RaveThe HeraldAfter reading a few pages of this book, the first from Edinburgh-born Elizabeth Macneal, I concluded the title and cover were the central elements of a conspiracy. They had worked together to perform an act of deception by creating certain expectations that were quickly, filthily and uncompromisingly dispelled ... worthy of comment is the discipline with which Macneal maintains an authentic mode of reference – every literary touch is matched to the novel’s setting. And it’s disgusting! The book froths with horrible food, putrid smells, dirty people and rotting animals ... Everywhere, innocence is spoiled. One scene, involving baby mice, almost had my eyes running about on the table. With most of the book’s weight in my left hand, I wanted to be able to read faster, not so it was finished but so I could reach the end. Macneal makes it so Iris’s fate is uncertain until almost the last page and, given the darkness of the whole, no easy presumptions can be made. But I knew I was making my way through the final pages of a memorable book.
Kevin Barry
PositiveThe Scotland Herald (UK)Barry has dialogue ears that were trained while one hand stopped a pint from escaping. That is, he is good at Man Talk. But he is also an expert in the field of language performed as a ritual in response to certain promptings. Such is his expertise that it’s easy to imagine him conversing happily with your granny between bingo calls ... Barry is wide-open to the supernatural, as if there wasn’t enough around here to keep you fretting into the afterlife. The book is woozy with lines ... The relationship between Barry’s imagination and his style is akin to that between a gang of dogs and a sledge – a sledge from which the driver was pitched into a ravine some way back ... Night Boat to Tangier moves at the speed of today turning into tomorrow when you’re not paying attention, but I still found it settled comfortably in the noirish ambience created by Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.
