Dr. No

‘Everett continues to be an endlessly inventive, genre-devouring creator of thoughtful, tender, provocative, and absolutely unpredictable literary wonders.’

* Booklist (starred review) *

‘Everett brings his mordant wit, philosophic inclinations, and narrative mischief to the suspense genre…[He] is adroit at ramping up the tension while sustaining his narrator’s droll patter and injecting well-timed ontological discourses on…well…nothing. It may not sound like anything much, so to speak. But then, neither did all those episodes of Seinfeld that insisted they were about nothing. And this, too, is just as funny, if in a far different, more metaphysical manner. A good place to begin finding out why Everett has such a devoted cult.’

* Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *
‘Everett is a true American genius, a master artist…As off-kilter as ever, Dr. No is Percival Everett at his most artfully absurd and ironic, and it might be just the thing to finally propel this star into the literary ether.’ * Oprah Daily *
‘It is hard to write or even think about his work without sounding like an inferior edition of Percival Everett…One way to evaluate an artist is to observe the quantity and quality of misinterpretation his work begets. By this measure Everett ranks very highly. “Damn it, I don’t understand it, but I love it,” mutters one of the characters, regarding Sill’s weapon of nothingness. Same.’ * New York Times Book Review *
‘If the unexpected always happens in Everett’s individual novels, the variety across the work also astonishes.’ * Washington Post *
‘The latest zany masterpiece from the novelist Percival Everett…This is the fantasy of Black capitalism, and in Dr. No, Everett has given us an antagonist up to the task of representing its delusions—a villain who thinks he is a hero, a savior who shows up empty-handed.’ * Atlantic *
‘Percival Everett approaches genre like a veteran card shark does poker: methodically patient, rarely playing the same hand twice. His books—30 and counting—are full of ambition and mystery, each one of them sustained by a sense of existential wonder…His latest, Dr. No, doesn’t rely on the themes and tricks that outline any of his previous books but remains needle sharp in thought and originality.’ * Wired *
‘It’s hard…to imagine a novelist today with fresher eyes than Percival Everett.’ * Chicago Tribune *
‘Immensely enjoyable…Throughout, Everett boldly makes a farce out of real-world nightmares, and the rapid-fire pacing leaves readers little time to blink. Satire doesn’t get much sharper or funnier than this.’ * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
‘The phenomenally talented and prolific Percival Everett conducts a highwire act in Dr. No, balancing opaque mathematical theory with disarmingly deadpan humor over a daunting crevasse of nothing…The result is an entertaining caper of philosophical proportions. It is an adventure that can be appreciated on any of the numerous levels that Everett is working on, from the unassuming bumbling of a humble mathematician to the provocative consequences of unmitigated power, nothing is quite as enjoyable as Dr. No.’ * Shelf Awareness *
‘Percival Everett has always been a prolific writer, but the past few years have been an epic run even for him… . This caper novel will keep you laughing and pondering; nothing will get in the way of that.’ * Vulture *
‘The caper is beautifully choreographed, and has a number of little winks to the Fleming oeuvre…Everett is astute on character names…[and] has always managed to combine the best of postmodernism with a genuine love of pulp fiction…It is a delicate balance to put together the zany and the profound.’ * Spectator (Australia) *
‘[Dr. No] is Everett at his most playful.’ * Cher Tan, ABC Arts *
‘With tongue firmly planted in his cheek, Everett sends up the whole idea of a criminal trying to get his own wicked way, with bodies-a-plenty, gunfire, even a shark pool beneath a meeting room into which an under-achiever is tipped…A glorious romp, with Everett making a good deal of something out of nothing.’ * Good Reading (4 stars) *
‘It’s just so strange and fun and intriguing, definitely makes me want to know more about the book.’ * Jamie Stafford-Hill, Best Book Covers of 2023, LitHub *