Paying For It

Paying For It might just be the most aptly titled novel of the year. Rarely has a title worked on so many levels... the narrative blasts off the page like a triple malt... This is one adrenalin-pumped novel, as moving and compassionate as it is stylishly written

Ken Bruen, author of The Guards novels

A fine debut. Black is the new noir

Allan Guthrie

Assuming (and hoping) that this is the first of many featuring the tortured Gus Dury, we've never seen a series character so richly and honestly drawn from the get-go. The emotional punches connect solidly in Paying For It, as the pains of being a father and the pains of being a son are laid bare. The debut of the year

Thuglit.com

Of all the new writers emerging this year, he is the one to watch

Martyn Waites, author of the Joe Donovan series

Tony Black is already one of my favourite living crime writers

Nick Stone, author of Mr Clarinet

Tony Black makes an amazing debut with this book, a dark and emotional piece of work ... [he] has managed in his first book to show a maturity in his writing that some authors chase for years. I'd put him up there with Rankin and Kernick and Billingham with just this first novel. I can't wait for more

Crimespree

Tony Black's first novel hits the ground running, combining a sympathetic ear for the surreal dialogue of the dispossessed with a portrait of the belly of a city painted in the blackest of humour

Guardian