Mr Walker brings the adventure novel back to private life [with Ash]. It is good to find that it is not necessary to shoot presidents or topple governments, ravage Africa, rob Fort Knox or lay negresses to generate excitement: that a simple chase in which man is both quarry and hunter is enough. The device of the parallel plot of Ash's novel might seem out of place, rather too literary; the more so as his involvement in that book intertwines with and acts upon the course of events. It does not come out like that, however, because it is well handled; proving once again that you can get away with what you can bring off.

Allan Massie, "A Bonny Fighter," in The Times Literary Supplement (© Times Newspapers Ltd. (London) 1976; reproduced from The Times Literary Supplement by permission), No, 3,869, May 7, 1976, p. 561.