Gilmour's prose style is spare and darkly funny, jewelled with clever metaphors and precise details. It's enjoyably reminiscent of Raymond Chandler..."A Perfect Night to Go to China" is a compelling example of smart writing about trauma, and an uncomfortably pleasurable read. (Quill and Quire )

Gilmour's prose has flashes of bright metaphor, and his dialogue is alert and alive. (The New York Times )

...compulsively readable.... It takes a sharp focus to give us this much in such a brief book. A lesser writer would have given us a leaden brick.... The amazing thing is that it is both a sleek, fast read and a compulsively devastating personal tragedy. When the story is this affecting, the result is a luminous reading experience, the kind we all crave - the kind we sometimes find, if we're lucky, in our favourite authors. I don't think it's going too far to mention such names as Camus, Graham Greene, Elmore Leonard and even Calvino...they all have style, intelligence and strength. Gilmour is one of the best writers we have. His new novel is exactly the kind of thing I'd love to see more of in Canadian writing. It's elegantly written without wasting time on irrelevant detail. It is firmly plotted. It is paced for speed. Something actually happens. I'm saving this book to share with my son. You might want to remember this one come Father's Day. (Toronto Star )

..."A Perfect Night" is unlike anything Gilmour has written before, and all the better for it. (Maclean's )

David Gilmour has created a short, powerful book that is profoundly emotive. (Calgary Herald )

...one of the most refreshing, moving, and supple works of fiction written since the 21st century began... (Books in Canada )