The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception

"This is the sort of story I dreamed of covering when I was a journalist. The sort of story for which the phrase You couldn’t make it up was invented. The Adversary takes a deep, mesmerising dive into the darkness of a human soul. There were moments when I truly could not believe what I was reading. But unlike other serial killer noirs sitting on my shelves, this horror is real. And so much more chilling for that." (Fiona Barton, author of The Widow)

"The story told here is truly beyond the imagination for even the best crime writer" (Sunday Times)

"The mesmerizing true crime tale of an apparently ordinary man whose life mutates in the space of a few blood-splattering hours from the realm of Renoir to that of Stephen King" (People)

"He’s the best kind of writer, not just a bestseller but a man who is not afraid to leave the comfort zone of his desk, go out into the world, take risks, and get his shoes dirty" (Observer)

"A triumph of insight and concision, brilliant both as a psychological study and as the portrayal of a community" (Blake Morrison Independent on Sunday)

"A masterpiece... It's a level of moral discomfort almost without equal in literature" (New York Times)

"Savagely intense and utterly compelling... This is his paciest and cleanest-cut book...few books could better deserve a second chance to find new readers" (Sunday Times)

"The Adversary is exactly the idea I have of a modern novel: struggling deftly with facts and with itself" (Laurent Binet, author of HHhH)

"An absolutely stunning piece of work, totally involving and unforgettable" (Evening Standard)

"Unputdownable... Imagine a sleek, twenty-first century version of In Cold Blood" (Washington Post)