My 10 or so Best Novels Read in 2010

Joining the list-mania, here are some novels I read in 2010 that you might find are worth a look.  Have a great holiday everyone!!!


The Ghosts of Belfast: Stuart Neville

Gerry Fegan, a former IRA hit man haunted by the ghosts of the 12 people he killed, realizes the only way these specters will give him rest is to systematically assassinate the men who gave him his orders.

Ravens: George Dawes Green

Shaw takes the family “hostage” by telling them that Romeo is driving around their small city, ready to murder their loved ones if they don’t support the ruse that Shaw is due half the families 318 million in lottery winnings.

Speed Queen: Stewart O'Nan

Narrator Marjorie Standiford waits on Oklahoma's death row for her role in the infamous "Sonic" drive-in killings. America's "King of Horror" (a never-named Stephen King) buys the rights to Marjorie's story, and she is given a tape recorder and more than 100 questions to answer in the hours before her death.

Zombie: Joyce Carol Oates

Meet Quentin P. He is the most believable and thoroughly terrifying sexual psychopath and killer ever to be brought to life in fiction

　
Old Dogs: Donna Moore

La Contessa Letitzia di Ponzo and her sister Signora Teodora Grisiola are actually Letty and Dora, a pair of ex-hookers turned con-artists who’ve decided to steal a pair of gold, jewel-encrusted Tibetan shih tzu dog statuettes from a Glasgow museum, if they can avoid the Australian hitman with his sights on a very different future for them.

Resurrection Man: Eoin McNamee

The setting is Belfast in the 1980s; the Resurrection Men are a gang of four led by Victor Kelly, a Protestant drawn into the sectarian violence. Victor is a ruthless killer; his M.O. is the knife across the throat.

Divorcing Jack: Colin Bateman

When Dan Starkey returns to the apartment of his new conquest, Margaret McBride, after going out for pizza, he finds the young brunette riddled with bullets. Starkey is pursued by several parties, including an IRA contingent with a reputation for mayhem and violence.

Boyo's: Richard Marinick

Set in and around  the South Boston working-class Irish-American enclave, the story focuses on Jack "Wacko" Curran, a rising young player in the criminal underworld. Curran and his coked-out brother, Kevin, work for mob boss Marty Fallon, wholesaling drugs to a network of area dealers. Jack dreams of replacing Fallon and figures that the bankroll from the armored-car heist he's planning will put him on his way.

Dead I Well May Be: Adrian McKinty

a brutal tale of revenge starring a young illegal immigrant from Ireland who chooses a criminal career in New York over unemployment in Belfast.


The Big-O: Declan Burke

Frank is a self-important but inept plastic surgeon who wants to have his ex-wife, Madge, snatched so that he can collect a half-million in ransom.

Hard Man: Allan Guthrie

After taking a beating, the men of the Baxter family--dad Jacob and sons Roger and Flash--look for help protecting the pregnant May, Roger and Flash's sister, from her psychopathic husband, Wallace.