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Green River Rising
Green River Rising
Dec 5, 2025 2:34 AM

Author:Tim Willocks

Green River Rising

An edge-of-your-seat thriller for all fans of James Ellroy, Cormac McCarthy and John Grisham. For fans of The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Rock.

After three years' hard time, minding no-one's business but his own, Ray Klein wins his parole. That same day, the disciplinary perfection of Green River State Penitentiary is torn apart by tribal war, and the prison falls into the hands of its inmates.

As the River sucks them all towards the abyss, Klein must choose either to claim his freedom and leave the ones he cares for to die, or risk everything and fight...

Reviews

Green River Rising is a stunner – and may be the best prison novel ever. This is a book of dark alchemy: turbulent milieu, brilliantly etched characters, pure adrenaline-fuelled narrative – richly sustained and stylishly realised. Tim Willocks has crafted a superbly contained trip to hell that I urge you all to sign on for

—— James Ellroy

The best thriller since The Silence of the Lambs... Green River Rising is a brilliant entertainment...a powerful novel that will shock, and sell

—— Daily Telegraph

Gritty...brilliant...a compelling story of gripping pace and brutality, a thriller in the true sense of the word

—— GQ

This book should carry a warning: don’t bother reading if you’re afraid of being unable to put it down before the final page...a compelling, nightmarish canvas, marvellously painted... Green River Rising has the sure touch of a real craftsman

—— Publishing News

Maybe the best prison novel ever

—— James Ellroy

The best thriller since The Silence of the Lambs

—— Daily Telegraph

Savage, detailed, engrossing and guaranteed to leave a great livid bruise

—— Sunday Times

Fearsome, strange, deeply thoughtful

—— Guardian

With deceptively modest prose, Toibin presents the Virgin Mary's story as one of human loss rather than salvation. By doing so he gives us a Mary to identify with rather than venerate

—— Metro

Daring and very moving

—— John Banville , 'Books of the Year', The Irish Times

The Testament of Mary, a novella of absences and silences achieves a shimmering power

—— Joseph O'Connor , Irish Times, 'Books of the Year'

Toibin's take on the most famous mother in history .. is all too believable

—— Financial Times, 'Books of the Year'

Finely written

—— Spectator, 'Books of the Year'

Channels the memories of the Vorgin Mary into a subversive tour de force of economy and lascerating style

—— Marina Warner , TLS, 'Books of the Year'

Stands out for its bold conception and blazingly brilliant execution

—— Claire Harman , TLS, 'Books of the Year'

A miniature masterpiece

—— Marina Warner , TLS, 'Books of the Year'

The miracles are real, bit unsettling and sinister; Toibin's writing can be stunning beautiful; another should-have from this year's Booker shortlist

—— Kate Saunders , The Times 'Books of the Year'

Toibin's short, powerful book offers itself up as an additional gospel

—— Gaby Wood , Telegraph 'Books of the Year'

A hoot . . . There's a tincture of Pynchonian paranoia à la The Crying of Lot 49 here, and a dash, too, of the kitchen-sink comic winsomeness that the Dave Eggers generation brought to US literary fiction

—— FT

Glorious . . . A very, very funny novel. If misanthropy's going to come from anywhere it's from a lifetime's confrontation with halitosis

—— BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review

This is fierce, pithy, unforgiving satire, taking a sledgehammer to all-American cracker-barrel homeliness. Its comic energy is fuelled by disgust and exasperation, in the tradition of Roth and Heller and John Kennedy O'Toole. But Ferris is also a dab hand at more delicate humour, every bit as contemporary . . . Ferris is very funny . . . His voice is unique

—— Craig Brown , Mail on Sunday

Joshua Ferris has been heralded as one of America's sharpest observers of 21st-century life and, reading his third novel, it's easy to see why. To Rise Again At A Decent Hour has the immediacy and the trenchant satire of a brilliant stand-up routine as well as the big ideas and the in-depth research of a brilliant academic paper

—— Express

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is a funny novel, by turns ha-ha, peculiar and, like O'Rourke himself, suspended between heaven and earth

—— Independent

A virtuoso piece of entertainment which hurtles satisfyingly towards its conclusion after delivering a startling, didn’t-see-that-coming sucker-punch of a twist.

—— A Life in Books

Funny, moving and thought-provoking

—— Big Issue in the North

The key to Harkaway’s writing is the incredibly textured depth and imaginative characterisation. It is one of those books whose character are so rich that by the climax, you feel like they’ve penetrated your reality and you want to keep them close, even after the book is over.

—— Nudge

Original and exciting, full of humanity and comedy, Tigerman by Nick Harkaway is a beautiful piece of work

—— Morning Star

Original, exciting, full of humanity and comedy, Tigerman by Nick Harkaway is a beautiful piece of work.

—— Morning Star
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