Meet the Author: Stuart Neville

Image (c) Johanne Atkinson

Stuart Neville's debut novel, The Ghosts of Belfast (published in the UK as The Twelve), won the Mystery/Thriller category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was picked as one of the top crime novels of 2009 by both the New York Times and the LA Times. He has been shortlisted for various awards, including the MWA Edgar, CWA Dagger, Theakstons Old Peculier Novel of the Year, Barry, Macavity, Dilys awards, as well as the Irish Book Awards Crime Novel of the Year.

He has since published a host of critically acclaimed books, two of which were under the pen name Haylen Beck. In 2020 Stuart's first short story collection, The Traveller and Other Stories was published. Stuart's latest book, The House of Ashes, was published on 3rd Feb by Zaffre and is also available on our catalogue.

1. Who were your heroes as you were growing up and when did you first start writing?

The first author I really got addicted to was Willard Price with his Adventure series about two brothers travelling the world, collecting specimens for their father’s private zoo. Stephen King was the first “grown-up” writer that I became a fan of, starting with reading The Shining when I was around thirteen. I first started trying to write when I was around that age, and kept coming back to it over the years, writing a chapter here or a page there. I didn’t start to take it seriously until I was in my thirties.

2. What is your writing routine?

The disruption of the pandemic has made it difficult to maintain a routine over the past couple of years, but I’m beginning to establish one in recent months. Ideally, my day would go something like this: drop the kids off at school in the morning, get home and take care of emails and general admin, then sit down to write. I’ll try to get around 1500 words down in two hours or so, and unless things are really flowing, that’ll usually be as much useful work I can do in a day. If I get that done, I can go out to my workshop in the afternoon where I build guitars.

3. Your latest book is The House of Ashes. Can you tell us a little about it?

The House of Ashes is a thriller set in a remote Northern Irish farmhouse named The Ashes after the trees that surround it. The story is told across two timelines from the point of view of Sara in the present day, and Mary as a child some sixty years in the past. The two women bond over their shared traumas, giving Sara the strength to fight back against her abusive husband, and Mary the voice to finally tell the terrible truth about what happened in the house all those years ago.

4. The House of Ashes is your first novel under your own name since 2016 and a return to Northern Ireland. Was it a different experience writing it?

Every book is different, and some are easier than others. This was a particularly difficult novel to write, and it took several years from its first inception to a finished book. It took me a few years to figure out what I really wanted to do with it, and it was finally capturing Mary’s voice that allowed everything else to fall into place.

5. Your Haylen Beck books have been very well received here. One of my colleagues said Here and Gone was the best thing she had read for years. Are there any plans for Haylen to return?

I’m afraid the Haylen Beck pen name is dead and buried, but I will still write books in that style and setting when I feel I have a story that needs it. In fact, the novel I’m writing at the moment is probably closer in tone and feel to the Haylen Beck stories.

6. Is there anything you can share with us about your latest project?

I’m currently working on a novel set in the American west, a fast-paced supernatural thriller, with the working title of Moonflower.

7. One book, piece of music or work of art that everyone should experience?

You’d be forgiven for dismissing Slade as another 70s glam rock band, lumping them in with their contemporaries like The Sweet and the Glitter Band, but How Does it Feel from the movie Slade in Flame proves they were much more than that. The band’s streak of hits through the early to mid 70s tended to the raucous, but How Does it Feel is a melancholic and reflective song. My own reading of it is a study of the pursuit of success in a creative field, and the disappointments, sacrifices and compromises that entails. Have a listen, you might be surprised.

8. If you had not been a writer what career would you have chosen instead?

As a teenager it was my earnest intention to be a rock star. I started playing guitar at the age of thirteen, and I studied music at college. When I realised the rock star thing wasn’t going to happen, I spent some years trying to break into writing music for film. I managed to get little bits of work here and there, including some radio jingles, music for theatre, and the score for an ultra-low budget feature. Ultimately, though, I found the film business far too tough and gave up on the idea.

9. Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?

I play in a band called the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers along with Mark Billingham, Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre, Doug Johnstone and Luca Veste. What started out as a bit of a laugh amongst some friends took on a life of its own, culminating in us playing at Glastonbury.