Clinch

Reviews / Votes

Holmen has Raymond Chandler's rare ability to evoke a character in a few deft strokes -- Lynda La Plante * EVENT, Mail on Sunday Best Reads of 2016 * Ferociously noir... If Chandler and Hammett had truly walked on the wild side, it would read like Clinch * Val McDermid * Clinch is a gritty, stylish debut from a Swedish history teacher and in Kvist he has created a brutal anti-hero quite unlike any seen in crime fiction before * Express * If you're looking for a new addiction, try [Clinch]... it's a tough thriller that packs a punch * Daily Star on Sunday * A dark, atmospheric, powerful thriller, the best debut novel I've read in years * Lynda La Plante * A clever plot woven into prose that depicts 1930s Stockholm in a detailed manner... it punches you in the face like one of Kvist's knockout blows. Definitely not for the faint-hearted * Crime Scene * Atmospheric Scandi retro, but Chandleresque to its core * The Sunday Times Crime Club * Vivid account of working-class struggle for survival in a city... where poverty and corruption went hand-in-hand for the poor * Attitude * A ferociously noir revelation of Stockholm between the wars... the sort of novel Chandler and Hammett would have written if they'd been permitted to include sex! -- Val McDermid * Sunday Times Crime Club * The city that Harry sees around him is very much at one with Harry himself: dirty, violent and cruel, with sickness and pain ever in plain sight... It all feels very convincing * Crime Review * Martin Holmen has created a remarkable novel that works well at many levels, ticking all the right boxes for the Scandi crime category * Thriller Books Journal * Gritty, stylish Scandinavian noir from one of Sweden's hottest emerging authors * Booklover * Clinch is a fabulously classy twist on pulp fiction: it'll be a top-notch summer book for readers looking for something diverting but smart, as long as they don't mind a little blood and bonking * Elle Thinks (blog) * The author doesn't pull any punches... a very promising, atmospheric debut that moves at a good clip... [Kvist] is mesmerising * Mystery People * This is noir writing at its best and you won't want to give this book a miss if you are a fan of this genre * The Bookbinder's Daughter (blog) * Blending noir with gritty violence, Clinch is a visceral, compulsive thriller that packs a punch and leaves you reeling * Col's Criminal Library * A debut that rings of Chandler... Holmen has created a unique, equally idiosyncratic as remarkable, debut crime novel * Boras Tidning * Scandinavian Crime meets Film Noir, the crime novel of the year -- Alexander Bard A great read * Expressen * Brutally entertaining * M-Magasin * A real tour de force... a fascinating race through 1930s Stockholm -- Kate Rhodes