“THIS POWERFUL BOOK reads like a mystery, fast and compelling; unlike most mysteries, however, it stays with you afterward.”

—Men’s Journal

“A WISE AND FASCINATING TALE WELL TOLD.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“HIP, HARD-BOILED AND FILLED WITH MEMORABLE ECCENTRICS … The Paperboy burns with the phosphorescent atmosphere of betrayal.”

—Time

“DEXTER’S PROSE IS TAUT AND LEAN, and The Paperboy moves with the surprising speed and agility of an alligator. The dynamics of the James brothers’ relationships with each other and with their father are tantalizing.”

—The Houston Chronicle

“WITH TAUT PROSE AND VIBRANT CHARACTERS, Dexter creates a world that is both familiar and frighteningly foreign.… It is a tale worth reading, but one that will leave you wondering whether truth really matters.”

—The Denver Post

“WITH PERFECT PITCH AND A MIX OF FEROCITY AND SYMPATHY, Pete Dexter portrays the personages and the weakening institutions of a rural Southern district in the ‘60s.”

—New York Newsday

“THE PAPERBOY IS AN OUT-AND-OUT YARN, an entertaining story, full of a conflicting mixture of world weariness and naiveté, told with a chip-on-its-shoulder, humble-pie braggadocio.”

—Chicago Tribune

“Dexter has constructed the novel from tight, superbly convincing scenes.… The Paperboy is, in fact, a better book than the justly honored Paris Trout.… You can’t put it down. But the real measure of Dexter’s success, artistic and moral, is that you wish you could.”

—GQ

“THE PAPERBOY IS DEXTER AT THE TOP OF HIS FORM, a terrific outing by one of our most distinct and gifted contemporary authors.”

—The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tn.)

“DEXTER IS A GIFTED STORYTELLER … [his] prose is spare and brutal, edged with dark humor.”

—The Philadelhia Inquirer

“BOTH POIGNANT AND ELEGANT … Dexter is a gifted storyteller. His narrative style is precise, yet richly detailed.… The Paperboy works beautifully at many levels.… It is artfully crafted. It demands to be read; and it’s a wonderful story deserving of literary prize consideration.”

—The Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)

“HAUNTING … DEXTER IS A MASTER OF COLLOQUIAL POETRY, of moods revealed through gestures and settings. Somber scenes unraveling in slow motion make this a haunting book.”

—Playboy

“A MOVING AND SUSPENSEFUL NOVEL … Dexter’s well-drawn characters are a believable mélange who interact realistically and inhabit his plot with great strength and mobility.”

—The Oregonian (Portland)

“With clarity and an amazing capacity for simplicity of language and down-home metaphor, Dexter weaves a tale that exposes the extremes of goodness and nastiness that exist in newspaper life.”

—The Washington Post

“FROM THE DESK OF A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER comes this thoroughly engrossing story of murder, deception, and betrayal. On the surface, The Paperboy is a first-rate mystery.… At a deeper level, though, this novel surpasses most others.… The sheer suspense of this compelling tale will capture most readers, but it is the people of the novel and their secret motivations that readers will not be able to forget when the last page is read.”

—Southern Living

“[Dexter] has written as sparsely here as in any of his previous books, and most of what carries the reader along so irresistibly lies beneath the surface of his prose.”

—The New York Times

“What deepens and darkens [Dexter’s] writing, so that art is the precise word to describe it, is a powerful understanding that character rules, that we live with our weaknesses and die of our strengths.”

—John Skow, Time