Throw Me to the Wolves

An extraordinary writer of great compassion, McGuinness combines a mesmerising crime novel with a forensic look at the brutalising mechanisms of the British Public School system. Stunning.

Denise Mina

Throw Me to the Wolves could be described as a crime novel or as a State of the Nation novel. It fits into both those categories, but it offers much more than such convenient labels would suggest. It's a book seriously concerned with, and about, people who function on the fringe of society. Patrick McGuinness is an observant and reflective storyteller of a special kind.

Paul Bailey

A big, serious, elegantly written, darkly entertaining study of what school does to us, and how life afterwards can turn into a nightmare. McGuinness is a novelist of the old school, where the best and most lasting lessons were taught.

John Banville

Throw Me to the Wolves is, on the face of it, a made-for-TV procedural police drama… Scratch the surface, however, and all of Britain’s restless undercurrents are churning away… this is literary fiction as it should be: in stylish, surprising, lyrical sentences we are forced to confront the hidden power structures, public and private, that control our everyday lives. It’s reminiscent of Edward St Aubyn, not only in its pillorying of the elite, but the pleasure McGuinness takes in having his characters say clever things. It’s also a proper page-turner.

Melissa Katsoulis, The Times

Intelligent and troubling… [Throw Me To The Wolves] invites reflection about the state of morality today, about the lust for witch-hunts and the zeal to punish.

Allan Massie, Scotsman

Brilliant.

Strong Words

This second novel from Man Booker-longlisted McGuinness is a compassionate, funny and ultimately moving indictment of the gutter press, social media and boarding schools.

Phil Baker, Sunday Times

McGuinness plays… [the plot] out beautifully, allowing each aspect of the story to resonate meaningfully with the others… [he lets] the story unspool at its own pace while he explores all its facets in clean prose polished to the point of translucence.

Herald

Blisteringly effective, written with an almost hallucinogenic clarity… Throw Me to the Wolves is intensely powerful.

Justine Jordon, Guardian

This is a writer worth knowing… [McGuinness] combines elegant prose with caustic commentary on romance, education and crime… most people can write for a lifetime and not produce so perfect a sentence.

Patrick Anderson, Washington Post

McGuinness is an intelligent and thoughtful writer, and his portrait of detective Ander is fully of wry observations about modern life and societal change.

James Moran, Tablet, *Novel of the Week*

Thoughtful, sometimes provocative… at the heart of [Throw Me to the Wolves] is a moving meditation on childhood and the ways in which it lives on in all of us.

Peter Carty

An absorbing novel… on virtually every page, there are perfectly judged descriptions that reveal something about the world.

William Skidelsky, Financial Times