RaveThe Star TribuneLike all good thrillers, Falling gets off to a dramatic start and maintains its momentum ... Newman\'s various narrative strands resemble high-voltage live wires. One tense predicament replaces another, from poison gas attacks to mutinous passengers to orders to kill the co-pilot or shoot down the plane. The suspense is heightened by the fact that the terrorist is not open to negotiation ... Sporadic flashbacks to the past are a distraction and clunky clichés mar some of the dialogue ... But these are mere niggles when set against the book\'s considerable strengths, not least its frenetic pace, numerous cliffhangers and one almighty twist. Ignore the blizzard of hype, suspend all disbelief and enjoy the ride.
Kjell Askildsen tr. Sean Kinsella
RaveThe Star TribuneDeftly translated by Séan Kinsella, this selection of odd, austere yet transfixing stories from various points of Askildsen\'s long career showcases his stylistic verve and his relentless scrutiny of human frailties and absurdities ... In the space of just six pages Askildsen manages to perplex, unsettle and even amuse his reader ... The trick here and elsewhere is not to ask who\'s who or what\'s what. Instead it pays to just succumb to the strange and inexplicable circumstances, to accept each peculiar encounter or bizarre cause and effect ... We might not always understand his characters\' actions, much less their thinking, but it is hard not to be entranced by his stripped-back prose, or the original way in which he depicts the agony of empty lives and the trials of everyday existence.
Paraic O'Donnell
RaveThe Star TribuneO\'Donnell grabs his reader\'s attention with his strange and atmospheric opener and doesn\'t let go ... a mock-Victorian tour de force that dexterously blends the drama of Dickens, the sensationalism of Wilkie Collins, and the mystery of Conan Doyle, with added chills and humor poured into the mix for good measure ... O\'Donnell keeps his reader gripped with his fast pace, ingenious plotting and narrative twists and turns. His re-created world of costermongers and eel vendors, gin shops and boardinghouses, gentlemen\'s clubs and séance salons is vividly authentic. Cutter\'s punchy dialogue elicits laughs while the soul-stealing and \'half shades\' imbue the proceedings with a welcome supernatural streak. A fiendishly entertaining winter\'s tale.
