Observer
'While creating an atmosphere of suspense Martinez ... engages the reader in an enthralling conflict between the heart and the mind'.
London Review of Books
'The plot rattles along ... pausing occasionally to fill the reader in with a bit of necessary theoretical background'.
Sainsbury's Magazine
'This award-winning Spanish bestseller is a spare, intelligent thriller ... a classic crime novel with universal appeal'.
The List,
'The narrative unfolds in a clever and satisfying way, like a balanced formula'.
Marcus du Sautoy, Guardian
'The mix of mathematics and murder mystery makes for a powerful cocktail'
Daily Mail
'Unusual blend of murder most foul and mathematics most pure ... playful intellectual exercise'
The Times
'An intellectual thriller that can be much enjoyed even by those whose grasp of mathematics is limited'
Choice
'Maths and philosophy meet murder in this clever whodunnit set in university Oxford ... Evocative settings and an intriguing, well-constructed plot'
On a balmy summer's day in Oxford an old lady who once helped decipher the Enigma Code is killed. After receiving a cryptic anonymous note containing only the address and the symbol of a circle, Arthur Seldom, a leading mathematician, arrives to find the body. Then follow more murders - an elderly man on a life-support machine is found dead with needle marks in this throat; the percussionist of an orchestra at a concert at Blenheim Palace dies before the audience's very eyes - seemingly unconnected except for notes appearing in the maths department, for the attention of Seldom. Why is he being targeted as the recipient of these coded messages? All he can conjecture is that it might relate to his latest book, an unexpected bestseller about serial killers and the parallels between investigations into their crimes and certain mathematical theorems. It is left to Seldom and a postgraduate mathematics student to work out the key to the series of symbols before the killer strikes again.
Iain Banks
The Steep Approach to Garbadale
