The Kills

Richard House's Man Booker-longlisted novel stands out from the pile . . . an ambitious and complex meta-thriller that spins its many stories like plates, tantalising you at every turn . . . a page turner . . . and a book absolutely to be read twice over * The Independent *
Richard House has written a damn good book . . .The Kills is possibly the most eyebrow-raising entry on this year's Booker longlist . . . he is not your average novelist, but is also a film-maker, artist and magazine editor . . . If this all seems hifalutin, rest assured: The Kills is still all about spinning a good yarn * The Sunday Times, Culture *
Prepare to be dazzled by this monumental novel . . . a true achievement. House’s sea of words relentlessly interrogates his themes through action and dialogue, leaving his reader washed up on a faraway shore, dazed yet exhilarated * The Sunday Times *
One of the most epic novels I’ve read in a long time, and also the most original . . . reads like John le Carré and Roberto Bolaño got together to write a dark, intricate, messy, sometimes surreal spy thriller with elements of corporate espionage . . . House’s novel gets at the truth in a truly profound and unique way -- Jeff VanderMeer, author of Annihilation
For all its bulk The Kills proves easily digestible . . . it is well worth ejecting five or six conventional thrillers from your holiday luggage and devoting yourself to The Kills for a few days. Like all the best thrillers, it takes you on a hell of a ride * The Daily Telegraph *
Engrossing but also ferociously complex and demanding . . . [House] writes in startling detail about character, location and physical mannerisms . . . a very sophisticated yarn-spinner * Evening Standard *
A hot favourite on the Booker longlist . . . This is a staggering achievement . . . Highly recommended * Daily Mail *
Richard House has written a gripping, hallucinogenic – and enormous – novel * The Guardian *
They [the Man Booker 2013 judges] outdo themselves in choosing an astounding sequence by Richard House in The Kills . . . This is a thrilling, overwhelming ride . . . Astonishing for its scale and drive . . . I could not wait to get back to it when reading it, and House is probably this year’s major reinventor of the possibilities of the genre . . . one you ought to read -- Philip Hensher * The Spectator *
Majestic . . . brilliantly realised characters * Telegraph *
House is a master of storytelling and characterisation. This epic novel, a globe-spanning tale of corruption, is gripping, exquisitely written and thought-provoking * Metro *
A gigantic experiment, bracing, thrilling and worthy of a medal for narrative heroism, Richard House's four-volume The Kills plays an epic set of variations on the shadow war for loot and influence behind the chaos of Iraq -- Boyd Tonkin, Books of the Year * Independent *
The Kills is consistently great fun, whether it motors along as political thriller or existential murder story, or folds in on itself as (post-)postmodern work of ludic fiction. In all the ways that actually matter, House is a fine writer: a deceptively simple stylist and a plotter of considerable talent * Literary Review *
House gives us vivid pictures: powerful, bleak, beautiful. * Times Literary Supplement *
The jar of scorpions Richard House introduces on the first page of his cracking novel The Kills is highly appropriate because there's a sting in the tail on every page . . . It's a killer of a read. * Daily Mail *
House is a master of flawed character and unexpected moving images * The New Statesman *