Before the Fall

Critics Review

• High-class entertainment.

  Mail on Sunday

• As a pacey whodunit…this is the perfect summer read.

  The Times

• This is one of the year’s best suspense novels, a mesmerizing, surprise-jammed mystery that works purely on its own, character-driven terms…Mr. Hawley has made it very, very easy to race through his book in a state of breathless suspense.

  New York Times

• I started and finished Before the Fall in one day. That begins to tell you what kind of smart, compellingly dramatic read it is. So read it.

  James Patterson

• There are some books…that stay with you long after you’ve read them. The characters are so real and because of this their fates matter. Before The Fall by Noah Hawley is one of these books.

  Irish Independent

• Before the Fall is an astonishing, character-driven tour-de-force. The story is a multi-layered, immersive examination of truth, relationships, and our unquenchable thirst for the media’s immediate explanation of unfathomable tragedy.

  Karin Slaughter

• An addictive thriller whose thematic richness is reminiscent of Franzen.

  The Sunday Times

• A searingly told, multi-layered portrait of celebrity in the modern world with a tantalising mystery at its heart…Hawley’s sublime prose glows on every page in this literary thriller of the highest quality, which never loses its grip.

  Daily Mail

• Hawley combines a thriller’s tight structure and addictive narrative with characterisation and thematic richness reminiscent of Jonathan Franzen

  The Sunday Times, Pick of the Paperbacks

• [A] Literary thriller of genius.

  India Knight

• This is a brilliantly sharp and intelligent thriller. Hawley has written four previous novels. If they’re anything like this I’ll be reading them all.

  Evening Standard

• Noah Hawley really knows how to keep a reader turning the pages, but there’s more to the novel than suspense. On one hand Before the Fall is a complex, compulsively readable thrill ride of a novel. On the other, it is an exploration of the human condition, a meditation on the vagaries of human nature, the dark side of celebrity, the nature of art, the power of hope and the danger of an unchecked media. The combination is a potent, gritty thriller that exposes the high cost of news as entertainment and the randomness of fate.

  New York Times Book Review

• A thriller of masterful precision…Hawley meditates on celebrity, modern journalism and timeless heroism, the rich American’s psyche post-9/11 and messy politics, and he does it with nuanced, precise style. This is a thriller that has brains as well as balls.

  Independent

• This is an unequivocally excellent book, a literary novel, a thriller, a whodunit and a meditation about life and love. Each paragraph deserves a rereading, but is too exciting to let one pause.

  Literary Review

• Before the Fall is a ravishing and riveting beauty of a thriller. It’s also a deep exploration of desire, betrayal, creation, family, fate, mortality, and rebirth. It’s one part Dennis Lehane, one part Dostoevsky. I was spellbound from first page to last; I haven’t fully recovered yet.

  Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours

• This isn’t just a good novel; it’s a great one. I trusted no one in these pages, yet somehow cared about them all. Before the Fall brings a serrated edge to every character, every insight, and every wicked twist.

  Brad Meltzer, bestselling author of The President's Shadow

• He has an intuitive understanding of human behaviour and an instinctive grasp of plot that make him a master storyteller

  Guardian

• Overall, it’s hard to imagine a better marriage of genre and literary fiction.

  John Dugdale

• A masterly blend of mystery, suspense, tragedy, and shameful media hype…a gritty tale of a man overwhelmed by unwelcome notoriety, with a stunning, thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

  Publishers Weekly starred review

• Like the successful screenwriter that he is, Hawley piles on enough intrigues and plot complications to keep you hooked.

  Kirkus Reviews

• A compelling combination of domestic drama and conspiracy puzzler.

  Guardian

• A suspense story full of red herrings and tension

  Woman & Home

• Fast, compelling, gripping

  Evening Standard

• It’s a compassionate, insightful novel, as rich thematically as it is narratively, compelling… Hawley explores the discord between fame and reality, and the extent to which the media distorts the truth, themes that couldn’t be more relevant in Trump’s America

  Observer