Author:Liza Ward

In 1958, as the snow fell across Nebraska, 19-year-old Charlie Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann, climbed into a stolen car and blazed into history with a string of bloody murders that stunned America. But why, over thirty years later, does Lowell, a Manhattan antiques collector, still dream of what happened? And who is Puggy, the young girl obsessed by the murders? And then there's Caril Ann's version of the story - from the day she first met Charlie to the end of their rampage on a farm outside the town of Valentine.
Disturbing and intense, Outside Valentine is a story of devastating losses and the transforming power of love.
Compelling... captivating. A must-read
—— I-DA haunting and striking account of the imagined inner lives of real people caught up in terrible events
—— Daily MailImpeccably drawn...astonishingly poetic yet palpable prose
—— ElleWell-written and chilling
—— UncutWickedly funny... Warner can combine literary style with go-anywhere demotic humour... Like St Trinians with condoms and male nudity
—— IndependentMore wild fun from the outrageously talented bright young thing
—— ScotsmanThis is the most profound of Warner's books
—— GuardianI re-read the "Dance" every five years or so and always find something new – the world has changed but the characters are evergreen. Everybody has a Widmerpool in their life.
—— Daisy GoodwinHe has wit, style, and panache, in a world where those qualities are in permanently short supply
—— The New York Review of BooksA book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu ... Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's.
—— New York Times[A] comic masterpiece
—— Irish TimesComic, satisfying, thought-provoking, addictive
—— The TelegraphIt's his supreme skill in mastering a lengthily interwoven chronicle, the evolution of such a range and variety of pin-point characters, the wit and the cultural ambition that give the novel a unique place in English Literature.
—— Melvyn BraggIt's full of insights and recognisable characters. Remarkable.
—— Loyd Grossman , Daily ExpressWonderfully observed and true, funny, stylistically dazzling and soothing and long enough to take one through any lockdown.
—— Matthew Kneale , The TimesA passionate, hilarious look at mid-twentieth-century Britain.
—— Jeremy Paxman , Gentleman's JournalSomething I know I love ... Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, which I could read endlessly.
—— Tracey Thorn , Daily MailI’m bowled over, hooked and, hurrah, there are 11 more volumes to go as Jenkins grows up. Terrific.
—— Daily MailA highly accomplished debut, this is a chilling portrait of racial tension, social immorality, betrayal and love, and also an atmospheric examination of the end of innocence.
—— The Lady MagazineThe writing is strong and though the sections featuring Gay's earlier life lose momentum, the story picks up pace when the girls' paths become entwined and the conclusion is compelling and thrillingly macabre.
—— TelegraphThis fictional account of a true story gives a darkly shocking version of the events surrounding this tragic case.
—— Good Book GuideBrilliantly melds a factual post-war murder into a dark fictional tale
—— Telegraph