The acclaimed, gripping debut about empire, race, and two brothers in the Queensland outback.

Superb debut novel

Paul Howarth's superb, but harrowing debut... Such is the savage brilliance of Howarth's prose that the reader feels almost complicit in Noone's horrible vision

Outstanding debut... a powerful novel of crimes in a bleak landscape

Paul Howarth impresses with his debut... gripping... Howarth has a real feel for small details of characterisation and setting.. [an] intriguing new writer

A gripping and vivid novel, Paul Howarth brings early Queensland to life so well that you can practically smell the horses

Just try putting this book down. An original, breathless, compelling debut

Only Killers and Thieves is a historical novel, but the savagery it depicts is still a matter to be reckoned with in contemporary Australia where the traumas of genocide continue to resonate from generation to generation. This is an impressive debut.

I couldn't put Only Killers and Thieves down. It does what great Westerns do, it drops you inside the ugliness and chaos of Australian frontier life, it educates and horrifies, but also it entertains. Howarth's debut is a powerhouse page turner.

Howarth's stunning debut has shades of Cormac McCarthy and Patrick deWitt... a book that grips from the outset and entertains even as it educates us about an appalling part of Australia's history

Australia in the 1880s feels like the Wild West in this outstanding debut about the hunt for a family's killers

In Only Killers and Thieves - latest in a superb line from the groundbreaking Pushkin Press - Paul Howarth has delivered an instant classic

Hugely impressive, if devastating. Reminiscent of Peter Carey

Accomplished debut... muscular prose... chilling coming-of-age story

Terrific debut... haunting... vivid

[Exposes] the unique reality of frontier life and little-known aspects of colonial history that have shaped the country

A gripping novel about conflict in the Australian outback at the turn of the century; beautifully done

Only Killers and Thieves is a story of brooding danger, family bonds, and the choices two brothers make in becoming men. A sparse and lyrical Western that manages to illuminate one of Australia's darkest periods

The narrative crackles with dramatic tension and an atmosphere of fear and dread. Howarth seduces us with his gripping story and empathetic characters while making us look unflinchingly at the casual brutality and entrenched racism of the Australian frontier

Grips like a dingo and lives long in the memory

An astounding debut

The writing is by turns savage and poetic, powerful and tender. The landscape of Central Queensland forms the perfect backdrop for a story about depravation, brutality and human folly, with the harsh, barren terrain becoming almost a character in its own right

A poignant and disturbing novel that explores a fraternal relationship. Set in the harsh outback of colonial Australia, this is a book that will draw you in from the very beginning, keep you engaged throughout, and leave you reeling from its events

Beautifully crafted... a quality of painful realism that is found in the best westerns

A spellbinding story that holds the attention of the reader by the compelling flow of narrative throughout

Howarth manages to infuse the old tropes with a depth of emotion and moral complication that will stay with readers long after closing the book

A tale of savagery and race, injustice and honour

Howarth is skilled at taking the old forms of the Western... and reshaping them to address contemporary concerns

An impressive debut . . . deals unflinchingly with the brutality of Australian rule. But the heart of the story is the complicated relationship between the brothers . . . While this book has a historical point to make, it also works as a suspenseful mystery and a resonant bildungsroman.

Brutal and beautiful

A powerful debut. Paul Howarth brings early Australia to life, bloody warts and all, in an epic tale of murder, revenge, and colonial oppression, with very little room for redemption. The story and his words will stay with you long after you have finished the book

Everywhere alive with vivid evocations of a landscape as punishing as it is beautiful and vibrant characters who would be just as at home in Blood Meridian or Butcher's Crossing, Only Killers and Thieves compels and convinces from the start. This is a thrilling book and Paul Howarth a writer of tremendous talent.

Powerful debut... the novel feels like a modern Western along the lines of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. Howarth's narrative is almost cinematic... U.S. readers will make the connection with our country's oppression of Native Americans and gain an understanding of the fundamental racism of both former British colonies... Howarth is a novelist to watch

A quest for frontier justice drives the events of Howarth's devastating and impressive debut, set in the Australian outback in 1885

Rarely have I read such a powerful account... a compelling read

A stunning novel, lean yet grand in scale, violent and deeply touching at the same time

An important piece of fiction, brilliantly written with plenty of compassion and understanding. Highly recommended

A Western of grit and grace... at once epic and intimate... a harshly beautiful debut novel by one hell of a promising author

The structure, the characters, the emotional aspects were so strong that I felt everything as if I was there. In short, it was like a punch to the gut

Paul Howarth is a British-Australian author and former lawyer. He holds a master's degree in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, where he was awarded the Malcolm Bradbury Scholarship, and currently lives in Norwich with his family. Only Killers and Thieves is his first novel.