Stolen Souls

At the start of Neville’s accomplished third thriller featuring Belfast Det. Insp. Jack Lennon (after Collusion), Galya Petrova, a 19-year-old Ukrainian girl, kills Tomas Strazdas, brother of notorious Lithuanian crime boss Arturas Strazdas, in self-defense. When Tomas’s body turns up near the harbor with that of a wounded harbor cop, it’s just the beginning of the carnage. Bent on revenge, Arturas instructs his men to find and kill Galya. The action shifts between Jack’s investigation into Tomas’s murder and the frantic flight of Galya, who had been sold into prostitution by the Strazdas brothers’ front company that allegedly employs immigrant laborers. Jack also gets on the trail of the hit men under Arturas’s command, who are cutting a bloody swath across the city, as well as the dirty cops in his own department. When Galya’s would-be rescuer turns out to be a greater threat than the Lithuanian thugs, Neville slowly ratchets up the tension—and the violence—until each page practically twangs with suspense. (Oct.)