“There is about Maggie Estep’s work a directness, a clear determination—a drive to cut through, to break through, to claw through—that is impressive.”
—A.M. Homes, author of The Mistress’s Daughter

“Maggie Estep is the bastard daughter of Raymond Chandler and Anaïs Nin. Her prose is hard-boiled and sexy; she turns a good phrase and shows some leg.”
—Jonathan Ames, author of Wake Up, Sir!

“Maggie Estep writes like a character you hope to meet at the bar of your dreams. She tells stories about gorgeous freaks, addled hipsters, kicked puppies, gold-hearted tough guys, galavanters, bridge climbers, soft-boiled horse players, and nice ladies—many of whom have interesting love affairs, occasionally with one another. Even better, she describes them all with sympathy, verve, wry emotional intelligence, and a little disdain. It’s like reading Dashiell Hammett and Laurie Colwin at the same time. Alice Fantastic will make you dazed and susceptible.”
—Nicky Dawidoff

“No one else writes sentences like Maggie Estep; hers zip and loop and poke at us like a flirt. The characters in Alice Fantastic lead lives of ragged and chaotic romance with men, women, and dogs, set against a backdrop of New York City’s last remaining fringes—you know, the fringes where the rest of us all live. The result is a book as unexpected as it is strangely reassuring and familiar. I loved it, and my pit bulls did too.”
—Ken Foster, author of The Dogs Who Found Me

“There’s lunatic fun to be had in the offbeat adventures Maggie Estep dreams up for her endearing slacker heroine, Ruby Murphy.”
—New York Times, on Flamethrower