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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.
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If you see novels as having two aspects, conception and execution, this is one of two very different natures. The concept, a killer haunted (literally) by the people he killed, and seeking redemption, is both familiar and unoriginal. The execution, however, is quite well-handled, and is believable all the way through, even with the slightly bum note towards the end. I will definitely try another Neville book, as this one shows great promise. I'd like to see what he can do with a less familiar situation, especially as he overcame my initial disappointment with the core concept.