The Ghosts of Belfast Wins the LA Times Book Prize

With stiff competition from some of the best books of 2009, Stuart Neville took home the prize in the Mystery/Thriller category.  The Ghost of Belfast is also known as The Twelve in Europe.

Critics Oline Cogdill, Dick Adler and Sarah Weinman judged this prize and wrote: “Stuart Neville’s stunning debut novel delivers an inspired, gritty view of violence’s aftermath and the toll it takes on each person involved – especially on one haunted, redemption-seeking ex-IRA hitman. Along the way, Neville condenses the fear and hate that has troubled Northern Ireland, still under the thumb of decades of domestic terrorism, for decades.”

Other nominees for the prize were:

• Megan Abbott, Bury Me Deep (Simon & Schuster)
• David Ellis, The Hidden Man (Putnam)
• Attica Locke, Black Water Rising (HarperCollins)
• Val McDermid, A Darker Domain (HarperCollins)