McFarlane is a master at just about everything: dialogue, setting, comic timing ... I had to resign myself to reading each story from beginning to end without leaving my chair. They are that gripping, though not in a thriller kind of way. You have to know what happens to these people, and how they confront losses that no one should ever have to suffer.
A welcome literary addition to this subgenre ... Highway Thirteen is a masterclass in reflection and refraction. Fiona McFarlane is interested in what we choose to see and what we choose to ignore.
However entertaining, McFarlane’s stories continually remind readers that behind true-crime stories’ escapist pleasure exist real death and human pain. Addictively engaging, profoundly serious fiction from an underappreciated master.
