girlfriend and their daughter who are being used as bait to draw out the mysterious Gerry Fegan.

This story is just as well written and just as violent as the first book was, with a merciless paid assassin going about his gruesome work of silencing all witnesses to the bloodbath that closed out the first book. Marie McKenna and her young daughter are lured out of hiding and Gerry Fegan and Jack Lennon end up working together to save them.

This is a thriller that totally works, delivering terrifying but believable chills in this riveting and tragic story of revenge and redemption. I am looking forward to continuing on with this series as there were enough loose threads left at the end of Collusion to leave me wondering what is going to happen next. ( )

I loved 'Collusion', the 2nd of Stuart Neville's Belfast series. It's a very fast-paced novel that follows a Belfast cop (Lennon) trying to make sense out of a series of murders that to him are obviously linked, but to his superiors aren't. Integral to the story are his attempt to make contact with his ex-wife and daughter, as well as the involvement of Fegan, the assassin introduced in the "Ghosts of Belfast'. Something isn't right with the murders, Lennon can't locate his ex and daughter, Fegan's hideout in NYC is discovered by people aware of his past, and another key figure from his first novel, O'Kane, is pushing the buttons of the guy who's carrying out the connected murders. It helps to have read 'Ghosts of Belfast' prior to this one, since there's more action than character development involved, but the writing is great and the story is pretty believable, so even without the background you'd do well to get into 'Collusion'.

What I really like so far about the Belfast series is the complicated environment they're in. Protestants, Catholics, Northern Ireland and the Republic of...., cops on both sides of the border, ex-IRA, Loyalists, ex-paramilitaries, British police divisions involvement- it adds a number of complicated layers to a story set in a city about 1/30 the size of the Chicago area in a country the size of Connecticut.

Without giving away the ending, I'd say it was pretty well telegraphed but didn't necessarily happen quite as expected. Again, great plot, fine writing, good dialogue, lots of action, fast pace... this book and series are real winners. ( )

Audiobook: Apparently, this is the second volume to feature Ulster cop (another Catholic among Protestants) Jack Lennon. I wish I had read Ghosts of Belfast first, because at times I felt a wee bit lost as Jack meanders through a tangled web of conflicting loyalties and conspiracies between the assorted Irish terror groups, gangs, Special Branch, and cops. His own loyalty is suspect as he had a child by Marie, the daughter of Michael McKenna, a well-known IRA boss. To make matters worse, the “Traveler,” a troubled killer is taking out people under the direction of a Bull O’Kane boss’s daughter and Lennon has to join forces with Gerry Fagen, another IRA killer. I’m sure I got much of the loyalties mixed up and labeled some as IRA who perhaps weren’t. It’s a very corrupt and confusing world with many different agendas and personal nightmares.
Jack has been rejected by his family who felt he was putting them all at risk by joining the “peelers” following the death of his brother for being a squealer even though Jack knows he wasn’t but was taking the fall for someone else. Jack is very much alone in the world and there is virtually no one he can trust. People are still sorting themselves out after the Troubles, focusing on making money rather than killing each other, yet the killing continues just with different motives. "Belfast was starting to grate on him, with its red-brick houses and cars parked on top of one another. And the people, all smug and smiling now they'd gathered the wit to quit killing each other and start making money instead."

I love the Irish accent of Gerard Doyle, but sometimes the colloquialisms baffled me.
Sorting out the different groups, UVA, SAS, UDF, IRA, MI5, and the cops groups is its own nightmare for the non-Irish reader. Heaven only knows how awful it must have been for the people who lived through it.

Now I’m off to listen to Ghosts of Belfast. ( )