It’s great fun ... It swerves from comedy to the darker stuff with ease and elegance. It is far from a funny book, but Dickens is there in the language, the coincidences, the unrolling of the story. The grandiosity and ineptitude of the cops and of the Fenians reminded me of Conrad’s The Secret Agent ... The dialogue throughout the novel is terrific; it seems like the genuine article whether it comes from an Irish, English or American mouth. McGuire is overfond of similes; there are far too many 'likes' in the novel. But often they are great ... there was very little I didn’t like and admire about The Abstainer. The conclusion seems inevitable, somehow even more so when it turned out not to be the one I’d been anticipating ... This is Dickens in the present tense, Dickens for the 21st century.

... moments of bliss and beauty are rare, but this is no real gripe since McGuire is so comfortable writing about the nightmarish and repellent. The city’s assault on the senses is particularly well done ... His uses of simile are judicious, the best left for gruesome sounds ... The book’s conclusion is cleverly understated, leading us away from the penultimate act, a final spectacle of gore ... McGuire is always a pleasure—and horror—to read, and The Abstainer is without question a very fine book in and of itself: darkly compelling, with its polished prose and snappy dialogue. And yet, read after its predecessor, it strikes one—despite the dread and fog and blood—as safe, as if its author has too readily returned to a winning formula.

... a page-turning tale ... a gritty and moody story ... The Abstainer succeeds in keeping the reader tense and uneasy, much like the polluted, portentous air hanging over Manchester. The brooding and lyrically written cat-and-mouse narrative of Doyle and O’Connor is excellent; however, one feels a lost opportunity for a more complex historical novel populated with deeper back stories. But if the reader is looking for a taut tale exploring the brutal vagaries of men’s hearts, The Abstainer is a provocative novel that invites further discovery of a troubled time.

... gripping ... From the off, the crisp, purposeful prose gives us the reassuring sense that we’re in the hands of a writer at the top of his game who is keen to unfold a story ... The book is written with the vividness and economy of a screenplay, unfolding through a series of sharply observed scenes full of cliffhangers, misdirection and reverses. Its lovely, rhythmic prose evokes the stinks of the Victorian city, its factories, rat-baiting arenas and slaughterhouses. McGuire dwells with fascination on the process of police work; in the breadth of its sympathies and its curiosity about detection and surveillance, the novel reminded me of the best police procedurals – The Wire by gaslight ... McGuire does everything well: evoking the pungent atmosphere of a teeming industrial city, recreating the period in a way that resonates with our own time without seeming preachy, and writing sharp dialogue that crackles with subtext. We’re dropped into the milieu and expected to pick things up as we go along, making the strangeness of the world more intriguing and the parallels with the present more urgent ... You might argue that a game of cat and mouse between an alcoholic cop and his scarred, implacable antagonist is not exactly breaking new ground in a thriller, but one of the pleasures of this book is that it reworks familiar tropes in surprising ways ... Thankfully, while adhering to some of the conventions of the thriller, the book’s final act manages to be both satisfying and oblique, rooted in possibilities raised by the specific biographies of its characters. The ending is replete with consolation and irony. While never being so clumsy as to carry any overt message, it also hints at the seductive combination of transcendence and delusion that lies behind the promises of all world-changing ideologies.

... a page turner ... The plot unfolds at a thrilling pace ... McGuire’s style is riveting. He is a master of concise description, sketching a character in a few brief strokes ... He is a poet of bleakness ... McGuire’s portrayal of Manchester is detailed and haunting...His style is more assured and descriptive, however, when he writes from the point of view of Doyle, the antagonist, than that of the protagonist O’Connor. As a result, evil is more powerfully imagined than goodness in this book. This choice on the author’s part seems deliberate. It robs the book, though, of the full sense of tragedy that might have been attained with a more vivid portrayal of the power of goodness and innocence and the price of their loss. Another weakness is that the women in the book are fleeting presences who correspond to the Madonna-whore stereotype ... Nonetheless, this is a book worth reading for more than the compelling plot. By exploring the use and abuse of power in this historical novel, McGuire provides powerful contemporary resonances. The Abstainer touches on issues still unresolved a century and half after the time of its setting.

McGuire has pulled off another gripping tale of violence, betrayal and vice ... The North Water, with its compellingly gruesome set-pieces, its cast of idiosyncratic characters, and its spectacular arctic scenes, has already been adapted for television ... The Abstainer’s equally explosive plot and more extensive use of razor-sharp dialogue make it, if anything, even more suited to adaptation ... At the same time, McGuire’s style in The Abstainer is comparatively pared back – leaner, more sculpted – leaving us with what in many ways feels like a less elevated, more conventional novel. At the same time, McGuire’s style in The Abstainer is comparatively pared back – leaner, more sculpted – leaving us with what in many ways feels like a less elevated, more conventional novel ... One hopes that in future works McGuire will give freer rein to his vividly corporeal prose ... nevertheless recognisably a novel by the author of The North Water, something most evident in the collection of radically nihilistic protagonists ... The novel’s evocation of the reek and bustle of Victorian Manchester is never less than atmospherically convincing, but The Abstainer is at its most powerful when probing the human need, no doubt timeless but felt particularly keenly at moments of impending calamity, to believe in some kind of ultimate arbiter of truth and morality in a seemingly chaotic and cruelly arbitrary world. McGuire seems to take a wry delight in having his characters engage in profound philosophical reflections when stone drunk or wired on drugs. No less current is the novel’s subtle scrutiny of the ways that a sense of belonging to two national cultures can, under conditions of crisis, quickly become a test of divided loyalties – an exploration that will doubtless be central to its interest for a good number of readers in Ireland and indeed elsewhere ... If The Abstainer seems less stylistically innovative and aesthetically ambitious than The North Water, it is, nevertheless, a superbly written novel; McGuire is undoubtedly a master of his medium and never puts a foot wrong. With its engrossing historical setting, frenzied plot, and impeccable prose, The Abstainer may well earn McGuire his widest readership yet.

... a gut-wrenching finale that will leave readers hoping desperately that McGuire...has an O’Connor prequel in the works. O’Connor’s palpable alienation and the subtly drawn comparisons between the Irish insurgency and America’s then-recent civil war create layers of depth in this exceptional period thriller.

This tightly wound historical tale is full of the grit and grime of industrial England that is bleeding Ireland dry and setting the stage for the rebellion of the next century. More a noir thriller than historical fiction, it is driven by a thirst for retribution and freedom. Highly recommended.

McGuire’s taut, intricately woven novel captures the aura of a dark, violent world riddled with terrorism and revenge, where a 'man’s life on its own is nothing much to talk about.' This well-told, suspenseful tale will appeal to fans of Deadwood and Cormac McCarthy.

... [a] taut, atmospheric tale ... McGuire demonstrates a mastery of classic realism, building the characters through their reactions to unflinching scenes of brutality ... Manchester in particular is evoked with keen impressionistic detail ... McGuire’s crackling work is one to savor.