RaveThe Times (UK)Osman is a versatile writer. He can do comedy, pathos, pace, plot and social observation. His brevity is commendably ruthless. Usually, four books into a run this successful, each volume would get bigger and flabbier as the editors lose the nerve to cut. Perhaps Osman succumbs slightly to indulgence this time, moralising a bit about assisted dying, but it’s a minor transgression ... The plot and character are advanced and smiles and sadness are offered in just a few hundred words of virtuoso prose ... He is that rare combination, a highly intelligent man well attuned to popular taste and sufficiently confident (and unsnobby and hard-working) to provide the harmless fantasies people wish to enjoy. Good luck to him.
