The System

Critics Review

• Pacy, immersive and vivid, with strong characterisation and no punches pulled, this is an utterly riveting read

  Guardian, Thrillers of the Month

• Gripping, meticulously-researched and smartly-plotted, I devoured this brilliant novel over the course of a weekend.

  Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

• The most compelling courtroom drama I have read this year

  Sunday Telegraph, Novel of the Week

• A portrait of Nineties LA to sit alongside that of James Ellroy’s depiction of it in the Forties

  The Times, Thriller of the Month

• A crime novel and a thriller, but, like the best in the genre, it invites you to think as well as feel

  Scotsman

• Gattis tells a muscular tale about injustice, systemic racism and a US city abandoned by Californian and national government, and infuses it with humanity and supersonic excitement

  Metro, Best Crime Novels of the Year

• Powerfully illuminates every corner of the law-and-order universe . . . accessible and irresistible

  Los Angeles Times

• The System is a tour de force . . . It is a page-turner, but one you will want to read slowly in order to savor every gorgeous sentence . . . Ryan Gattis is a magician.

  David Dow, author of Confessions of an Innocent Man

• I relate so much to this book, it’s painful . . . That’s how real this novel is . . . Front to back, it’s not just an incredible work, it’s an experience.

  Gustavo "Goose" Alvarez, author of The Pawn

• The System‘s panoramic approach—eschewing one main character for a whole set of people associated with a crime—sets it apart . . . A tale of redemption, an examination of loyalty and a love song for family bonds.

  Patrick Hoffman, author of Clean Hands

• Through multiple narrators, [Ryan Gattis] tells a muscular, rousing tale of injustice, systemic racism and the desperation of those chunks of urban America abandoned by local and national government.

  Metro

• The System is an odyssey through the legal system . . . The dialogue isn’t dialogue; it’s what you’d actually hear – on the street, in a courtroom, on the prison yard.

  Joe Ide, author of the IQ series

• Gripping, fascinating, moving, and so very, very real. The System is one of the best books I’ve read in years.

  Marcia Clark, author of Final Judgment and former Criminal Prosecutor

• Ryan Gattis ingeniously casts deeply researched novels of social protest as page-turning crime fiction . . . This book blew my mind.

  Dan Slater, author of Wolf Boys: Two American Teenagers

• The System is as real as it gets – often brutal, but a beautifully written reality of not only life on the street, but also getting caught up or working in the justice system.

  David Swinson, author of The Second Girl