Crusaders reviews in the Sunday Times (Andrew Holgate)

‘This is a novel ultimately about faith and morals – morals upheld, morals compromised, morals abandoned – and Kelly’s complex and sophisticated handling of this theme ensures that the reader remains involved until the last page...’
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‘One accusation often aimed at modern British novelists is that they lack ambition and an instinct for the big stage. Step forward Richard T Kelly, whose Crusaders is a big, generous fiction debut that resurrects a whole tradition of British writing - the state-of-the-nation’s-morals set piece, more familiar from Victorian literature - and breathes new life into it... What really impresses is [Kelly's] ease with his characters and their milieu. I can't remember a modern British debut that offers a more convincing portrait of so many different walks of life, or that paints its portrait of an era and a region with greater credibility. A novelist to watch.’
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Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times