Soot

Drier than a cream cracker; northern not only in vernacular but saturninity which envelops like a quilt giving off cigar smoke and port; memorable characters who vie for oddity or unpleasantness … Andrew Martin’s splendidly drawn snow-smothered York is a perfect foil for his sooty 18th-century gubbins and goings on, in which little turns out to be precisely black - or precisely white. - Evening Standard

‘The book’s many voices are written with skill, and York’s parallel worlds of fashion and poverty are vividly created. The physical book itself is stunning - the front of the hardback is swirled with soot, and the pages are black-edged. An enticing and clever book, inside and out’. Book Of The Month. - The Times

A literary thriller of great ingenuity and originality - Sunday Times

A fascinating read - Catholic Herald

In a cunningly constructed narrative made up of letters, diaries and other documents, the mystery is unravelled with a nod to the 18th-century novel while remaining bang up-to-date … Strong characters, humour and a dash of the picaresque flesh out a sophisticated, confident and intriguing treat. - Daily Mail

Exquisitely written … Soot is a well-made whodunnit, an artful pastiche and an atmospheric recreation of Georgian England … Comic but never arch, it is an artfully sophisticated entertainment - Irish Times