‘Harry Devlin, a Liverpool lawyer with an eye for miscarriages of justice, researches a 30-year-old murder. His investigation uncovers the corrupt underbelly of the Merseybeat decade in this first rate complex thriller.’
The Sunday Times Books For Christmas 1995
‘It’s such a pleasure to unearth a lawyer who can write in real-life language. Martin Edwards is … a Liverpool solicitor who writes terrific crime novels about Harry Devlin, a charming but down-at-heel Liverpool solicitor with bruised emotions, a nice line in self-deprecation and penchant for Mersey low-life.’
Marcel Berlins, The Guardian
‘Perhaps Edwards’ greatest achievement in this excellent thriller is to sustain an almost novel-length red herring which, in a story of continual twists, isn’t giving too much away.’
The Sunday Times
‘Certainly the best yet of the series featuring dissolute Liverpool solicitor Harry Devlin by (not so dissolute) Liverpool solicitor Martin Edwards. This, the fourth ‘Devlin’ takes him into a different league … It’s a well written, well paced and wryly amusing book. The horrific descriptions that pervade the books of [Patricia D.] Cornwell, for example, don’t make it on to Edwards’ pages, although the crimes they describe do. And I haven’t read a book with two more entertaining twists in the tail in years.’
Gerard Siggins, The Sunday Tribune
‘There is a special fascination about a mystery that is supposedly solved and then resurfaces years later. Martin Edwards exploits this fascination most intriguingly – and with a sensational outcome – in Yesterday’s Papers, the latest and best of his Harry Devlin series’.
Peter Lovesey
‘A welcome return … there’s a dizzying cast of characters here and … some excellent dialogue, a wonderful description of a typical solicitor’s archives and a good account of what it takes to become a middle aged belly dancer.’
Frances Hegarty, New Law Journal
‘The Merseybeat is the background to Martin Edwards’ fourth mystery … and his skilful clue-planting and twisty plotting are better than ever.’
The Morning Star
‘Another investigation for this seductive hero … not just one but three shock endings …. another satisfying saga featuring a character rapidly catching up with Morse.’
South Wales Echo
‘Liverpool solicitor Martin Edwards is a crime writer to look out for. He writes with a devilish twist and in Yesterday’s Papers his fourth Harry Devlin mystery, he shows how clever he is at it … Mr. Edwards sets clues which sometimes lead the reader down dead ends and then suddenly, everything goes ablaze … uncanny twists in the plot make this book readable to the very last line. Harry Devlin is now well established … Mr. Edwards’ characters speak for themselves and his story bubbles along from start to finish. Quite simply, it is a good read, and I cannot imagine any solicitor not enjoying it.’
Law Society Gazette
‘Martin Edwards gets better with every new Harry Devlin which leads me to hope that Yesterday’s Papers is not the peak but one of many peaks … It’s a wonderful storyline … Truly one to enjoy’.
A Shot In The Dark
‘Martin Edwards has done a masterful job in plotting this novel with its three or four separate, yet related, storylines. All come together at the end in one neat package. Again I say, why isn’t this talented author being published in the US?’
Deadly Pleasures
‘Ingeniously contrived, the story enhances the author’s reputation as a crime writer of quality and establishes Harry Devlin as an investigator to be reckoned with. More will doubtless be heard of both.’
The Criminologist
‘A steady enjoyable read’
Geoff Bradley, CADS
‘The Merseyside background is sharply etched’
Philip Scowcroft, CADS
‘It drips with atmosphere, from the underground archive for dead files next to the ferry terminal, to the dunes of Southport … Martin Edwards twists and turns the plot so as to make second guessing difficult. I read until the early hours only to find my pet theory shot to pieces’.
Solicitors Journal
‘A couple of neat little surprises on the way … There’s a light-hearted touch to the book and Harry likes a good joke. Its all wound up in a satisfying conclusion and if you, like Harry Devlin, enjoy crime writing’s Golden Age then I am sure you will have fun with this.’
Crime Time
‘An especially fiendish plot’
Rachel Laurence, Liverpool Daily Post