Praise for Liza Ward’s Outside Valentine

“Making a bold entrance … with remarkable poise and insight … Ward uses the Starkweather case as a springboard to examine how the legacy of violence reverberates within families.”

—USA Today

“Ward … [gives] us an eerie sense of the way horrible events reverberate down the generations.”

—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Ward fashions a harrowing story in which not all the victims are dead.… This is a haunting and striking account of the imagined inner lives of real people caught up in terrible events.”

—Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

“In a structure reminiscent of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours, Ward gives us three separate narrators and three separate time frames, the strands uniting in unexpected and intricate fashion.”

—Toronto Globe and Mail (Canada)

“Liza Ward runs a tight, thrumming line through her narrative, punching up scenes with a sharp practiced touch and bringing wise compassion to bear on the tragic events that unfold with such dark inevitability.”

—Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies and My Sky Blue Trades, a memoir

“In this riveting literary suspense novel, first-timer Ward presents in lean, luminous prose a precarious world where true love can ravage as well as redeem, exploring a series of murders in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the 1950s from the perspective of three narrators.… An already chilling novel drops a few more degrees at the unsettling admission that it’s based in truth.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[A] superb, sensitive, and chilling debut novel … Outside Valentine packs a visceral impact that is unforgettable.”

—South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“A gifted writer, Ward uses simple imagery to chilling effect.”

—The Washington Post Book World

“Disturbing in its brutality as it is redeeming in the search for love, Outside Valentine is a book that will haunt readers long after they turn the last page.”

—Grand Rapids Press

“Compelling … Ultimately a novel of alienation and purposelessness, yet captivating in its moments of lyrical intimacy, the effect of the massacre spread like ripples across a pond, staining three generations. A must read.”

—i-D (United Kingdom)

“Revisiting the 1950s murder spree of Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, romanticized in the classic 1973 movie Badlands, Ward, in her first novel, places her sympathies clearly with the victims.… This is a sad, angry book of raw emotions, elegantly phrased.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Ward presents a suspenseful and chilling work.… Often, true crime stories are told through the eyes of the killer or the victim. Ward manages to tell the tale from all sides, and astonishingly, especially considering her relation to two of the victims, reveals a deeply affecting story.”

—Paradise Post

“Ward’s portraits are harrowing, heartfelt, and unforgettable.”

—Anita Shreve, author of The Pilot’s Wife and The Weight of Water

“Remarkable.”

—Oregonian

“Masterful in imagery and fascinating in structure.”

—Midwest Living

“Stark and stunning.”

—Rocky Mountain News

“It’s a well-written, chilling book, the Nebraskan landscape as locked in snow as the family relationships.”

—Uncut (London)

“[Ward] has created an evocative tale of the power of love to both create, and to destroy.”

—Bookpage

“A richly textured work concerned with character, moral choice, and the power of love.”

—Lincoln Journal Star