COLLUSION does not live up to the simple "magnificent" in quotation marks on the copy of COLLUSION that I read. But I read the book on the basis of previous experience, not on an author blurb (which I never believe, anyhow).

COLLUSION is the second book in a series by Stuart Neville. I had previously read the fourth book in this series, THE FINAL SILENCE, which was truly magnificent, a five-star read. So I had high expectations of his other books.

Obviously, I am not reading this series in order. (I have never read a book series in order. I buy the books as I find them in used book sales.) A book in a series should be able to stand on its own and not depend on previous books in the series. But COLLUSION's first half confused me. If I had read the first book in the series, I might have understood more background about Detective Inspector Jack Lennon. Or maybe it is Neville's style to be deliberately evasive.

Also, throughout this book was (what I thought was extreme) violence. I am not a prude. What bothered me was not each violent incident but the totality of violent incidences. It was just too much, so much it was like watching a violent video game.

So it seems to me that COLLUSION is about three things: (1) Lennon trying to find his young daughter so he can keep her away from the violence, (2) the political factions in Northern Ireland not only committing violence against each other but colluding with each other, and (3) violence. Above all, this book is about violence and who can be more violent and take it like a man.