Crusaders review at Bookmunch.co.uk

"It’s big, it’s brave and, oh dear, it’s brilliant… What really grabs you though, is that Crusaders is a setting out of the stall. Right from the get-go, there’s a relentlessly strong sense of who ‘Richard T Kelly the author’ is. This means that, for the most part, Crusaders reads nothing like a first foray into published storytelling, but rather the culmination of a life devoted to fiction, or else the rejection of it. This is evident in the chances Kelly takes throughout novel number one, the most audacious being the decision to mix an idiosyncratic and elaborate style of descriptive prose with coarse North Eastern dialect. Whilst it’s something even the most jaded and established of authors might shy away from, Kelly goes for it full throttle… Crusaders is not only a pleasure to read, it’s a heart-breaker to finish. It’s one of those books that you hope doesn’t have an end… If this is the shaky debut that Kelly will be denouncing in a decade’s time, then we’re in for one hell of a ride. Crusaders is a ballsy and self-assured first effort that puts most writers’ entire careers to shame."