Reviews for Every Man a Menace
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - Ten Best Mysteries of 2016
"Patrick Hoffman's astonishing, violent novel... filled with sharply drawn characters... [is] an attention-demanding, mind-bending narrative as full of shocks and surprises as an LSD party."
- TOM NOLAN, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"I expected to find a bunch of believable lowlifes killing each other believably, over a large shipment of drugs. I was not expecting–wasn't demanding–subtle characterization, tricky narrative switchbacks, or vivid, moody prose... When Hoffman takes off his detecting hat, he's closer to Denis Johnson than Elmore Leonard."
- LORIN STEIN, PARIS REVIEW
"With debts to vintage Elmore Leonard and Donald E. Westlake, and a hat tip to the George Pelecanos of Shoedog, Patrick Hoffman's intricate, hallucinatory second novel is a thrill ride of noir pleasures."
- DECLAN HUGHES, THE IRISH TIMES
"Crime fiction thrives on fresh voices above all, and Hoffman is one of the freshest out there at the moment."
- SARAH WEINMAN, BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB
“The book is distinguished by its virtuoso set pieces . . . a nasty tour de force . . . Hoffman’s follow-up to The White Van is another strong and original addition to the crime fiction genre.”
- KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)
THE STRAND MAGAZINE - NUMBER ONE BOOK OF 2016
"Violent and terrifying... vivid and colourful... An exciting read while we wait breathlessly for the film."
- JACK BATTEN, THE TORONTO STAR
"Hoffman is an infernally clever writer. His first novel, The White Van, was a Fabergé egg of a thriller, spring-loaded with revelations, and Every Man a Menace is more intricate still. Yet Hoffman's puzzles are more human than mechanical. His characters are too complex and his scenes too immediate and engrossing to be diminished by intrigue."
-ANNA MUNDOW, BARNES & NOBLE REVIEW
"Patrick Hoffman is a master storyteller... It just does not get better than this."
-JOE HARTLAUB, BOOKREPORTER
"With style and intrigue, Patrick Hoffman's Every Man a Menace proves that his top-flight debut, the San Francisco crime novel, The White Van, was no fluke... Hammet, Leonard, and Burdett will need to make room for the new gunslinger in town."
"Impossible to put down... Hoffman writes with a burning urgency, but he also takes the time to develop haunting characters with interior lives and doomed pasts. We burned through this vicious pageturner in two nights."
- iBooks, 25 BEST BOOKS OF OCTOBER
"Darkly entertaining... For readers who love crime fiction that keeps them up all night, this book is absolutely perfect."
- BOOKISH, BEST READS OF FALL 2016
“Every Man a Menace is everything you could want in a thriller—lightning pace, dead-on dialogue, and a twisting, high-torque plot. But, most of all, this novel is smart and authentic, a welcome jolt at a time when so much fiction reads like it rolled off an assembly line.”
- CARL HIAASEN, AUTHOR OF RAZOR GIRL
“Every Man a Menace reveals an isolated act of violence to be a shift in the fragile balance of a complex chain of alliances built to bring the drug Molly into existence and transport it from Bangkok across the world to Miami and San Francisco. Caught in the narrative’s sharp focus is the whole network of greedy, scared, frightening, and fascinating characters. Whatever you're reading right now, put it down and read this book first.”
- THOMAS PERRY, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FORTY THIEVES
“This scorching novel takes us to the heart of a multimillion dollar transglobal business we only glimpse in bloody headlines. Fast, terrifying and at times beautiful, Every Man A Menace is that most unusual thing: a deeply original and frightening crime novel.”
- DENISE MINA, AUTHOR OF BLOOD, SALT, WATER
“Few authors capture the global realities of drug smuggling as Hoffman does in this remarkable novel—the logistics, the tensions, and the inevitable replaceablity of all links in the chain. Every Man a Menace is a stunner, an absolute masterclass in plotting, detail, and consequences. It’s worth every second of your time.”
- RYAN GATTIS, AUTHOR OF ALL INVOLVED
The White Van
"[A] gritty and exhilarating first novel...Everything in his unpredictable fiction has the dissonant clink of alarming truth. The White Van, with it's quick and scary turns, provides a hell of a ride."
-TOM NOLAN, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Ten Best Mystery Books of 2014
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"[An] exhilarating crime debut... Hoffman's crime plot doesn't just thicken, it boils with surprise after surprise and suspense as tight as a noose. Hoffman, a private investigator, seems to genuinely love and understand his urban desperadoes, making their brutal choices real and understandable... The hard-boiled prose glints like a mirror."
-CAROLINE LEAVITT, THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"Filled with epic twists and savage turns, the pace is relentless, and Hoffman’s drive sets fire to the pages as he crawls across the sinister black underbelly of the Californian dream. Hoffman unflinchingly looks into the heart of the sleaziest inhabitants of the underworld, yet manages to bring each of them alive in distinctive, almost hypnotic, detail. Their screams of pain and anguish sear every page."
- JEFFREY WANSELL, UK DAILY MAIL
"My favourite debut of 2015 so far is Patrick Hoffman's The White Van."
- John O'Connell, THE GUARDIAN
"Stuffed with truly shocking twists."
- Isabella Biedenharn, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"A heist propels Hoffman’s outstanding first novel. Hoffman, who spent nine years working as a PI in San Francisco, writes with great authority about the city’s seamy side and the grim realities of life for its down-on-their-luck denizens."
- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Starred Review
"Patrick Hoffman's remarkable and unsettling debut novel, is one of the best noir books of the year...Hoffman is a marvel at keeping the reader guessing and...infuses each page with a cinematic narrative."
-Joe Hartlaub, BOOKREPORTER.COM
"With the rat-a-tat-tat declarative sentences of a modern day Dashiell Hammett, debut novelist Patrick Hoffman jumps into the crowded pool of hard-core noir and makes a big splash."
-Bruce Jacobs, SHELF AWARENESS
"Hoffman transforms San Francisco into a noir playground for all sorts of shady characters--the kind that can only come from the mind of writer who really gets people, their secrets and the lengths to which they'll go when they have no good choices."
- BOOKPAGE
"I am confident enough to compare Hoffman to another of my favourite authors, Denis Johnson... It’s brilliantly done, and overall a debut that I cannot recommend highly enough."
"The White Van will grip you from the first page and leave you looking over your shoulder for weeks. Patrick Hoffman is nothing less than an emerging master of the crime genre. Whatever he writes, I'll read."
—JORDAN BASS, executive editor, MCSWEENEY'S
“A wild ride into the black heart of classic noir that unfolds in a pulsating series of betrayals, blackmail, bad decisions, and worse luck; this is the stuff of Dashiell Hammett’s best nightmares.”
— MARK HASKELL SMITH, author of RAW
“If you intend to read The White Van, I hope you’ve canceled any other plans for the next day or two, since you won’t be moving from your couch. In this rocket-paced San Francisco thriller, the cops are as desperate as the criminals, and the criminals as sympathetic as the cops. Patrick Hoffman has written an absolutely spellbinding novel.”
—MICHEAL KARDOS, author of THE THREE DAY AFFAIR