“a gripping police procedural … impeccably Oulipian in conception and execution.” David Collard, TLS
“That all these stylistic fireworks can illuminate several rich plot lines, each with multiple twists, which an attentive reader will enjoy disentangling, is the best vindication of experimental prose.” Anna Aslanyan, Financial Times
“rich, riveting … White is always convivial company … His books [are] characterised by stylistic innovation, a feeling for place, a love of rogues and rebels. ” Sukhdev Sandhu, The Guardian
“Tony White’s latest novel begins for all the world like a police procedural, following the delightfully named sleuth Rex King as he investigates the grisly murder of man in a Covent Garden theatre. […] Enjoy it as a noir entertainment or as an evocative picture postcard from the past.” Houman Barekat, Spectator
“The Fountain in the Forest can be read with all the pleasure you might expect from a knotty police procedural, a knowledgeably detailed, intriguing and compelling police procedural at that. The story drives ever forward, even when it takes you backwards in time to take a look at the roots of the crime in question. Even when it flip-flops between two distinct time-streams and character identities within the space of a single sentence, the sense throughout is of a steady and satisfying accretion of significant information, i.e clues – exactly what you’d hope for from any good thriller. […] Read, and enjoy.” Nina Allan
“It is absolutely terrific … it can be enjoyed at the level of a thriller, and yet it does all these other fascinating things, and best of all it’s the first in a trilogy … It’s such a good book.” Andy Miller, Backlisted Podcast
“The Fountain in the Forest smartly maps an experimental, Oulipo-inspired structure onto a well-executed police procedural.” Thom Cuell, Bookmunch
“The Fountain in the Forest is a mystery built on mysteries […] it has heart and tenderness and leads us to the most unexpected places and at the centre of all this puzzling is a thriller with deep hooks.” Nick Garrard, STORGY
“A truly intriguing venture into the crime genre by the talented White.” Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time
“The Fountain in the Forest is fascinating, beautifully written and really original.” Literary Review
Very successful. You really get the feeling he’s listening.
By way of exchange here’s my favourite cartoon of all time:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/cartoon/2010/jan/13/alastair-campbell-iraq-war-inquiry
Thank you for this, Daniel. That’s a good one. I mailed (finally) your copies of News Haiku and London Palm a day or two ago, btw. Should be with you any day. Best, T