Nobody move

`Think Reservoir Dogs or Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men.

Think Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy' LIONEL SHRIVER, Daily Telegraph Jimmy Luntz owes money to a man called Juarez.

Trouble is, Juarez isn't the most patient of men. And when he gets bored of waiting, he sends someone round to collect.

Luntz doesn't actually plan to shoot the guy, but the way he sees it, it's shoot or be shot.

Either way, though, Luntz is out of his league, and he knows it: nobody messes with Juarez - or, at least, nobody messes with Juarez and lives to tell the tale. `Johnson can't help slathering the story's pages in his usual idiosyncratic brilliance . . . Reaching the end, the exhilarated reader is blindsided by the hint of something huge' Guardian `A fast-paced, violent, hugely entertaining crime caper, packed with terrific set pieces and crackling dialogue.

The fun that Johnson obviously had writing it steams off every page' Sunday Telegraph `Johnson's writing looks extremely simple.

Let me tell you it is not - this kind of spare, poetic, humorous storytelling is only for the big boys.

This is brilliant' The Times