RaveThe Irish Times (IRE)It’s in the vertiginous conceptual abyss that opens up...that this already pacey and highly entertaining novel goes into narrative hyperdrive ... With increasing inevitability, police officers and spooks begin turning up to interrupt each scene. The reader must question everything that’s gone before, as this rollercoaster of a novel is also a gripping puzzle ... Le Tellier himself describes The Anomaly as a \'thought experiment\', but if so it’s one that he pulls off with a rare lightness and aplomb. He and translator Hunter also tantalise with traces of hidden word games, with echoes of past literary greats ... With its thrillingly self-conscious genre fluidity, there are shades of Umberto Eco in this uniquely dazzling and thought-provoking, high-octane blockbuster.
Jeff Noon
PositiveThe GuardianNoon has a Ballardian understanding of the intoxicating magic of celebrity, and its impact on a text. He masterfully casts the spell of Bell’s dark glamour with tinctures of Bowie – his absence rather than his presence ... a belter. Hobbes’s journey into the underworlds of occult obsession and police violence is rich in social and subcultural detail, and Noon’s storytelling is assured and compelling.
Aidan Truhen
PositiveThe GuardianIn Jack Price’s world, killing is as compulsive as popping bubble wrap: \'like Candy Crush\', as he says, \'but with murder.\' The Price You Pay is a catchy and distinctive comic revenge thriller by Aidan Truhen – the pseudonym, we are told, of an established author – with a larger-than-life narrator protagonist. He’s a mouthy wise-ass, whether musing on herbal tea, deciding the free market is \'a prick\', or shooting someone in the eye ... A catchy revenge thriller.
