...a tightly plotted, fast-moving novel. It hurtles along like a runaway train full of wild characters...and like watching a matinee in a darkened theatre, you find yourself stumbling into the light when it's over.
Vancouver Sun
...a taut, poetic thriller that probes notions of power, sexuality, and morality....a story with not only legs, but bone and sinew, blood, and soul.
Quill & Quire
Breathlessly good.
Washington Post
It is a highly visual novel, with strong characters, fast-paced action, and a Quebec setting not often found in English Canadian fiction. Caple is a clear and muscular writer who is unafraid of the telling detail, who knows an arresting scene when she imagines one.
Canadian Literature
Caple's story brings new life to the common theme of criminal intrigue by imbuing ferociously independent women with the balance of power...Mackerel Sky is an absorbing novel.
Winnipeg Free Press
The pleasure of reading Mackerel Sky comes from experiencing Caple's gift for subverting our expectations of literary sex, gender roles and genre conventions...Caple is a playful poet of the underclass whose damaged characters gradually earn our compassion.
Toronto Star
Scintillating...hyper-erotic, beautiful, and hilariously funny...This entire novel sparks with an erotic, breathless tension that will pull you to the end and leave you wanting more.
Edmonton Journal
Mackerel Sky can be read for the beauty of its language and for the psychological underpinnings of the characters. At the same time, it tells a gripping story, with the threat of violence on every page.
Vancouver Sun
Natalee Caple pushes her story along with vivid imagery and provocative prose.
North Shore News
Caple is at her best when writing of the inherited recklessness that can pass from mother to daughter. Even better when tallying moments of longing...
Globe & Mail
It's a tight, meticulously paced tale of matriarchal crime that builds to a resounding climax.
Citizen's Weekly
This book is a must-read because it is so different from the realist novels – it shows you how actual reality consists of a wide variety of surreal moments combined with a regular influx of the familiar.
Ottawa Citizen
Mackeral Sky is an unsettling and unforgettable novel, and Caple is indeed a writer to watch for. It is a highly visual novel, with strong characters, fast-paced action, and a Quebec setting not often found in English Canadian fiction. Caple is a clear and muscular writer who is unafraid of telling detail, who knows an arresting scene when she imagines one.
Canadian Literature
Mackeral Sky, propelled by menacing suspense and buoyed upon its honest sensuality, is an unusual and unusually satisfying novel about family. Natalee Caple tells a compelling story of awkward reunions and tragic collisions, all of them fated and necessary.
Andrew Pyper
...a love story unlike any other with heart-thimping suspense and characters to inhabit your dreams.
Linda Spalding
...a brilliant story-teller...
D.M. Thomas
Natalee Caple writes with sensual and captivating detail of people whose dreams drive them to unanticipated extremities. This is a dark, urgent, funny novel.
Catherine Bush