'Julie Kavanagh has done an adroit unpicking of the intricacies of the history, and her book is at once admirable for its scholarship and immensely enjoyable in its raciness.'
- John Banville, New York Times Book Review
'The tale of the Phoenix Park murders is not unfamiliar, but Kavanagh recounts it with a great sense of drama... Kavanagh's account reminds me of the very best of true crime...Kavanagh never hurries; she takes the time to describe characters and places with exquisite detail. An engaging story is rendered beautiful because of the tiny ephemera that a less sensitive author might have carelessly discarded.'
- The Times (Book of the Week)
'What Julie Kavanagh has done here is to bring this most extraordinary of assassinations to life...one of the best researched and most enjoyable historical reads I have come across in quite some time.'
- Sunday Independent
'The dramatic story of the Phoenix Park murders...is told with novelistic panache by Julie Kavanagh.'
- Kim Bielenberg, Irish Independent
'These tragic events are vividly recounted in Julie Kavanagh's lively and suspenseful The Irish Assassins...a fluent, well-researched study of Anglo-Irish relations in the Victorian era.'
- Wall Street Journal
'A compelling blend of political history and true crime...a colourful, ambitious book...makes most other accounts of the period seem bloodless by comparison.'
- Sunday Business Post