A Great Review, and Assorted Links

A fantastic review appeared today in The Observer newspaper, written by Nicola Barr. She said: "THE TWELVE is a brilliant thriller: unbearably tense, stomach-churningly frightening. This is the best fictional representation of the Troubles I have come across, a future classic of its time. Stuart Neville has finally given Northern Ireland the novel its singular history deserves." Read the full review here.

This review seems to have led to a boost in sales at Amazon.co.uk, pushing THE TWELVE into the top 100 fiction books, peaking at #65, and #10 in the Mystery category, sitting alongside the likes of CJ Sansom, Kathy Reichs, John Connolly, James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, Stieg Larsson and others. Even now, at around 10:30pm, I'm hanging on at #67 in fiction, and #135 in books in general, and in Amazon's top 20 crime books - which I think is pretty good for my first weekend of publication.

I discovered today that Matt Beynon Rees, author of the Omar Yussef mystery novels set in Gaza, is not only a Soho Press stable mate, but he's also represented by my UK co-agent, Caspian Dennis of the Abner Stein agency. Matt kindly got in touch to tell me he'd reviewed THE TWELVE, and a very nice job he did too, saying: "As thought-provoking a book on the aftermath of conflict as you'll ever read. Neville's book is a thrilling record of the traces of crime and blood left behind when the politicians command us to move on." Read the full review here.

Finally, you may remember I mentioned an interview I did with journalist and broadcaster Malachi O'Doherty for BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence programme. It was for a feature on ghosts in contemporary fiction, and it's an interesting piece. You can listen to it online care of the BBC's iPlayer service. It starts at around sixteen minutes in.

Just a Couple More Links...

Just a couple of links this evening, but they're both goodies, I think.

First, an article about yours truly appeared in The Observer today. Hopefully, a review of THE TWELVE will also appear in the newspaper's REVIEW supplement at some point over the coming weeks.

Second, I've added a new feature to my website: deleted scenes from THE TWELVE. The bulk of them are about Gerry Fegan's early life, and how he came to be a killer, and then tried to turn his back on his old ways.

A more substantial post will appear tomorrow.