Winner of the inaugural Spinetingler award for Best Novel -- New Voice

"The first half of the book rattles along at a fair old pace, with dead dogs, kneecappings and so forth, but things go into freefall for the last 100 pages or so, which are possibly the most extraordinary white-knuckle ride of violent chaos and deathly dark humour (including some astonishing scenes involving a crucifixion that will live long in the memory) I have ever come across."
The Herald

"twisted, gruesome, profane and very funny"
Bookgasm

"Hard Man is actually a couple of books, both of them excellent"
Ed Gorman

"a joyride from start to finish"
Curled Up With A Good Book

"dramatic and fun"
I've Been Reading Lately

"blacker than a dog's guts"
Pulp Pusher

"Chandler meets Titus Andronicus on the blasted heath of Scotland's urban underclass."
The Age

"Allan Guthrie has followed up his snappy Two-Way Split and the so-cruel Kiss Her Goodbye with a novel of violence, humor and deeply cynical pathos....Guthrie keeps his edge sharp and the reader on edge with Hard Man."
Crimespree Magazine

"a brisk and suitably boisterous read, punctuated by some bone crunching fights and inventive swearing"
The Skinny

"Guthrie's blithe sense of humor and inventive approach to the worst-case scenario make this a recommendation."
Booklist

"By turns hilarious and horrifying, Guthrie’s original voice grabs the reader and doesn’t let go."
Kirkus Review

"If there's going to be a better crime novel in 2007, it's one that will have to do a lot to beat Hard Man."
Shots Mag

"grotesquely fascinating"
Publishers Weekly"

"one of the most entertaining crime fiction books of the year"
Things I'd Rather Be Doing

"very funny"
Do The Math

"impossible to put down"
Lothian Life

"Pretty much blew me away"
Pulpetti

"character-driven and exciting"
Cleveland Plain Dealer

"one of those books that makes you wonder what the writer will come up with next"
Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine

"Served with a severe brand of black humor that will make you gag with laughter"
The Crime Time Cafe

"a thoroughly engaging tale, complete with some twists that are so stealthily deployed they're pure genius"
Spinetingler Magazine

"Hard Man is like a gory car crash. You look at the carnage. You look away, filled with horror. Then you look again. You can’t help it."
Independent Crime

"evocative"
Scotland On Sunday

"The mixture of black comedy and relentless action makes this a hardboiled romp to remember."
Library Journal

"a real knuckleduster of a book"
Waterstone's Books Quarterly

"an outstanding piece of crime fiction"
Fantasy Book Spot

"Perhaps unknowingly, Guthrie also carries the banner of literary authors such as Jane Austen, who in “Mansfield Park” (1814) set about the difficult task of making morality more attractive than licentiousness"
The Virginian Pilot

"the reader is left gasping for breath"
Steven Sill, I Love A Mystery

"This may not be like any other love story you've ever read"
Maddy Van Hertbruggen, I Love A Mystery

"one of the most hilarious and gruesome crime novels it has ever been my pleasure to read" Good Reading Magazine

"a dark, perfectly placed journey through psychoses, surreality and the twilight world of noir that is Guthrie’s twisted vision of Edinburgh"
Crime Scene Scotland

"Be prepared for horrific violence, graphic demonstrations of man's inhumanity to man and seriously deviant behaviour. You don't want to look, but you cannot put the book down."
The New Review

"HARD MAN is at once highly stylized and brutally realistic--the love-child of hardboiled fiction and crime reporting--and the experience of reading it is like none you've had."
Behind The Black Mask