Breathtakingly unpredictable and unapologetically strange. And the writing is perfectly assured and elegant.
— The Guardian
Hawthorn & Child has all the moody stuff of the detective genre, but no suspects, no clues, no resolution. The novel becomes an impressionistic portrait of the London they see.
— London Review of Books
Brilliantly well done–alive, funny, and deeply troubled.
— The Irish Times
There is a dreamlike quality to Hawthorn & Child’s sense of causality and connection. The detectives do not solve anything, and the book’s mystery is not the crime with which it begins but the lives that hold it together. It is not the closing of any case that preoccupies the book but the perpetual openness and irresolution of all cases, all identities. That is its punch, its poetry.
— Andrew Fox, The Daily Beast
Ridgway’s book is successfully thought-provoking and haunting.
— Publishers Weekly
This is a mystery novel unlike any you’ve ever read. Its strangeness is reminiscent of Beckett’s work, and Ridgway is a masterful storyteller.
— Largehearted Boy
An admirably conceived work of fiction.
— The Times Literary Supplement
An idiosyncratic and fascinating novel… refreshingly contemporary in language and style.
— Zadie Smith
Breathtakingly unpredictable and unapologetically strange. And the writing is perfectly assured and elegant.
— Ian Rankin, The Guardian